Worried About Wage Garnishment for Student Loans? Here’s How to Protect Your Paycheck!

If you ve been keeping up with scholar loan news you might have heard that collections are back After five years of a pause the U S Department of Mentoring is starting to collect on defaulted federal learner loans again I know it s stressful to think about but don t freak out just yet Getting behind on payments doesn t automatically mean your wages will be garnished and there are procedures to avoid it Let s break it down Who s Affected by Collections Here s the deal If you haven t made a payment for days months your loan is considered in default Once that happens the leadership can start going after your paycheck tax refunds and even reduce your Social Safety benefits to cover your loan Right now around million people are in default and there are another million who are close to default meaning they re about months behind If you re in this boat it s definitely time to act Who s Safe from Wage Garnishment Okay before you panic not everyone in default will have their wages garnished There are options to avoid this Here s what you can do Income-Driven Repayment Plans IDR If you re having a tough time keeping up with your monthly payments there s something called IDR plans These plans lower your monthly payments to something more manageable based on how much you earn If your income is low enough your payment could even be per month As long as you re on one of these plans you won t go into default and that means no wage garnishment Loan Rehabilitation If you re already in default don t worry you can still make things right Loan rehabilitation is a way to get out of default Basically you make nine on-time payments over months and your loan gets removed from default and your credit review gets a nice clean-up It s like hitting the reset button Loan Consolidation Another way to get out of default is by consolidating your loans into a new one This option helps you get access to more repayment plans but keep in mind that it won t remove the default from your credit history What Should You Do Now If you re feeling a little lost or you ve been ignoring those notices we ve all been there here s what you need to do Check your loan statusFirst things first go to studentaid gov and check where you stand Are you in default It s okay just take a breath and figure out what s going on The sooner you know the sooner you can take action Look into repayment optionsIf you re behind look at the options available to you Income-driven repayment loan rehabilitation and consolidation can help get you back on track Don t ignore those lettersIf you ve received any notices from the Department of Teaching don t ignore them I know it can be overwhelming but acting fast will save you a lot of stress later on Yes collections are back But that doesn t mean you re doomed to have your wages garnished If you re in default there are still plenty of methods to get back on track without losing part of your paycheck Just know where you stand explore your options and act promptly The sooner you do the easier it will be to fix things For more help check out studentaid gov They ve got all the info you need