Student loan rant..Are you in college? Are you thinking about going to college?

[gml120]

Government student loans are designed so that you can never pay them off.
Took out loans for school, repayment started in 2003 at $28,547.13 @3.125%
Paid on IBR for just about 10 years. Total paid in that time = $18,534 which worked out to be $100 to principal and $50 to interest.
Had to change from IBR to extended repayment because my income indicated that I was "able" to now pay off the loan in 10 years not 25 which made monthly payment unreasonable.
They recapitalized the loan and lowered my monthly repayments.
My new principal today is $30,592 @3.125% for 213 months (17.75 years)
So, rounding that to 18 years, I calculated that over that time I will have paid:
$40,037 ($9445 in interest)
But since I've already shelled out $18,534....
original loan balance was $28,547 ------> $58,571 paid off in 2031 when I am 54 years old and my son turns 21 making it impossible for me to help him avoid my personal student loan hell for his lifetime.
Yes, this is more than double the amount borrowed. By the way, moving from IBR to extended cancelled my "Obama says you have your loans forgiven in 25 years"

I guess the moral of the story is, DONT take out loans for college! Not even for a worthwhile degree - I have a masters in chemical engineering and have been laid off 5 times in the last 5 years. Any other profession job interviewer I've dealt with has told me I'm overqualified for what I was applying for and didn't hire me. At this point I am considering letting it default on purpose and let them sue me for the nothing I have.

Is anyone else trapped in this nightmare? Is there any hope left?

[tobee43]

i'm just a mom that so feels for you..and worse YET, you go through all this and can't get any jobs to pay them off and the government is doing absolutely nothing to help those that are caught in the trap you are in.

here's the other kicker. we had two kids both went on to grad school and one went further into grad school for a PhD. well she still owes approx 60k with interest and her job doesn't even pay her 60k a year with a PhD. so sad, we still have to help both of our kids and it's NOT that they are lazy it's NOT they are over spenders, it's NOT that they do not budget well, it's just that they don't have enough money to budget. it's a real shame for all of you that have worked so hard to get a better education just to be slapped in the face so hard.

when the government finally realizes that you all VOTE, maybe things will begin to change. this present administration, and i am partially to blame as i helped to put them in based on all the lies about who they were going to help, (wish they would have been truthful and told us we only intend to help ourselves), i hope all those holding those terrible student loans will start a real movement that makes a difference and a change!

[gml120]

Thanks for your kind words and story tobee My only hope for this country right now is Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul. (I wrote in Ron for pres last election haha). This student loan situation will eventually burst just like the housing bubble and it's not going to be pretty. As more and more of our parents who graciously helped us out with these loans retire there will be no options but for millions to default. And they love to run a credit check now during the hiring process......It looks like only the illegal aliens will soon be the only people in the country that have good enough credit to buy houses, cars, and pass the hiring credit test.

Personally I think we should all default on purpose, all at the same time, in protest of these kinds of loans with seemingly no fair rules. It would send a message louder than any occupy movement, or vote.

[tobee43]

well gml120, i know it can be done! we did it in the 60's when we shut down the colleges and forced change. we worked endlessly but we finally heard. what an absolute shame that employers check credit, insurance companies check credit (i once asked about that and was told that those that had poor credit were more likely to commit fraud, really?) i can't believe that garbage, anything and anyway to say NO. this country doesn't care anymore about our youth, both my son and daughter married 1st grade teacher and what a said thing that is, both with masters and being paid enough to be able to apply for food stamps, can't pay their loans but the guy next to them has no student loans went to college for free and then got the job qualified or not. it is exactly why this country is falling apart.

i'm so with you if all of those that owed the loans stopped paying and staged a national protect maybe just maybe someone would begin to listen.

[pamkev]

Agree with Tobee.

I know my daughter needs help with her loans she pays most of them but we help out

[gml120]

heh: "those with poor credit are more likely to commit fraud" that cracks me up.
Those with poor credit trying to get a better paying job are trying to have good credit and be able to pay their bills.

