30 Americans Share Their Student Loan Debts And You Can Feel How Hopeless These People Are
A writer and professor’s thread about student loan debt has inspired people to talk about the debt they’re facing, and the amount is truly staggering. Lacy M. Johnson, whose Ph.D. is in creative writing, revealed that despite making timely payments for over a decade to pay back the $70,000 loan she took out, almost equaling the amount of the loan in the first place… it hasn’t gotten any smaller.
The responses to her thread tell the same story: after decades of trying to pay back their student debts and getting absolutely nowhere due to rapidly and unpredictably increasing interest, people feel almost like they are being punished for life just for getting an education.
This post may include affiliate links.
It's really unfair, illogical and disgusting that this happens to people. I pay student loans, too. I am thinking I'll never finish paying, either.
How is this legal? Reading about all these student loan horror stories makes me glad I didn't went to college in US, and makes me extremely worried thinking about when my now 8 yo will go to college.
The government set it up to be legal. They make the rules and if they want to screw people over, nothing stops them.
Load More Replies...
Are student loans some slavery scam in the US? The more I learn about America the more I begin to learn the difference between "developed" and "civiised".
I went back to school for another bachelors degree so I could get a better job. Now as a nurse I owe $100k. It will take 20 years to pay it off. I make $23.75 an hour. I pay $1000 each month. This situation makes me sick.
Hmm...my son owes $34k has it down to $28k in 6 months living at home working full time ($18/hr ) so.....yeah sounds like you were never taught how to manage money!
I suspect they are applying your payments to 'interest' rather than to principal. I had a creditor ripping me off that way until a lawyer (who worked for them) took pity & told me to write " apply to principal only" on my payment.
I started with $10,000 in 1998. I've made income-based monthly payments and my balance as of last Friday is $17,000.
I have quite literally bounced this persons message, and one other to @Pulte. I will update with the outcome if I hear. (For those that need to know, @Pulte is a philanthropist who genuinely donates money over twitter)
Youre Only Paying the minimum amount. Like when your credit card is at 5 grand and you only pay 25 a month. take years and years to pay that amount off
I really don't advice anyone to go to college. I much rather had kept working at McDonald's without debt.
I get your point but don’t perpetuate that false dichotomy. People always act like you’ll end up “working in McDonald’s/Walmart” if you don’t go to college. That’s so far from the truth. There are way more options.
Load More Replies...
I have been paying my student loan for 6 years and I stil owe the same amount. I just wonder who is getting my hard earned money.
Absolutely horrible thing for ANYONE to say. Horrible
Load More Replies...
How the hell are these monthly payments calculated in the US? In Europe, each monthly payment consists in one part interest and one part loan. The proportion between interest rate and base loan changes as the years pass, but you actually pay back a portion of the loan starting with the first payment. You can't actually owe the same amount that you loaned, after 11 years of on-time monthly payments. This is legalized theft, pure and simple. And a good way to keep you down and in your place!
Disturbingly, a person from a wealthy family with enough in the bank to pay for university tuition at face value pays less, while those who don’t are forced to spend years after graduation dumping their money into a black hole that can expand to twice the size of the loan itself.
And as you can see from the real stories that keep pouring in as responses to Johnson’s tweet, people in the US are accepting that they’re never going to buy homes, get married, have children, or retire because of it. They’re certainly not enjoying the benefits of the career paths they had to get a higher education in order to gain access to.
Lol, excuse me what???? I never love France as much as when I read about US healthcare and student loan...
Johnson, who started the Twitter thread, stated her support for presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. The candidate has proposed a plan to cancel or majorly reduce student loan debt for most borrowers based on income, funding the cancellation by driving up taxes on ultra-millionaires.
She’s not the only US presidential candidate who wants people to live debt-free—Bernie Sanders’ goal is to completely erase student loan debt by taxing stock transactions.
Proponents of forgiving student loan debt believe that it would reduce social inequality, incentivize higher education, and enable more people to buy homes and start businesses.
With the US presidential election coming up, people who are being held back by paying off debt will likely turn to candidates who consider solving it a priority.
For those of you knocking an Art Degree: Look around you. This website, all websites, all marketing, all the cute packaging you get with the things you buy, all the clothes you wear, advertisements that make you want to see something, movie posters you treasure: All Art degrees. Some of you have your heads too far up your own arses to see this, thinking you can make a 'clever' joke or feel better about yourselves because you THINK you've put something down but instead you've made yourselves look like uncultured, unthinking idiots. Congrats Raul, AV7, Jeremiah Pierce, and Demi Zwaan for being such childish, idiotic caricatures to watch.
