Note To Self: No Loans Unless You Have Money To Pay Back, Quickly

Sallie Mae Assists 2.2 Million Student Loan Customers to Avoid Default - DailyFinance

Sallie Mae Tops Student Loan Complaints - Business Insider

I have problem with Sallie Mae too, but I know in my case it's not at all their fault, and in a general sense I don't believe it's entirely their fault. Fact of the matter is personally I should have never done business with Sallie Mae. I knew nothing about loans and took the advice of people that didn't realize I knew nothing about loans. It was kind of a Catch-22 situation. If I knew more about loans I probably would have been able to asked the right question, but not need to. Since I didn't know anything about loans I didn't know the right questions to ask when I really needed to.

I believe loan company try to help and more specifically their employees. I talked to the really nice guy named R__ recently. He did his best to help, it's just that the means the company provides to help is kind of like a Catch-22 situation. If I were able to pay you $3000 to bring my payment up-to-date you would so not be calling me right now because surely I would have been making the, what, $50 or $100 payments all along. But sometimes policy trumps people. That's not the company's fault, completely. They service upwards of 2.2 million people (I'm using the figure in the article cause I don't have the actual one right now in front of me.), so they have to protect their interests to keep operating and providing loans to the needy.

That's tough.

I just wish there was an easier way to individualize the process. Really give people who can't options and ways to payback the loan. I'm sure not everyone who borrows money is looking for a way not to pay you back. If they had the cash flow, the payment surely would be flowing the way of the lenders. At least that's the way I feel about my personal situation compared to how I must look to the Sallie Mae, (etc.), computers.

Crushing debt: Students finding solutions to avoid or survive loans | Deseret News


From Deseret News, a hefty chunk of information about student. It amounts to get as much information as you can throughout the process. "Knowledge is power," is basically the key to stopping further problems with indebtedness due to student loans and is almost a carry-all when it comes to most problems faced. The more you know the more information you have to deal with what comes next.

Student Loan Debt Slavery, Is College Worth It? :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website


It's a little bit too ranty for me, but I agree (and experienced) some of the points being made in the article.




Edit/add:

Also Part 2 and 3 of the NYTimes blog student loan Q&A.

Answers to Your Questions About Student Loans, Part 2 - NYTimes.com

Answers to Your Questions About Student Loans, Part 3 - NYTimes.com

On Higher Education: Student Loan Q&A, Value of a College Degree

Grad cap by katagaci
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1193101

Answers to Your Questions About Student Loans, Part One

Answers to questions about public service loan forgiveness, options for people with private loans who are struggling with their debts and the impact of student loans on debtors' credit score.

Answers to Your Questions About Student Loans, Part One - NYTimes.com

This is a pretty good Q&A overview of student loans and how to go about getting and/or attending that type of financial assistance for school.

Finding the Value in a College Degree By EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS

Finding the Value in a College Degree - Student Loan Ranger (usnews.com)

This brings up the good question of whether the degree a prospective college student is going after is worth the debt. According to the article a degree is still a very valuable asset in this economic climate, but it suggests maybe to get the most out of your college education assessing whether your time and money is being utilized well might be pertinent. 

Federal government push to collect on student loans amid bad...

Federal government push to collect on student loans amid bad...


Some great points made by this article:

*Borrowers should have the ability to discharge student loans in bankruptcy, private or otherwise.
*Borrowers should only have to pay the principal balance, instead of accruing over-the-top interest. (Especially in these difficult financial times.)
*Borrowers should be well informed before being approved for school loans. (Some borrowers are still very young. We assume they're immature in so many other respects, why not this one?)
*There should be a "statue of limitations on collections." (People should not be trying to pay back a 20 and 30 year old student loan. That's ridiculous. If they haven't paid up by then, then something obviously wrong. Parents should have student loans along side their kids. That's weird.)
*Why are people with disabilities, especially ones developed after the loan was acquired, being charged to pay back their loans, with interest. Ditto for other circumstances, like the guy in the article who didn't finish because of graduation requirements. Ditto taking old people's social security. This is also weird.

This system is obviously broken somewhere, most likely in many places. These things, or as many of these things as we can plausibly do, need to be done so things can be set to right, or at least set flush. With hope, sooner rather than later.

Even More on Student Loans

Feds shouldscrap/reduceinterest onstudent loans - Columns - The Guardian


I really think America should, along with Canada, take a serious look at forgiveness in regard to student loan interest. The article makes some great points. The main one would be insuring for the future. People forgiven of loan interest, or at least people with highly reduced interest, have one less thing to worry about. Spirits are pretty low because of a slow healing economy and job market. These are a heavy load to bare, adding student loans to that load doesn't help to lift spirits at all. These spirits are the spirits of people investing in their futures and subsequently the future of our country. Relieving borrowers--relieving us--of the mounting interests takes the heft out of a heavy load and brightens borrowers toward the future. It makes what's ahead feel a little bit more manageable. So I agree hardily with Wayne Young, but in regards to America as well.

More On Student Loans

Dollar by jayofboy
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The rising problem of student loan debt has been in the news a bit lately. Not enough I believe, but that's more owing to the number of problems (and trivialities) being addressed in the news and the fact that the problem isn't at a DEFCON1 threat level yet. It's also a catch-22 situation, before the bubble pops (student debt bubble, housing bubble, what have you...) everything that's spoken, no matter how sure we are of the potential looming disaster, is speculation. That's why we can easily fall back on pondering on what needs to be done rather than taking action.

I realize there are people in congress trying to get bills passed* based on this issue and that it's hard to come up with a viable solution that we all can agree on, but all this doesn't defeat the fact that many people, like myself, need some kind of help now. 

* Like Richard Durbin, who seems to highlight my point well with the many things he's fumbling on his plate. (Contrast here, here and here.)

"Knowing then what I know now,[...]"

When reading about the student debt crisis I see that we have at least four culprits being mentioned regularly. 

• The first is colleges. This is due to the rising tuition costs and a mediocre offering of financial counseling. 

• The second is the lenders themselves, especially private lenders. Lenders are said to have a similar failures in financial counseling as colleges and universities. They're too quick to lend money to less than knowledgeable applicants and hard on providing flexible repayment options. Not only that but private student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy since 2005, says the Huffpo article linked above.

• The third offender is congress. Based on the same Huffpo article congress passed the 2005 reform bill that disabled the student borrower's ability to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. 

• The last, and you probably guessed this from the article quote headlining this section, is the borrowers ourselves. Knowledge is power and without it, it is easy to end up looking helpless. Plus sometimes you can't count on the institutions, like the ones mentioned above, to do what you thought they were suppose to do. You are your own back up plan, just in case they do fail you.  

So I urge those college bound students, parents of college bound students, and people going back to school to better themselves to research thoroughly all aspects of higher education before making any one decision on anything. Understand, not just the college you plan to attend, but loans if you're getting them, and/or financial aid in general. Everything. Try to have as few blind-spots as possible.

 If I knew back then what I know now, that's one of the things I would have done better.