Heads up — student loan collections are back

Tyler Eytchison is preparing his fifth-grade students for final exams at San Marcos Elementary School. The school year is about to wrap up and soon he will be saying goodbye to his class.

“Middle school is right around the corner, and saying goodbye is always the toughest thing,” he said right after his students left the classroom.

He may be struggling to bid farewell to this year’s students; however, he’s more than happy to be a year closer to ridding himself of the school loan he’s been paying for the last 12 years.

"I’m getting close, but it’s still one of those things that’s just looming debt over your head,” he said.

He described his loan as a rollercoaster process that saw him default in the early years. It's something he said that can easily happen to any borrower.

“Because as students first starting off on your career or trying to find your career, we don’t have a rainy day fund that, if something goes wrong, we could fall back on. In my case, my car broke down,” he said.

Eytchison explained he sympathizes with the estimated 5 million borrowers who will again be in a collection proceeding starting Monday, picking up where they left off in 2020.

That’s when the government paused collections because of the pandemic. The announcement was made about two weeks ago by the U.S. Department of Education.

“The danger with this is that many borrowers thought they had the loan forgiven or they just forgot about it, and with everything going on right now with people financially struggling, it’s also coming at a bad time,” said Celina Damian, student loan servicing ombudsperson with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

She urged anyone with a defaulted loan not to sit on their hands because the Department of Education will take action against those borrowers. These include going after tax refunds, imposing wage garnishments, or even grabbing up to 15% of Social Security payments.

“They can do that whether or not you say, ‘I didn’t receive an email. I didn’t know.’ For a federal wage garnishment, that is not an excuse,” she explained.

So here are your options if you’re in default, think you might be or just don’t know.

First, go to for the exact status of your loan.

If you find that you are in default, contact the and either:

• Start making payments
• Sign up for loan rehabilitation
• Enroll in an income-driven repayment plan

This last option helped Eytchison get back on track years ago.

“Which has been a blessing because it’s allowed me to do other things with my life,” he said.

According to the Department of Education, some 4 million borrowers are also about three months away from defaulting.

So again, be proactive and find out about your status, especially if you’ve had a change of name or address since you last had any activity with your loan.