Same situation. Finally finished my bachelors in 2015. Over the years I borrowed the max $53,500. I was suckered by one online university. Come to find out I was completely bamboozled. The AA amounted to nothing. It's embarrassing to even put it on my resume. I now owe $115k in student loans and will never be able to pay it off in my lifetime. This was and IS a huge scam that guaranteed a revenue flow and keep us under the govt. thumb. It's criminal. Loan sharks don't charge this much.
Most school loans die with you, so your not leaving them for the family.
Wait, GOVERNMENT loans have that kind of interest on them??? Christ, the US are truly and deeply fu*cked up.
Full Name, I think you’re misreading it. She’s saying she has to defer, otherwise she can’t afford to pay and live at the same time. As a result, she pays instead the $50 which is probably a minimum per month.
Once the government started backing the loans isn't that when they started to skyrocket and every college and Uni course started to cost the moon and stars? Sounds like the schools and the finance companies are in un Holy alliance to squeeze the last drop of blood out of all the students.
I can totally relate to this! I have subcumed to the notion that I will die with this debt. I finally finished my BA, almost $80,000 later. Sine 2017 its almost to 110k, on deferment, and IBR. Now businesses want to hire real world experience not just that of an education. I'm in a 28k, temp job, no benefits, no PT, no Vaca, no sick pay and have 2 young children . Something's gotta give!! Talk about a double edge sword!!
A ruined life because a busted knee. That's the American dream for you, in a nut shell.
The only way that we can have a solution that will be fair to all of us is to tear this one completely down and rebuild it more in line with the needs of modern people. While taking into account the respect of all living things on this planet. We can't continue to ravage this planet in our pursuit of progress. It's the mentality that we've been taught to accumulate a particular resource that we can hoard to ourselves that allows us to obtain more than another. As humans, we just need the basics to live, and the ability to express our creativity as we seek the end goal. Being a part of the world and leaving it in a better place than when we go there. Reality is the opposite. Achieve as much as you can in disregard to r the future at their expense. They are the ones who must clean up our mess
Well You don't qualify for forgiveness simply by having 20 years lapse. you needed to be on IDR for those 20 years.
That's because the interest is compounded daily. No other loans are. It's criminal and would be illegal for any other lender.
WHY is there not a huge protest storm happening right now? This is just disgusting and illegal of the Education system in America to just rob people like that!!! I hope they end up in jail for life and that they return the money they stole from you all, by waiving these horrible study debts!!!!!! They will go to hell (and no I am not religious but I believe in karma) in time for doing this to students. Also, the question is, why don't everyone all boycott the education by not enrolling in courses? Lets see it impact the greedy business that is stealing through student loans. Never mind the few rich who can just pay upfront, there is a few of them and many more of you who are not, so time to fight back!
You can't expect the government to help you out when they need to spend all of their money on the military and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Well, where do people in the US get their education if they (know they) can't afford student loans? In the army! So why would the gouvernment be so stupid as to cut off it's very effective poor people soldier breeding program?
Load More Replies...
I guess according to some of you on here I was one of those idiots that got myself into one of these loans. Although, I don't think I was an idiot, I was desperate and un-informed about student loans. I came from a drug addicted mother and a very bad childhood. I wanted to better myself and did it completely on my own. No one helped and no one educated me on what my options were. I don't regret my decision but I feel like these loan companies prey on people in my situation and that is very wrong.
You are not an idiot, just a victim. you are completely right, it is predatory behavior to allow you to start a loan "underwater" or in a state where the interest exceeds your monthly due.
Load More Replies...
I went to uni in my home country (Germany) and while I was enrolled, they started collecting tuition for a couple of semesters until another party took over the state government and abolished it again. I graduated owing 2,800 Euro and I was furious. Paid it back in 100 Euro installments, starting a year after graduation – that rule was put in place to make sure people had found employment in the meantime before they had to stat paying. It wasn't that big a dealbut I still don't think it's right. Can't imagine to be buried in debt like a lot of American students/graduates.
