I am in over $205,000.00 in Student Debt and I claimed CH 7

[joeperez]

Hello,

My name is Joe, I live in Cranston Rhode Island.

When I was 19, I moved to Los Angeles, CA to pursue a career in film.

After College I found myself in over $180k worth of debt due to private student loans.

I just launched a site detailing my story. The site features functioning debt clock, and other various pages that list the loans i owe, and what it feels like to be in this much debt...

I am trying to raise awareness levels about the predatory practices of private student loan companies.

Please forward my site on to other people. I want to reach as many people as possible.

Regards,

Joe

[alicias108]

Hey Joe:

I'm also on the student loan justice yahoo list! Good to see you here! What has been your experience claiming chapter 7 with your debts? I'm in for about 140K of private student loans. I'm claiming chapter 13 to at least hold these people off for five years. Eek.

Alicia

[nc73]

Hey Joe:

I'm also on the student loan justice yahoo list! Good to see you here! What has been your experience claiming chapter 7 with your debts? I'm in for about 140K of private student loans. I'm claiming chapter 13 to at least hold these people off for five years. Eek.

Alicia

Five years and the problem is won't the interest still accrue? If not do it. Hopefully the new legislation will take care of private loans if it ever passes.

I have around 8k in private loans, thank god. I'm paying 13% after a refinance. Just the interest aloan should make it dischargeable. I'm never borrowing from Sallie Mae again!

[jbr12]

I'm sitting at about 50k in federal loans and another 8-9k in private loans. I am currently a full time student so my federal loans are still going up. I get tuition reimbursment yearly from work, so instead of using them to pay off my federal loans that are a low interest rate, I'm going to us that money to pay off my private loans. I'm sure those rates will skyrocket once I file

[nc73]

I'm sitting at about 50k in federal loans and another 8-9k in private loans. I am currently a full time student so my federal loans are still going up. I get tuition reimbursment yearly from work, so instead of using them to pay off my federal loans that are a low interest rate, I'm going to us that money to pay off my private loans. I'm sure those rates will skyrocket once I file

I'm hoping to pay my private one off right after I am discharged. Although at this rate I dunno, since my lawyer is slow.

[leftyf]

Joe,
How many PhD's do you have?

[alicias108]

Well..one of the reasons I decided upon a chapter 13 is:

1.) The crooks stay off my back for five years. (but yes, the interest will accrue..so I wont' be much better off if they aren't discharged. That's the chance I decided to take.) Even if I have made five years of good faith payments through the plan, I might be able to set up some sort of token payment arrangement with them afterwards. My attorney has done this before with other clients. He and I both realize I'll never pay these off in my lifetime no matter what I pay. What company realistically demands payments of 1600 a month for 25 years when the average median income for a family is only around 50k per annum?

2.) Within those five years..legislation may change and I might be able to bankruptcy them. It's already been put out there by a few senators like Dick Durbin with S. 1561. I truly hope and think the bubble on these companies is about to burst. Somethings got to give. My attorney said he sees people all the time that are absolute slaves to these lenders.

3.) My attorney is going to do my adversarial hearing pro bono with my chapter 13. With a chapter 7, the fee for my adversarial hearing would have been 2K and I would've had to have filed that within 60 days of my chapter 7 filing. If I had 2K just sitting around, I wouldn't be in this mess.

Alicia

[JollyGG]

I really do feel for people with student loans. I myself will be paying mine for another 20 years.

However, what in the heck did you spend 140k and 180k on? How did you intend to pay back your loans when you took them out?

[jennordhavn]

I really do feel for people with student loans. I myself will be paying mine for another 20 years.

I have about $144,000 in student loans. I will be paying them off until I die........lol. However, only $11k is a private loan at 8%, the rest is Staffords and my interest is only 3.5% so I guess I lucked out there. I've been out of law school for four years, but still haven't taken the Bar exam and I've been deferring and forbearing the Staffords because I just don't have enough to pay them right now. I pay $130/mo. toward the private loan and next Oct. when my forbearance is up, I will pay $480/mo. for all the loans for the first two years and then $780/mo. for like 28 years. UGH. This is one of the reasons I'm not sure if I should file a Ch. 13 and I'm kinda waiting to see what happens with my car repo first.

[alicias108]

Jolly,

Personally, I was on my way to medical school. I went to an expensive college to try to go to a prestigous medical school. Ninety percent of the way through the program, I realized it's not what I wanted. I hated life and realized I couldn't do it anymore. I was under the naive impression that my lenders would work with me on income contingent repayment. Ha. No..not the case at all. I just made alot of stupid financial mistakes. I, like alot of young people, just didn't realize the ramifications of what I was doing/did. I'm ruined. But, my mistakes aren't any worse then the gambler or the shopping addict. I just wanted an education.

What did I spend it on? Housing. Food. Transportation. (In a fairly expensive area.) It just went so quickly and was so easy to get. You just fill out the form online. Fax in some paperwork and you get a fat check in the mail.

[JollyGG]

I have about $144,000 in student loans. I will be paying them off until I die........lol. However, only $11k is a private loan at 8%, the rest is Staffords and my interest is only 3.5% so I guess I lucked out there. I've been out of law school for four years..

I was assuming undergraduate degree. For a law degree that level of debt is fairly normal. I have a number of friends with law degrees and medical degrees and they do owe that much money. However with that degree, as you know, your income gives a few more options.

[CindyLou]

Doesn't take long. My graduate degree racked up 60,000 in two years SO FAST!!! Tuition, books, supplies, required laptop, software, time off work, etc etc etc etc etc. But then you have to consider that my income increased considerably as a result of my degree. I was also able to cosolidate and ended up at a little over 3% interest. At that interest rate my student loans do get prioritized last at all times when making choices as to what to pay any extra money towards. Heck I can make more interest on my money in a regular savings account at ING. It is better for me pay the minimum on my loan and keep my money in savings earning 4% interest. I have just resolved to the fact that I will have a student loan payment for the rest of my life...lol.

[freshstart06]

All I can say is.... "WOW!!!"

[alicias108]

Yea.."wow" is right. You gamble 200K up on credit card debt or shopping addiction you get discharge. You take out a student loan to improve your life and get an education you're ruined for life. Go figure.

[CindyLou]

Yea.."wow" is right. You gamble 200K up on credit card debt or shopping addiction you get discharge. You take out a student loan to improve your life and get an education you're ruined for life. Go figure.

Very true.