“Dear Steve,
My previous wife and I have a consolidated loan with Direct Loan Services.
When I log in it shows loan A which is mine for about 39,000 and then loan B which is hers for about 13,000. I have been paying the monthly payment on it since they keep sending me the statments on it. When I call them they tell me it is a joint loan and cant do anything on the loan like a forebearance unless she is on the phone also.
My question is how can I get the loans unlinked so they bill me for my loan and they bill her for her loan. I have tried talking with them but must not be explaining it right because they dont seem to understand what I am saying.
Do you have any advice or suggestions on how I should explain this to them. They act as if they really dont want to do anything since I am paying the monthly payment each month.
My x-wife tells me she has not money and cant pay on the loans, so I have been paying the payment and trying to figure out how to get them seperated.
Thank you
Bill”
Dear Bill,
The key issue is if you were a co-signer or jointly signed on both loans. It’s not clear from your question. If so, it might be impossible to get your name of her loan.
What you might want to do is access your loan information through the National Student Loan Data System and see if it shows the responsible party for each loan or call the servicer back and ask them if they can tell you what their records show about if the loans are joint or if you co-signed the other loan.
It might be this is two loans under one master loan agreement from which you are on the hook for in some way.
If you did co-sign or are a joint account holder it is unlikely you will be able to remove your name until the loan is paid in full.
However, if you are both on the phone with the loan servicer and you discover you are a co-signer on her loan you can ask if there is a cosigner release form that covers this specific loan. There might not be.
This exists on private loans but I’m actually not familiar if any federal student loans offer a cosigner release option. If they did you ex-wife would have to complete the form and the loan servicer would have to accept the form, pass a credit check, and be approved by the lender/servicer.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
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Steve,
Thank you for the response. Today I spoke with a Jessica, the loan is a consolidated loan with Federal Direct Loan program. Basically she explained that I had a student loan and that my x-wife had a student loan and back when we were married we consolidated the two loans to make it one loan. She said it does show my loan and then my x-wifes loan and then the total together which payments are based off of. She said both of us are responsible for the loan and that the loans can not be seperated. She basically said that my name and her name both are on the loan and that is why when I called and was asking about a forebearance they said they would need to talk with her also. So it looks like both of us are equally and 100% responsible for the loan. I did explain the situation to Jessica and what is going on and she said that they do have payment programs and she thinks I might qualify for a extended payment program to lower my payments but extend the loan period. She said she was going to do some checking and talk with a supervisor about my situation and how my x-wife wont help and wont call and talk to them. I basically told her that my x-wife wont do anything and that I need to get the payment lower so I can pay it. Right now they are wanting $717.00 a month and I advised her I can only afford to keep sending the $450.00 month. She had me login into my online account and supply my adjusted gross icome and my gross monthly income and family size and if I was signle or currently married and then had me select the Extended Repayment Plan which showed a monthly payment of 440.00 a month. I then did the esign part and submitted it. She then said it would take about 3 days and they would get back with me. She said she would also have to talk to her supervisor about the issue of my x-wife not cooperating and how my x-wife refuses to supply anything to get lower payments.
So we will see how this goes.
Thanks again for your advice.
Bill
Bill,
That’s a great first step. The loan turned out to be what a suspected, a consolidated loan with both parties 100% responsible.
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