I already had my degree when Germany suddenly thought, it would be a great idea to introduce tuition. The politicians agreeing on that all went to uni for free, of course. Fortunately, most states have abolished them, again. It is inconceivable to me, why a country would cripple it's future generations like the US are doing. It destroyys any hope for a real future. Unless, of course, you want a banana republic with throngs of abject poor, plenty of soldiers to feed wars that a small percentage of very wealthy people get rich on. then it's a great concept.
Load More Replies...
Is that even legal. Can someone explain how currency values differs in countries
It's not just that there is interest charged on student loans, but those interest rates are higher than they would be for almost any other type of loan. When you are buying a house or a car they can take those back, the education isn't a tangible item that can be revoked so the interest is rather high and cruel.
Load More Replies...
the more i read about this country, the more i think that amerika is one of the worst countries to live..
The lesson here is: Don't borrow enormous amounts of money with high interest rates, regardless of country.
Load More Replies...
america has so many s****y problem… student debt a ridiculous, medical coverage are horrible, gun shooting everywhere, death by gun shooting are so high… i'm so grateful to live in Canada...
It is surprising how far we fall behind in those areas. I think it's because like every economic system, capitalism is an experiment, and what we are seeing is that it may be good to intermesh multiple frameworks of economic systems instead of just capitalism. All those issues you stated are due to lobbying from big corporations who line the pockets of politicians, citizens are not priority.
Load More Replies...
In Sweden all education is free. And you can around 350$ per month free from the government and if you need more money they'll give you a loan without interest. Wish it could be the same in every country.
The loan is not interest free, the interest varies over time. The interest for 2020 is going to be the same as for 2019, 0.16%.
Load More Replies... 
My country is fcked-up as all hell, but at least it's not US. Seriously, how is this place even real??? The students loans? The healthcare from hell? And then they will go around saying how they are the best place in the world? Mindblowing. I'm soooo grateful i don't live there, omg.
How is this even possible? I live in Germany and had a student loan of ca 10000€, only because I chose a private school. (The public ones are free). Had to pay 19000€ because of interest. Thanks to my husband, I am now debt free only 5 years later. Those threads there look suspicious to me. I think they are being scamed or something.
No, that's really how it is in the U.S.... I mean, it IS a scam, it's total b******t—BUT it's an official and totally legit "scam".
Load More Replies...
I have just around $100K in debt from bachelor's and a year of grad school. This was from 2002-2007. My dad went to college in the 50s. When his parents would give him $100, he'd go pay tuition and buy books, and bring them back change. And no, in case you're wondering, inflation does NOT account for that. ALSO, when I took out these loans I assumed I'd always have a good job. I didn't anticipate crash in 2008 and being unemployed. Forbearance is no problem but interest continues to accrue.
How come nobody has sued or something, this is EVIL and CRIMINAL!! My mind is blown reading all these tweets! I would literally fake my death to not pay. These companies are making free money.
Never mind the interest rate in USA was so high to students, just Googled it and I've a little stroke... It's unfair just link here in Brazil.
Yep.. left grad school with 88k, have paid on it consistently for 6 years, and owe 94k.
I went to school part time and worked three part-time jobs, and graduated with a debt of $151 and that was so I could get credit. In grad school I worked full time- again no debt. I saw the high interest rates so I said no thanks.
This is ridiculous. I guess I got lucky. I started university in 1999 and got a private student loan from a bank. Once done, my loan was roughly $37k - I worked full time and paid as much as I could throughout 4 years. I was lucky to have my husband (bf back then) paying for our living expenses. He has 3 degrees and his employer paid for all 3. The bank gave me 3 months to find a job before repaying. I already had a job so I started paying right away. I paid extra and 7 years later, all paid off. Is private loan a possibility? How are these people going to pay off these huge loans? It's just sickening to even think about owing more and more even though you're paying every month.
My wife is smarter and more organized than I am. When each of our children were born, she started 529 plans for them and enrolled them in the state guaranteed tuition program. I was no always easy to make ends meet, but we always made the payments. Now that they are at university, the money is there, and no loans need to be taken out. My oldest is now paying for his advanced degree with a military scholarship. Even so, when I helped each kid in the initial enrollment process, the schools tried to get us to sign for loans which they called "student aid". The line they used was "You have qualified for $$$ student aid, you just need to sign here". The lenders are sleazy, we all know that. But someone at the schools must be in on it in a big way.
