I often see information on graduated payments and forgiveness of federal student loans, but sadly I am shackled with private loans and have just about given up on finding a better to way to pay off my debt.

Any suggestions?

a thousand thanks,
Elizabeth

I’m in a similar position myself.  Lots of us who went to school before 2006 have tons of private loans (because an important federal loan program called GradPLUS only became available then).  There are some school-based, state, and employer loan repayment assistance programs that might help, depending upon your situation.  Mostly, folks are on the hook for those loans.

I have a follow up question to this thread.  I am about to follow your advice and transfer my loans to Direct loans.  My wife and I are in a unique situation in that we are both saddled with sponsored loans.  These are private loans that we had to take out in the name of our parents but we make the payments on these loans (not our parents).  Together we pay about $800 monthly on these sponsored loans.  Will the federal government take these payments into account when calculating my income based repayment?  Between the two of us, we have $260,000 in student loans (including the sponsored loans) and I work for a State government.  I have no idea how I will pay them all when the non-sponsored loans come out of forbearance next month.