AES/PHEAA Student Loan Complaint

AES/PHEAA Student loan department,

Non-federal student loan Can't repay my loan Can't decrease my monthly payments North Carolina

When I was - ( - ) I applied for a student loan with my grandmother at the cosigner. After the four years, and having not graduated from college or benefiting from my student loan, I began to make payments on my loan. At first it was n't bad and was very affordable but over the past three years, my monthly rate has more than tripled. No matter what I have done or tried, they wont work with me. I have called nearly every month for a year, asking them every time if they could lower my rate and each time they have basically told me that they ca n't do anything and that it sucks to be me but I am going to have to come up with the nearly $500.00 a month to pay my student loan. The rate they have me paying is about half of my monthly income. Add that to $200.00 in rent plus my other monthly bills and basic living needs and I would have been left in the negatives every month. There was no way I could afford to make that payment. Because of this, I have been stressed for the past - years and have - and - to the point where I now have to take medicine to function normally throughout the day and a different medicine to get rid of my anxiety and relax me enough to fall asleep. I have now defaulted on my student loan and have been told I could settle for $35000.00 or I can pay $9000.00 upfront and then make payments but the amount that I can afford wont even cover the interest on this loan. I 've run out of options and I am searching the internet for any sort of help available.