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You might read our guide and assess for yourself if you can trust them: How To Spot Student Loan Scams.

See this: how to get out of student loan default.

Those are your basic options, unless you want to work with your children to help you as well. See this: Options for Parent PLUS loans.

Not really a fan of doing it. You're shifting the risk from yourself (which, yes, sucks, but there are a lot of programs and options), to your home (with no options except to lose your home).

You didn't say what type of loans you have - which definitely shifts the decision. Federal loans is likely a hard no. You give up income-driven repayment, loan forgiveness plans, and hardship options - like right now during Covid-19 Federal loans are paused with 0% interest. That's amazing.

Also, what if (in the unlikely situation) they do pass loan forgiveness - even partial. They aren't going to offer that on your HELOC. Only for Federal loans.

Private loans are a maybe, but you have to ask yourself if the risk is worth it.

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No, we don't negotiate debts and it's rarely a recommended approach we see so I don't have any good wording for you. I'm sure you can research it though.

It sounds like they are good on the amount. I would ask again if they would remove the default and push it. If they don't budge, it's your choice on what to do.

See our full guide to the William D. Ford Act here.

You can call and ask if you're certain you owe on the loan and know the situation is legitimate. You can also write them as well, your choice - but mail processing takes longer.

A letter or email with the exact terms of the settlement agreement is what you want - and it should say delete loan credit history or loan default from credit reporting bureaus or similar.

If you can afford the lump sum, you can offer a "pay for delete". If you can afford the lump sum, only agree to it in writing if they delete the default from your credit report.

If his loan is in default, it would be handled by one of the contracted debt collection agencies. See this list here: Federal Student Loan Debt Collection Companies.

You might also find this guide handy in helping him to figure out what happened: Top Student Loan Scams.

The Federal loan limits don't change. Since these loans are forgiven, you can borrow up to the max (understanding that it won't ever be forgivable again).

See this: Student Loan Borrowing Limits.

If you want to go back to school AFTER the 3 year monitoring period, you can only take out new loans unless:
- You obtain a certification from a physician that you are able to engage in substantial gainful activity
- You sign a statement acknowledging that the new loan cannot be discharged in the future on the basis of any injury or illness present at the time the new loan.

Basically, you can't get a second round of TPD.

I'm not quite sure what you mean your "available balance renewed to your original balance".

You can go back to school, you just can't do any of the following (or have it happen):
- Get a grant or new student loan
- Your annual employment income cannot exceed the poverty guideline amount for a family of two in your state, regardless of your family size.
- SSA determines you are no longer totally and permanently disabled, or that your next disability review no longer meets the five-to-seven-year review period.

If any of those happen, your loans will be reactivated. It will be the balance from before you applied, excluding interest.

See our full guide here: Student Loan Disability Discharge.

[FAFSA]

FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You fill out this form to get scholarships, grants, AND Federal student loans. This is need-based financial aid.

Sallie Mae is a private student loan lender.

Federal student loans are ALWAYS better than private student loans. However, you can't get Federal student loans unless you're attending an accredited American college or University. You didn't say what school, but the living abroad factor could be a problem in this regard.

You might find this helpful about how to think about paying for college: Order of Operations To Pay For College.

As for scholarships, apply early, often, now, and later. You can never apply to enough scholarships - but it takes time and effort to find them, apply, and hope you get them.

Finally, think about ROI - return on investment. College is an investment. Your goal of going to college (or grad school) is only to boost your career earnings after you're done (unless you're going for free due to whatever factors that may involve).

If you borrow too much, and don't earn much after you're done, you're going to struggle financially for life and hate the fact you went to grad school.

Sadly, grad school for a majority of people has zero or negative ROI - so that's why I'm cautioning you in this regard.

See this: College ROI.