What Happens When You Default on your Student Loans?

I ignored (didn't pay) my student loan for years - many years. This was back in the old days (20 years ago) before the government was so efficient at collecting their (your) money. Nothing much happened.

OK, so one day years later, they found my bank account and froze it. Cost me a few hundred dollars. I'll survive.

And then, they started taking my income tax return money. Damn! That hurt. But Life goes on... Life is good, All is well!

But then one day, years later. Big Brother (your Uncle Sam) Returns!

I had learned not to keep too much money in the bank (didn't have much anyway).

And I learned not to expect any money back from income taxes. I was OK with that.

But I was totally unprepared for what Big Brother did next. He blind sided me…

One day I go to cash my paycheck, and I noticed "Hey, my check is mighty small this week" What happened?

I look closely at my pay stub. The number of hours are correct... the rate is correct. Hey, what's this…

Wage Attachment. 10% of the gross. 10% OF THE GROSS, not net.

10% of the freakin' gross! Damn!

10% of the gross taken off the top. Before you get your check.

10% of the gross gone… Every Week…

No explanation, no one to complain to. No supervisor to override. Your money is gone.

10% GONE. It doesn't matter that you were barely scrapping by in life every week, living paycheck to check.

Now you live with 10% less. Every week. It sucks!

PLUS, they still take your income tax refund. No wonder they call it a re fund becaues they are Re Funding their own pockets with your money.

There's nothing you can do about it. So I learned to live on 10% less for many years.

One day I finally had the good fortune to get a better paying job. Better job, better pay and…

Best of all - the wage attachment stopped. Hurray!

Or so I thought… Life is good. Life goes on. I pay my bills.

Years later, on Friday the 13th, it happened. "Big Brother Returned Again".

One miserable deja vu day the check was small. I check the paystub. Number of hours are correct... the rate is correct…

There it was on the pay stub again… Wage attachment. 10% of the gross.

‘Son of a bitch' found me again. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

You can't win! You can't hide!

Big Brother will find you. It might take weeks. It might take months. In my case it took many, many years… Decades!

But Big Brother will hunt you down and find you. You can't hide forever! And guess what?

Big Brother has Increased the wage attachment withholdings to 15% of the gross.

How much does that hurt?

As an example, let's say you were grossing $1,000 per week. You would pay about $350 in taxes leaving you with $650.

They will take 15% of the $1,000 which is $150 leaving you with only $500.

HALF of your paycheck is GONE!

You just took a $150 a week pay cut. And if you make less than $1,000 it hurts even more.

AND they still take your income tax return!

Trust me on this. You DON'T want this to happen to YOU! Pay your student loans on time.