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 lass 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.
Tina (Mississippi)
I am a 45-year-old Caucasian woman living in Tupelo Mississippi. I have been divorced for 10 years and have been rearing my 2 children alone.
I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1985. During my college career I incurred $6000 in student loan debt. I have consolidated and defaulted my loans more than once over the years. It has always been my intention to pay off my loans but times have been lean over the years. I have had several IRS offsets that have been applied to the interest of my student loans.
At one point the note grew to approximately $33,000 and the DOE had a garnishment order imposed at that time. I couldn’t get anywhere with The collection company or the Department of Education. These two organizations insisted they were right and I was wrong. I do have the option to take this to Federal Court at my expense and of course the interest is still clicking away on these loans at my expense.
In my defense I was attempting to repay this debt in 2002, and to date have paid nearly $6000- the original amount of the loan. I recognize that I did not responsibly address the issues of my student loans in the past, but I still cannot get beyond the fact that I think that the way I have been treated is criminal. My credit has been ruined for years because of this situation.
I have been threatened, badgered and unjustly treated in this situation. I have been in contact with the Aman Collection Agency in attempt to negotiate some reasonable solution to this issue. However, neither Aman nor the Department of Education have been receptive. All of this fell on deaf ears and blind eyes.
Needless to say, I have been a nervous wreck for 3 years and even considered quitting my job to drop under the radar. That is not an option as I am rearing two teens by myself.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I truly believe that someone needs to expose the DOE and their contracted collection agencies to their practices.
Greg (Texas)
My original debt from 1998 was $25,000. 8 years later I have a debt of $75,000. I am no banker or accountant, but I am assuming this will continue to triple every 8 years if I remain in poverty and thus in default. So am I correct that in 8 more years I may owe $225,000? That in 16 years I will owe $750,000; in 24 years, $2,250,000, and then at retirement time in 32 years I will owe $6,750,000? 6 Million plus? Haha. Now, of course, if this were any other form of debt that became this cancerous I could file for bankruptcy. Not for student loans though. At age 72 I may owe $20,250,000. Heaven forbid that I live to see my eighties. At age 88 I may owe $182,250,000.
I think we are just beginning to see how crazy this is going to get. If my math is correct, in ten years there are going to be a lot of impoverished people, people making less than $20,000 a year, who have these ludicrous million dollar debts.
My heart about exploded when I got the letter saying I owed $75,000. After I recovered, all I could do was laugh. It is so absurdly much that they might as well have told me that I owe a million bucks, and now, upon further reflection, it appears they will be telling me I owe them a million bucks in the not so distant future.
I wonder if people with unpayable student loan debt will due to accumulated stress, loss of work, and an inability to pay for medical needs in old age, have on average shorter lifespans than those who do not? This will make an intersting study in fifty years.