Advice on Repaying Student Loans

Hello. I am having difficulties with some of my loan companies demanding repayment while I am still in university (particulalrly loans I took out as an undergrad and I am now a postgrad, returning from maternity leave in about a week). They started this up right after my baby was born in March and I made some payments. I may be getting forebearance, which would give me around a year's grace, but it is making me reconsider whether to continue my PhD as I think it would take me at least a couple years to finish my PhD (I started a few years ago, but I am returning part-time). I am wondering whether there is somewhere I could get (professional?) financial advice on this matter? My uni has been somewhat helpful, but their knowledge is limited (maybe other universities are better on international student loan issues, but not mine). I will be looking into careers advice from my uni, however. (I have three degrees and I have worked admin and teaching jobs while I have lived here in the past 4 years).

Are these private or federal loans?

Both, unfortunately.

I've had quite a bit of experience with student loans, so I think I might be able to clarify a few things for you. I don't know much about your exact situation, so bear with me if you know all of this already.

1) If the problem is that your US loans aren't recognizing your UK studies and are therefore expecting repayment to begin because they think you aren't in school, then the fix is pretty straightforward. If your university is accredited in the US, just have them send a letter of enrollment with dates showing that you've never gone more than six months without half-time enrollment.

2) If you *have* gone more than six months without being enrolled half time, you may actually have to begin paying them back. You can get a financial deferment or forbearance for a period of time, but once that ends you'll simply have to negotiate a monthly payment plan and there's no other way around it.

3) If you've only dropped below half-time enrollment for more than six months due to maternity leave, then your lenders may have provision for this. I assume that you've already contacted them, but if not explain this situation to them and provide any proof necessary to get them to extend their six-month limit given the maternity leave situation. If they don't have provisions for maternity leave, then unfortunately, again, you'll have to start paying them back.

*** I don't know if there are many professionals in the UK that specialize in mediating students and US lenders. I'm not particularly certain there are many companies in the US that handle this, either, but if there are then those are your best shot. Most of the companies that I know of are debt consolidation specialists, not advocates or intermediaries. If you simply want to negotiate more manageable payments while you're in school, then I'd recommend contacting one of these US consolidation companies who can whittle the payments down for you.

The London School of Economics has a ton of American students, perhaps their international department can help you.

I got all kinds of letters for my student loans telling me it was time to repay - they started three semesters before I graduated with my bachelors.  All I had to do was get a letter from the university stating that I was still enrolled and send it to each company every semester. 

Thanks for the responses. I've received some letters today stating that most of my loans are eligible for deference, but there are a couple that went over the maximum years for deference, so I am hoping that my forebearance is granted for those ones. Either way, it is certainly more manageable now and I want to continue on with my PhD.

It might be a simple misunderstanding with your lenders. When I started here in the UK last year (already!), I had loans from my undergrad (Sallie Mae) and my MA (Colorado has its own version of Sallie Mae under the name Nelnet). My loans for now are through Sallie Mae again. They seem to have the best knowledge as I've never had to tell them I was in school full-time--they just knew (which is understandable now but not when I did my MA). However, Nelnet was completely oblivious to the fact that I went back to school (well, actually stayed in school is more like it). My MIL kept getting monthly statements from them, which was normal. Around April, she started getting multiple statements per month, so she opened it up and they never got the memo. All I had to do was print out a form from their website, get my school to sign and stamp it, and mail it in to them. It took about a month, but my loans with them are in in-school deferment. You might want to see if they have an in-school deferment that doesn't follow the rules for other deferment types (and forbearance).

I suggest discussing financial aid options with the school financial aid office.  Unfortunately, I believe they usually award financial aid to first years and then have very little left per class to offer financial aid to upperclassmen.  I do not have personal experience with student loans, but I would also suggest inquiring about grants - academic.

Hope this is useful.