Tag Archives: debt

Restore Basic Consumer Protections to Student Loans!

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An email I received today from MoveOn puts the case for the Student Borrowers’ Bill of Rights very well.  This is a very important piece of legislation.

Did you know that, like murder and treason, there is no statute of limitations on the collections of student loan debt?

Did you know that student loans do not enjoy bankruptcy protections just like any other type of debt in America, including gambling debts?

Did you know that defaulted borrowers face the potential of having their professional licenses suspended, as well as having their wages, Social Security benefits, tax returns and other benefits garnished, without a court order?
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It’s well past time we right these wrongs and that’s why Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) has introduced the Student Borrowers’ Bill of Rights (H.R. 3892).

Please sign the petition and share it widely!

Tell Congress Not To Double Interest on Student Loans

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Prepare yourself: on July 1, as many as 8 million college students will see their interest rates on federally subsidized student loans double, from 3.4% to 6.8%. According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, that increase amounts to the average Stafford loan borrower’s paying $2,800 more over a standard 10-year repayment term for loans made after June 30.

It’s worse for those students who take out the most money. Those who borrow the maximum $23,000 in subsidized student loans will see their debt load upped by $5,000 over a 10-year repayment plan and $11,000 over a 20-year repayment plan.  – Kayla Webley, TIME Magazine.

Fortunately this doesn’t affect those of us already carrying such loans and in repayment, though I never stop waiting for that shoe to drop.  I still remember far too well the interest on my supplemental loans being raised to 8% when Republicans controlled Congress under the Reagan administration.  It’s part of the reason my burden is so high now.  Fortunately I no longer have that kind of loan, thanks to consolidation.

The issue with the rate is, of course, budgetary.  Well, budgetary and political, as the article goes on to explain.

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Watch the Numbers Turn on the Student Debt Clock

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The counter at the time of posting. Click to go to the site for the current total.

$848,193,864,069 at 2:52. $848,194,027,574 at 2:53. It’s frightening how fast the figures change on the student debt clock.

Total student loan debt outstanding exceeded total credit card debt outstanding for the first time in June 2010. The seasonally adjusted figure for revolving credit in the Federal Reserve’s G.19 report (current report, historical data) was $826.5 billion in June 2010. (Credit card debt represents as much as 98% of revolving credit.)

It’s a big problem and a growing one. Graduates are not making enough when they leave college to make the payments on their student loans, yet it is nearly impossible to discharge such loans, even through bankruptcy. College students are clearly borrowing to much and you may be tempted to say let them suffer the consequences.

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Keeping college degrees affordable, attainable

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According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 400,000 qualified high school graduates a year delay or forgo enrolling in college due to financial barriers, amounting to 4.4 million students lost between 2001 and 2010.

For students who make it to college, financial pressures can lead students to drop out, or work more than 20 hours a week, which is proven to lower the odds of completing a degree. After graduation, the burden of student loan repayment often limits career options and the ability to save money or start a family. In 2008, two-thirds of all four-year college graduates borrowed, with an average debt of $23,186. The number of college graduates with at least $40,000 in student loan debt has increased tenfold in the past decade.

–via The Tribune Democrat, Johnstown, PA – Keeping college degrees affordable, attainable.

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