Student loans Why no public loan forgiveness... what did I do wrong?

[Anonymous]

I work in a goverment full time public service position. I took my loans out using a FAFSA, every time. The loans were student loans, and they came from banks. these banks later sold them to Sallie mae, who in turn changed their name to Navient.

When I applied to make sure I was in the running about 7 years in, they told me my loans were private family loans and would not count. A coworker told me she has Navient loans and hers count.  Why do you think mine don't? I don't trust these people... they are telling me I have to go back to school, take out another loan, consolidate them all and then pay for ten more years. I am already 60, not able to do that.

advise welcomed.

[SCF]

Some of the older types of federal loans that existed prior to 2007 are not eligible for PSLF without being consolidated into one of the eligible programs.  It sounds like you have FFEL loans, which are one of those types.  Because you're in this situation, you should be able to consolidate without taking out a new loan to move your loans into an eligible program.

https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/consolidationRedirect.action?webSource=DLCS# is the website you can use to try to consolidate online.  If it doesn't work, i would contact the Student Loan Ombudsman for help with your situation since your servicer isn't being too helpful.  It's likely that a lot of the front-line service reps don't remember, or never knew, about how the older loan types interact with PSLF, since they've been out of circulation for almost 10 years.