These loans look a lot like the ones from shady loan sharks, when interests are sky high and when you cannot afford to pay them, they are sold to distrainor for disgustingly high fees on top of that so from 10.000 CZK loan you end up paying 150.000 CZK. Saddest fact is, student loans are specifically for betterment of whole country, for educated population, for gaining smart, chosen field oriented experts, not for useless materialistic things you don't need.
Asking as non American... were the student loans provided by loan sharks!?!? That's the only reason I could think of that people still owing so much AFTER paying so much!!
I went to Uni in Australia, government gave me an interest free loan for education. A Bachelor degree in art was about 12,000AUD. They also gave me 200dollars a week for expenses that i never have to pay back. I would never have chosen an art degree if I lived in the US
To put it in the simplest and shortest of descriptions: this is STEALING and this is CORRUPT.
That's the American government for you..it really is a shame.
Load More Replies...
This is why people say NOT to pay your Student Loan from your own money in the UK, it's better to pay for it via your wages via tax instead. Student Loans are completely dispicable in the US - I don't know why anyone would want to go to university.
Because you're 17/18 years old and have heard all your like that college is what you do after high school. Because $100K to a teenager is the same as $1M is the same as $10K.
Load More Replies...
When I had student loan here in Norway I owed almost 6000$ and I payed that of in a few years with the choice of adding more into the payback and I got money back when it was all done. The American system seems like a wreck.
Wouldn't if be cheaper to just get a loan from a bank instead of finance through the school? It really does sound like a scam because they're charging interest on interest which is illegal in most countries. If I were in that boat, I'd just do a Trump and declare bankruptcy to get out of the debt and start over. #AmericaIsWeird.
I'm pretty sure that in America student loans aren't cleared by declaring bankruptcy
Load More Replies...
This is criminal. Y'all need to reform. School loans should be maxed out at 1% interest.
There is alot here in America that needs to be fixed. We need free healthcare, cheaper college and cheaper daycare. One kid in an average daycare was $80+ a week.
Load More Replies...
Student loan :Capitalism's way to get you hooked and work, and work and still owe money. My advice: learn a foreign language and study abroad where most universities are free: Spain, France, Mexico etc.
I became sick my junior year in college, dropped out my senior year. Was in a hospital bed when all my friends walked. I was disabled, yet later finished college but interest piled. Went to graduate school so could ensure I had a job I could physically do... nursing was out. I work PSLF, but hopeless after years and finding my applications was mismanaged by the government. I owe 110K due to a decade of disability, I make a barely livable wage because public service employees make a minimum wage for their work despite advanced degrees. I have reoccuring bills, pay for medicare to prevent high costs. I worked 50 hours a week before the pandemic but work 60 hours during. I carry others, help those in the greatest need. I would make more money at Starbucks, suffer less mentally and emotionally yet rapped by my debt. Getting ill college should not destroy anyone's life more than necessary. Why is there nothing to help, paying 4x's over.
These stories are all upsetting. Does the USA really want a future where (because people will not be able to afford a better education) there will be a tiny minority of rich snots who are educated (and won't use their enlightened status, except to control the masses)? Of course, it means there will be a huge pool of folk to service the industries, and the military, where people who don't have any choice but to work there because.........oh, now I understand these policies. Shame on the privileged who rule this system and get rich off people who are trying so hard to succeed.
I took $96,000 for my business degree....been making $1,000 payments EVERY month for 10 years...that's $120,000 in payments....my debt is down to $79,900
Folks have struggled to repay borrowed money for millennia. There's nothing new about folks with degrees struggling as well.
NEVER do an income based repayment, deferment, or only pay minimum payments because yes, this will happen. We were in $130k of student loan debt in 2017 and within 2 years paid it ALL off. How? LOTS of hustle, side jobs, selling everything except our 4 kids. For 8 years we were paying on that debt and the balance barely went down. When we realized that, we were like screw this, and then worked hard to pay it off. Now we are DEBT FREE and it feels so good!! Dave Ramsey helped us and can help you, too!
Americans get proactive and pay off debt all the time. Thanks for your post.
Load More Replies...
What happens if you just dont pay it back? I will not encourage my children to to go collage. Most everyone I know, that has a degree and thousands in debt, do not use their degree because there are no jobs in their field. I think its a waste of time.
I agree, if something isn't worth it, don't spend money on it.
Load More Replies...
Hey India Frost. Please accept my apologies, as I just made a dum comment on the unfortunate situation in U.S. What I actually meant was that it's B******t, that private cooperations takes over your educational system just as they took over your healthcare system, making it extremely expensive and leaving the bill to the citizens. I hope you will accept my apology.
