Can a Private Student Loan Be Forgiven

Can a private student loan be forgiven? The truth is, private student loans are rarely forgiven. These types of loans cannot be canceled simply because you work in the public service, have made payments for 20 years running, or even attended a crooked for-profit school. Those forgiveness opportunities as you should know are only available to federal student loan borrowers.

Can a Private Student Loan Be Forgiven

Can a Private Student Loan Be Forgiven

The only time that borrowers with private loans can get any form of relief is when they get disabled or die. And even at that, their cosigner may be left on the hook of these companies to pay up the remaining balance.

Over the years, federal lawmakers have introduced several bills to try and change this, but as you guessed, none of their efforts in that regard have been successful so far and private student loan borrowers are still without relief.

The mass student debt cancellation by the president is however very much unlikely to change that too. None of the programs that have been set up by the Biden-led administration all through the pandemic period such as the freeze on interest on payments, fixes to existing forgiveness programs, and many on the other hand benefited those with private student loans.

And just as I have been trying to pass since in this post, forgiveness is not an option for many people with private loans. If it is that you are struggling to make your monthly payments and your lender refuses to help in any way, then you will need to explore other options such as student loan refinance, bankruptcy, and settlement.

There are few private student loan forgiveness programs unfortunately, and it does not look like the Biden administration or Congress will be passing any laws soon to help.

Private Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

There are a couple of private student loan forgiveness programs as mentioned already, and in this segment, I will be mentioning a few of those.

Citizens Bank

This bank forgives the remaining student loan balance in the event the borrower dies and then releases the cosigner from the responsibility of paying up the balance. But if in the event the cosigner dies, the primary borrower is responsible for the reaming amount that is due.

College Ave

This firm forgives the loan in the event the borrower dies or becomes disabled permanently. The death or disability of the cosigner does not affect the loan.

Discover Bank

Forgiveness in this case only happens on the death or permanent disability of the primary borrower.

Navient

This firm forgives some private student loans if only the primary borrower becomes disabled permanently. But depending on the type of loan, the cosigner may however still be responsible for payment of the balance in the eventual death of the borrower.

PNC Bank

This bank cancels the balance if the primary borrower dies, but however not if the cosigner dies.

Forgiveness and Tax Liability

Signed into law by President Joe Biden back in August, the American Rescue Plan included a provision stopping the IRS from collecting income tax on student loan debt cancellation between 2021 and 2026.

Would Student Loan Forgiveness Include Private Loans

Borrowers of private student loans cannot count on President Biden to forgive their debt at this moment. The US Department of Education and Biden have so far canceled the debts of disabled people, affected people of defunct for-profit schools, soldiers deployed to war zones as well as public service workers. But you should know that targeted relief for soldiers, scammed students and disabled borrowers are totally different from canceling student debt on a broader scale.

Even at that, progressive lawyers have continued to push the president for blanket loan cancellation in the midst of ongoing negotiations on his Build Back Better framework. Student loan forgiveness was however excluded from the nearly $2 trillion bill. It is very much unlikely that Democrats have the needed votes to cancel student loan debt.

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