8 January 2010 archive
Where is the Money? 0
Borrowers Beware
Recently I have been asked to help recent college graduates who are faced with enormous student debt. In some instances, they have had taken co-signer loans while in college. Those lenders like Sallie Mae were offering them in incredible amounts over the last 10 years. The rules varied as to when (and if) the creditworthy cosigner would be released from the obligation.
In 90% of the cases that will never happen and the lenders know that.
This article is about the misinformation and complex terms in college lending. Unfortunately, Congress over the years has been heavily influenced by the lending companies (now being bailed out by taxpayer money) and the colleges themselves.
None of them have the student’s long-term best interest as a priority. That is a shame. To get a quick understanding of the problem listen to this.
At Programs for Education, we have options ambitious students can take advantage of to pay off their debt faster. If you know of any student facing enormous debt now or in the future, give us a call. Many families are paying for college from cash flow alone with this program.
In addition, all current students can learn about the various loan forgiveness and debt relief programs for graduates entering certain fields of employment. In the meantime, if a student is considering future college costs, now is the time to do a Dry Run to see how much they may have to borrow, if at all.
Student Loan Scam 0
Not everyone would willingly choose to become the public face of the debt-ridden. Alan Collinge didn’t exactly choose to do so, defaulting on $38,000 in student loans only after a series of missteps and strokes of misfortune, but he has embraced his situation with gusto, founding StudentLoanJustice.org to advocate for distressed borrowers and now writing a book, The Student Loan Scam (Beacon Press).
Collinge’s tactics have at times been controversial — he has been criticized for personally attacking student loan lobbyists, for instance — but with the Obama administration putting the student loan programs front and center in its higher education agenda, the industry he writes about and his views are likely to remain relevant. In an e-mail interview, Collinge discussed his personal experiences and his assertion that none of the policy changes currently being debated will make a difference for borrowers without reform of federal bankruptcy laws.
Q. Can you give our readers the 1-minute version of how you ended up getting into such a jam with student loans? How much of your situation evolved because of your own (potentially flawed) decisions, and how much because of the unfair practices or policies or rules by other parties?