Got my masters degree in Germany. The fee back than was 25 German Marks per semester/half year (about $ 10). Those who didn't live close to their university already did have to pay for an apartment though (there is no housing on campus here). The few student apartments are very hard to get. Those on the free market can be very expensive. And there was an organization called ZVS (central office for the allocation of places at university) and those guys were complete idiots: It seemed that they intentionally placed people as far away from home as possible so that you couldn't live without your parents and save money on rent.
Medical system...f****d.....student loans...f****d. Why anyone lives in the USA is beyond me!!!
Can there be a class action suit filed against the student loan industry? If so, let me know..I'd like to apply. To those that say they've made steady payments over 20 years, never missed a payment, check into student loan forgiveness. After you've paid for that long of time, you can qualify.
No. Student loan forgiveness is only offered with certain repayment plans like IDR.
Load More Replies...
First: It does not make any sense. Second: Is the education in USA really 100 times better than Europe, if the taxes are 100 times (not %) higher?
we can't...Americans are totally put off by any sort of socialism and do not see value to an educated and healthy workforce...basically, we like to cut off our nose to spite our face
Load More Replies... Like any country there are flaws which hopefully one day we unify and figure out. I live in a beautiful beach town that's sunny all the time where I surf everyday so it can't be total s**t...:)
Load More Replies...
Muricans with their health system and with this student loan scam no wonder the economy of the new generations is doomed
Another major expense at universities are the textbooks. And the greedy professors who publish new editions every year, thus pressuring students to buy NEW instead of USED textbooks. For example, Elizabeth Warren has a textbook, 9th edition, goes for $249.00 on Amazon. Just another hypocrite democrat.
Oh yeah! This makes me so angry as well. The books are beyond pricey and you can't resell. Education is becoming such a scam. We talk about all these phony people calling you from Nigeria, but this is worse. Its all legal.
Load More Replies...
This makes me again much more grateful for being able to study university for free (until the age of 26, then I'll pay about 1200 USD per semester and it's only my fault I didn't manage to finish by that time). And it makes me wanna go back to my paper that I need to write from which I went here to procrastinate a bit. So sorry for the US guys. :(
The U.S. student loan system seems to be pure evil. How do they calculate their interest rates? Is the student loan program basically loan sharks? Even when paying what is asked of them, the balance barely moves an inch. That's like a 30 year mortgage where you pay only the minimum. Then yeah, it'll take 30 years! Except they don't tell you the actual loan duration.
Are you guys just paying the minimum or something? I don't know how this is possible.
Kind of hard to pay more than the minimum when the minimum on my loans equal about $1,000 a month It's more than my mortgage
Load More Replies...
Everything about university is wrong in terms of people wanting to ever pay back their loans. Can't get a job that pays well without a degree, can't afford to live with the debt of getting that degree. Is everyone supposed to just start their own business?
Slavery is involuntary. Borrowing money to buy stuff like cars, houses, and a college degree isn't.
Load More Replies... The economic illiteracy on this thread is stunning. Hasn't anyone ever heard of capitalized interest? It's part of our daily life and these people seem absolutely clueless about it. Spend $1000 on a 25% APR credit card and only pay the minimum payment of $25/month. Will you pay off the debt in 40 payments? Of course not, Try double that - and you can blame capitalized interest instead of Capitalism. Think that's unfair? A century ago average people didn't have access to cheap credit. They saved and bought things because they had no choice. Banks were for the wealthy. Everyone else did without.
A better route may be to stop asking for free higher education ( which I would like to see but doubt it will occur) and to start demanding that our public K-12 school systems start teaching kids valuable things such as personal finances and how interest rates really work. Free college for all is great but I just do not see that coming to fruition anytime in the near future simply because it makes too much money for anyone to want to stop milking it. Instead promote education on things that really matter in adult life like finances, interest rates, credit card debt etc. Offhand I am curious how many if any finance majors find themselves in this same situation, if you do you should consider seeking a refund on that degree.
So how much did your tuition cost per year?
Load More Replies... 
But we have enough evidence to know that you are indeed that whiney a*****e you speak of.
Load More Replies...
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. Did you not read about the doctors and lawyers?!
Load More Replies...
You can't expect the government to help you out when they need to spend all of their money on the military and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Well, where do people in the US get their education if they (know they) can't afford student loans? In the army! So why would the gouvernment be so stupid as to cut off it's very effective poor people soldier breeding program?
