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College is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can provide you with a good-paying job, lifelong friends and the best memories of your life.
Read more Here’s all that happens if you don’t pay your student loans in SC
It’s also one of the most expensive four years of someone’s life and will likely run their pockets dry without financial aid. Total U.S. student loan debt has continuously grown over the past several years and reached $1.86 trillion in July, with the majority of it being federal student loans.
In South Carolina, the average federal student loan borrower owes $40,138 for their time in college, according to the Education Data Initiative, an independent education research group. The group uses data from the U.S. Department of Education.
Going to university may be financially worth it in the long run for some, but for those who rack up too much student debt, it may feel impossible to get rid of it.
So what happens if you don’t pay your student loans back in SC and just ignore them? Here’s what you should know:
What happens when you can’t afford your federal student loans
Depending on what type of student loans you received, the road to paying them back may look different.
If you take out a federal student loan and don’t make your scheduled payments for at least 270 days, your loan goes into default. That means you broke your promise to your lender, which can lead to consequences.
After your loan goes into default, it will be transferred to the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) Default Resolution Group (DRG), and you’ll receive a letter outlining steps to help you get back on track, according to the Federal Student Aid website.
If action isn’t taken within 65 days of your loans being placed in default, the Default Resolution Group will report your loans as in default to the four major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion. This will negatively impact your credit score.
You can attempt to consolidate your loan after 270 days, which is a faster option than loan rehabilitation, but collection costs and interest capitalization are added to the overall debt. Your defaulted loan will still affect your credit score and can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years.
Other options once your loan is in default are completing a nine-payment rehabilitation agreement, completing a repayment agreement, and paying in full. All have their consequences, but will likely stop the government from taking action against you.
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Once 360 days have passed, and you don’t take any action to resolve the default status, the government can withhold money to collect on the debt you owe. They might use involuntary collection methods, such as wage garnishment, where the government automatically collects up to 15% of your paycheck to repay your loans.
The government can also withhold your tax refund and other federally provided benefits.
You can check if your federal loan is in default by logging into your StudentAid.gov account Dashboard. A warning message will appear.
As a borrower, you have the right to request a hearing to avoid wage garnishment, request a hearing to dispute the debt, or request a discharge. You can find related information here.
What happens if you can’t afford to pay private student loans?
Not being able to pay back private student loans in SC is a slightly different story.
It depends on who your lender is, but private student loans usually go into default much sooner than federal student loans after the first missed payment. After one missed payment, your loan will be considered delinquent and can be reported to national credit bureaus in 30 days or more, depending on the lender’s guidelines.
Wage garnishment in SC is prohibited for private loans in most circumstances, but the SC Department of Revenue has two debt collection programs, Setoff Debt and GEAR, that the SC Student Loan Corporation can use to garnish wages or collect a person’s SC Individual Income Tax refunds.
They must send a notification letter to you 30 days before submitting your debt to the SCDOR.
Resources for student borrowers
Having student loans can make you feel overwhelmed, but there are resources to help you find relief options. Here are some resources SC borrowers can use to help reduce their debt:
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- Visit the Federal Student Aid website for information on how to repay your loans, loan consolidation, forgiveness and discharge, and more
- South Carolina Legal Services provides free legal information on how to repay student loans, financial education, financial aid scams and more
- South Carolina Student Loan has a list of careers that can get additional loan forgiveness