# Student Loans:  Am I Screwed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-loans-am-i-screwed/175525>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-loans-am-i-screwed/175525 "2003-05-15T20:22:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-loans-am-i-screwed/175525/21 "2003-05-16T19:24:50Z")

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I should have check myself first before asking:

[http://www.studentloanconsolidator.com/](http://www.studentloanconsolidator.com/)

LOL

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-loans-am-i-screwed/175525/22 "2003-05-17T00:48:40Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Bobby Roberts \*  
> \*\*I don’t see why you can’t get out of this mess by just refinancing/consolidating your student loans. By doing this either through the government or any number of companies, they would pay off your student loan debt and you’d start fresh with payments to them. The additional bonus that interest rates are so incredibly low right now, you’d most likely end up saving a lot of money in the process.
> 
> Good Luck! \*\*

This worked for me. I screwed up big-time (I have serious issues with money. I cause my own problems by becoming panicky when I don’t make enough- the joys of working for non-profits- and stupidly don’t pay my bills. But I’m working on changing that now…doing good so far!) but after 18 months or so of avoiding my loans, I gathered up what little courage I have and contacted the people in charge of my loans. I told them via e-mail that I didn’t want to default (I was getting warning notices) and asked what I could do to remedy the situation. They called me a couple of days later, and nicely went over my options, and helped me consolidate my loans; even calling back immediately when I had questions about the forms. All that terror over being yelled at, accused etc for nothing. They actually seemed thrilled that I wanted a new beginning 🙂 I think that just contacting them and asking them what to do is your best option, since they do what to help you get back on track however they can…so they get their money, of course; it probably doesn’t matter why, though, right?

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