I am desperately seeking someone who has defaulted on a Sallie Mae loan. I have over 80K of consolidated loans and can not make the payment. I was told about the William T. Ford Program through the DOE. When I spoke to the DOE they told me that since my loans are already consolidated then the only way for the gov't to take them over is for me to default.

This sounds too good to be true: 1 - I default. 2 - The DOE takes the loan over after paying Sallie Mae and sets me up on an income sensitive payment. 3 - After 25 years of paying then the remainder is forgiven.

Am I way off base on this or what?

I don't know anyone who has defaulted but I'm skidding past 90 days of not paying and getting nervous with every collections message that is left on my machine.