Asking for Friend

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who has defaulted student loans that are over 10 years old. One is Salle Mae, the other she doesn't remember. The Salle Mae is garnishing pay and taking tax returns. The other isn't. What can I do to help get these off or keep these off her credit reports (still have to check what is there when she has time. I think she is afraid to look to be honest and keeps stalling) and settle the amount owed to pay it off? Will paying it off cause it to hit her reports again or re-age them? Never had to deal with student loans so I have no idea how this works, but want to help so she can move forward and finance a little car and stop buying cash heaps that die within a year with a lot of repairs in between.

[Anonymous]

I'll post more later but the one taking the tax returns is federal for sure. I don't know what the other is. Check the National Student Loan Database (NSLDS) website and she can find our all of her loans, the amounts and collection agency is with.
If she's buying clunkers, I doubt she's be able to pay the loans off. However there is no need to. You can get federal loans out of default. Her payments would likely be low to non-existent.

[Anonymous]

The federal one is only about $2000 currently, so I am assuming the other isn't much either. With them so old, we would like them to stay off her reports if they are and get them off if they aren't. I guess I am worried about creating a bigger negative and since it isn't mine to deal with, can't just say I messed up and have to live with it, she would.

[Anonymous]

They need to find out what the second one is. If it's a federal loan, it will never go away. It should be listed with the $2,000 loan in the NSLDS website.
If it's not there, and it's a private loan, there are different rules. At some point it will be beyond the statute of limitations but there's have to look up the state(?) laws on that. Unless they sue them and get a judgement, there's no real way to enforce it. In that case, I'd leave it alone.

If it is a federal loan, I'd take care of it. They never go away and they can garnish wages, take tax refunds, even social security without a judgement. It might show up again, but that can happen if they ignore it too. Out of sight is out of mind would be a mistake in this case.
Overall, we all sometimes give bad advice in helping others. If you do....don't beat yourself up. You didn't get them in this situation and they clearly don't know how to get out of it without your help. You're helping no matter what. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thank you :-) I messaged her what to get so we can sit down and create a plan. Fingers crossed!