The Cost of College has skyrocketed. Sallie Mae and other lenders are making obscene profits due to laws that have made student loans more predatory than credit cards, or payday loans in many ways. This is great for the lenders, who make far more money when a loan defaults because of the way the laws are set up. But there is a real human cost. The following are stories submitted to Studentloanjustice.Org. You can see more here.
Also, we just started the Student Loan Justice PAC to finally give borrowers a voice on the Hill.
One preemptive plea: Some of you will be tempted to post something like "If you borrow money, you have to pay it back". This is not new information to us. We all had parents or grandparents that grew up in the Depression as well, and are not arguing otherwise. The point of this thread is to get people talking about how the student loan industry profits obscenely from the misfortune of students, and by stating these knee jerk truisms, you are not shedding light on the topic at hand.
Jenny (Pennsylvania)
10 years ago I took out a student loan for $3,200. I never graduated from college. I had deferred my loans to the max and eventually, I simply could not pay. I now owe $14,000. I am now married with 2 small children. My husband and I both work low paying jobs. The IRS has seized our tax rebate(mostly from my husbands revenue) for $6,000. We were going to use this rebate to get caught up on our late mortgage and car payments. We are now in serious financial trouble. I spoke to the creditor and they are not willing to take a settlement, they didn't even know about the seized money. I told them I was willing to pay the original loan amount plus reasonable interest but they are not willing. I do understand that I owe this debt, but these laws are only in their favor. Who is protecting the rights of the borrower?????
N.R. (Louisiana)
My story is the same as almost all the others. I graduated podiatry school in 90 followed by 2 years of residency. I borrowed $80,000. When I started working I was immediately told to pay over $1000/month or else it would not even cover the interest rate. Since that was not possible in the beginning, I paid a nominal amount of $500/month. Soon, I was in default and told that if I could not pay over $2000/month, I would never be able to pay the amount back. To date, the loans have blossomed to over $400,000. At one point following divorce and raising children, I had a job making $2200/month. The loan people garnished my wages when I told them I could not pay the $3000/month that they wanted. They were very aware of what my monthly income was but just did not care. They hounded me night and day at my job regardless of the fact that letters were written to them about the illegality of their pursuits at my place of work.
At several points along the way, I have taken my case to three separate lawyers. No one can offer any reasonable advice. A family member works for a mortgage company and she said she had never heard of any lender not desiring to clear up a unrecovered debt such as mine through settlement. I have been able to settle every account since my divorce save the student loan issue. I have come to the understanding that ONLY a settlement will ever cause this to go away unless a group of us can form a strong unit and go after these people ourselves. It would be a great service to many people if this injustice could be addressed. I have read many of your accounts and I have been treated at least as bad as the majority of you with extensive notes taken as to date and time of the offensive debt collectors. I have heard of people being able to settle with these shysters.....but to date I have not been able to manage it. If anyone has any advice, I welcome it!