I graduated from grad school with $150,000 in student loan debt.  On top of this I had credit card debt from expenses not covered by my student loans.  After working for 2 years following graduation at $15/hour and negotiating with credit card companies for payment plan options, I finally faced the reality that I needed to file for bankruptcy after one credit card company refused to offer any payment options and sent my account to collections, demanding a payment of $29,000 in full.  I recently received my Chapter 7 discharge but while my bankruptcy filing was pending, Citibank Student Loans locked me out of my online account and sent my loans to a collections agency.  I just received a letter from the agency demanding a payment of $12169.16 in full within 30 days.

I would like to know how to handle this with Citibank and the collections agency.  During my bankruptcy filing period I made 2 payments to my private Citibank student loan but was then locked out of the account when I tried to view my statements online.  I didn’t receive any notices from Citibank regarding my account and it’s very frustrating that after going through the ordeal of bankruptcy I’m once again put in a position to deal with a collections agency.
Obviously I don’t have the money to pay this amount in full.

There are trillions of dollars of student loans presently in the US industry, and $67 billion of that debt is in default. Though there are programs to help loans in default, federal debt collectors may not be offering those programs to troubled lenders. Source for this article: Student loan debt collectors going under the microscope

Student loan has now become a necessity especially if you really want to pursue your college degree. We must bear in mind that our loans are our responsibility. We must think first the pros and cons of having loans for this will guide us on how to manage our debt.