Real Answers for Life’s Money Challenges
My boyfriend hasold student loansfrom like 1990.
They do not show up on hiscredit reportsat all.
He has beenworking on his creditbut is still haunted that they are not on his report.
Maybe his dad or family paid them (deceased now).
We want to travel to London to see my daughter perform with an orchestra.
I have a passport, but his has expired.
He is afraid if he applies, the student loan thing will come up and he will be denied.
I thought this only applied to deadbeat child support people.
Can he get a passport?
-H.
Dear H.,
Your boyfriend should go ahead and apply for a passport.
Hes still eligible to receive one, even though hes defaulted on his student loans.
Youre correct that you might be denied for a passport if you owechild support.
Parents who owe more than $2,500 cant get a passport until theyve paid off their obligation.
But unpaid student loans, whether theyre federal or private, wont stop you from getting a passport.
But it seems pretty unlikely.
Why wouldnt they have told your boyfriend that they were paying them off?
The likelier explanation is that these debts are so old that theyve fallen offhis credit reports.
Typically, a debt falls off your credit report about seven years after you default.
If these were private student loans, its unlikely that the debt would come back to bite him.
Private student loans typically have a statute of limitations of three to 10 years, depending on the state.
Though your boyfriend would still technically owe the money, a collector couldnt sue him for it.
But Im guessing these are federal loans, which have no statute of limitations.
These very well could haunt him in the future, even though three decades have passed.
It will also prevent you from getting approved for another student loan.
But perhaps my biggest worry is that your boyfriends student loans could affect his Social Security benefits.
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Unfortunately, accessing information about such old debt may not be easy.
From there, Id recommend that he talk to an attorney who specializes in student loans before taking action.
Bringing a student loan out of default can be complicated, especially given the age of this debt.
But I suspect that resolving this matter will buy your boyfriend peace of mind.
Robin Hartill is a certified financial planner and a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
Send your tricky money questions to[email protected].