[joshuagraham]

Government student loans are designed so that you can never pay them off.
Took out loans for school, repayment started in 2003 at $28,547.13 @3.125%
Paid on IBR for just about 10 years. Total paid in that time = $18,534 which worked out to be $100 to principal and $50 to interest.
Had to change from IBR to extended repayment because my income indicated that I was "able" to now pay off the loan in 10 years not 25 which made monthly payment unreasonable.
They recapitalized the loan and lowered my monthly repayments.
My new principal today is $30,592 @3.125% for 213 months (17.75 years)
So, rounding that to 18 years, I calculated that over that time I will have paid:
$40,037 ($9445 in interest)
But since I've already shelled out $18,534....
original loan balance was $28,547 ------> $58,571 paid off in 2031 when I am 54 years old and my son turns 21 making it impossible for me to help him avoid my personal student loan hell for his lifetime.
Yes, this is more than double the amount borrowed. By the way, moving from IBR to extended cancelled my "Obama says you have your loans forgiven in 25 years"

I guess the moral of the story is, DONT take out loans for college! Not even for a worthwhile degree - I have a masters in chemical engineering and have been laid off 5 times in the last 5 years. Any other profession job interviewer I've dealt with has told me I'm overqualified for what I was applying for and didn't hire me. At this point I am considering letting it default on purpose and let them sue me for the nothing I have.

Is anyone else trapped in this nightmare? Is there any hope left?

This isn't making any sense. You said that you have been paying as per the IBR for 10 years? I thought that program started in 2009. (Maybe you meant something else?)

As for the loan itself, its relentless compounding is definitely the nightmare to Einstein's wonderment about compounding interest for an investment.

As for being an unemployable engineer, I know the feeling, although I got a good 15 years of my career in before I became unemployable, and didn't have any student debt, and was able to get the 6 figures of unsecured debt discharged, while keeping my 401K intact. I can only imagine the stress of someone with non-dischargeable debt, and no retirement account.

[joshuagraham]

My only hope for this country right now is Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul.

I agree with you on Warren, but why Paul? He wants to slash the social welfare system - a system that someone in our circumstances definitely need. Aside from his wanting to cut military spending, I don't see how anything in his platform would economically help the struggling little people. (I definitely see his anti-spying platform helping, but not economically.)

[royalking]

From where you took your loans and what were their terms.

[TXskyblue]

It's funny this thread got bumped today. I'm considering going back to grad school in August and that will entail somewhere between 25K and 45K in student loans since I will continue to work full time.

The math makes sense for me to go, but then I read the stories about people killing themselves over their student loans. I am wary of taking on any debt since my BK. Debt is how I got myself in the position of filing a BK. Even though the math makes sense, I am still hesitant.

Overall, I feel many people who take out student loans do so without much thought. Because it's easy money and it doesn't feel like you're spending your own money, it's easy to overpay for a degree by taking too many courses at an expensive university or by simply picking a degree that isn't financially viable.

[gml120]

joshuagraham - you're right, IBR didn't exist, I guess it was something like "income sensitive repayment" program.

I'm not terribly angry at these loans by themselves, I signed for them, I took them out, yeah - I did it willingly I will fully admit that I am responsible for them. All I want is a *expletive* chance to pay a reasonable amount on them! I WANT TO WORK! I want to be a process engineer. I don't care if I have to work nights, weekends, holidays, 365 days a year. I have all this knowledge in my brain and are more than capable of sizing pumps, calculating dynamic fluid flow, CAD modeling complex piping, and fully understand chemical reactions.

But that has gotten me nowhere. I live next to people that live 100% on welfare, they do not work, I mean AT ALL. They still have money for things like holiday decorations and cigarettes while I'm struggling to make it to the next week to have enough food. It recently got cold here and I'm not sure when I will be able to save up enough money for heating oil. I just hope it's not like last year when it was mid-winter and negative temps before I got to turn on some heat, it totally broke my heart to have to tell my 2 year old he has to wear a coat in the house all the time. Or when it was just unbearably cold, we had to walk around some store for hours just to warm up all the while not having money to purchase anything.

If there was ANY relief from these loan payments, no bullshit, we would be living in a proper house, have a reliable car, and maybe start to build a little life but as of now with student loans taking 52% on my income it's totally hopeless.

[gml120]

From where you took your loans and what were their terms.

These particular loans are federal loans. I have one other small one from Citi (now serviced by Discover)

Fed was 20 year payback @3.125% fixed after consolidation, and private is ? payback term at 1.5% variable rate (currently at 3.5%) - doing the calculations myself I have another 4.6 years to pay on it

[AngelinaCat]

TXskyblue, this thread, and several others, got bumped by a spammer who has now been banned.

[keepsmiling]

If there was ANY relief from these loan payments, no bullshit, we would be living in a proper house, have a reliable car, and maybe start to build a little life but as of now with student loans taking 52% on my income it's totally hopeless.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
This is crazy. What happens if you stop paying?
At least one person here- Treehugger- let school loans go to garnishment. At least this way they only got 15% of his income.
I think you need to explore your options.

[gml120]

Pennsylvania does not garnish - they just levy bank accounts and give you judgements.