Hi Heather,
My husband has a student loan from the 1990s that has grown from $24,000 to $57,000 due to high interest and long periods of forbearance.

We are ready to tackle this debt and try to eliminate it as quickly as possible, but I am confused. It is a federal loan that he consolidated a long time ago, and he can’t remember the details. It is with Nelnet. The interest is 9.0 percent, which is what confuses me.

I have been told that the highest student loan interest ever was for federal loans was something like 8.2 percent, and I know the consolidated interest rate is supposed to be a weighted average of the interest rates on the other loans. So, how is it possible to have an interest rate that’s higher than it was ever allowed to be?

Thanks so much,
Allie