Load More Replies... I guess according to some of you on here I was one of those idiots that got myself into one of these loans. Although, I don't think I was an idiot, I was desperate and un-informed about student loans. I came from a drug addicted mother and a very bad childhood. I wanted to better myself and did it completely on my own. No one helped and no one educated me on what my options were. I don't regret my decision but I feel like these loan companies prey on people in my situation and that is very wrong.
You are not an idiot, just a victim. you are completely right, it is predatory behavior to allow you to start a loan "underwater" or in a state where the interest exceeds your monthly due.
Load More Replies... I went to uni in my home country (Germany) and while I was enrolled, they started collecting tuition for a couple of semesters until another party took over the state government and abolished it again. I graduated owing 2,800 Euro and I was furious. Paid it back in 100 Euro installments, starting a year after graduation – that rule was put in place to make sure people had found employment in the meantime before they had to stat paying. It wasn't that big a dealbut I still don't think it's right. Can't imagine to be buried in debt like a lot of American students/graduates.
I already had my degree when Germany suddenly thought, it would be a great idea to introduce tuition. The politicians agreeing on that all went to uni for free, of course. Fortunately, most states have abolished them, again. It is inconceivable to me, why a country would cripple it's future generations like the US are doing. It destroyys any hope for a real future. Unless, of course, you want a banana republic with throngs of abject poor, plenty of soldiers to feed wars that a small percentage of very wealthy people get rich on. then it's a great concept.
Load More Replies... Is that even legal. Can someone explain how currency values differs in countries
It's not just that there is interest charged on student loans, but those interest rates are higher than they would be for almost any other type of loan. When you are buying a house or a car they can take those back, the education isn't a tangible item that can be revoked so the interest is rather high and cruel.
Load More Replies... the more i read about this country, the more i think that amerika is one of the worst countries to live..
The lesson here is: Don't borrow enormous amounts of money with high interest rates, regardless of country.
Load More Replies... america has so many s****y problem… student debt a ridiculous, medical coverage are horrible, gun shooting everywhere, death by gun shooting are so high… i'm so grateful to live in Canada...
It is surprising how far we fall behind in those areas. I think it's because like every economic system, capitalism is an experiment, and what we are seeing is that it may be good to intermesh multiple frameworks of economic systems instead of just capitalism. All those issues you stated are due to lobbying from big corporations who line the pockets of politicians, citizens are not priority.
Load More Replies... In Sweden all education is free. And you can around 350$ per month free from the government and if you need more money they'll give you a loan without interest. Wish it could be the same in every country.
The loan is not interest free, the interest varies over time. The interest for 2020 is going to be the same as for 2019, 0.16%.
Load More Replies... My country is fcked-up as all hell, but at least it's not US. Seriously, how is this place even real??? The students loans? The healthcare from hell? And then they will go around saying how they are the best place in the world? Mindblowing. I'm soooo grateful i don't live there, omg.
How is this even possible? I live in Germany and had a student loan of ca 10000€, only because I chose a private school. (The public ones are free). Had to pay 19000€ because of interest. Thanks to my husband, I am now debt free only 5 years later. Those threads there look suspicious to me. I think they are being scamed or something.
No, that's really how it is in the U.S.... I mean, it IS a scam, it's total b******t—BUT it's an official and totally legit "scam".
Load More Replies... I have just around $100K in debt from bachelor's and a year of grad school. This was from 2002-2007. My dad went to college in the 50s. When his parents would give him $100, he'd go pay tuition and buy books, and bring them back change. And no, in case you're wondering, inflation does NOT account for that. ALSO, when I took out these loans I assumed I'd always have a good job. I didn't anticipate crash in 2008 and being unemployed. Forbearance is no problem but interest continues to accrue.
How come nobody has sued or something, this is EVIL and CRIMINAL!! My mind is blown reading all these tweets! I would literally fake my death to not pay. These companies are making free money.
Never mind the interest rate in USA was so high to students, just Googled it and I've a little stroke... It's unfair just link here in Brazil.
Yep.. left grad school with 88k, have paid on it consistently for 6 years, and owe 94k.
I went to school part time and worked three part-time jobs, and graduated with a debt of $151 and that was so I could get credit. In grad school I worked full time- again no debt. I saw the high interest rates so I said no thanks.
This is ridiculous. I guess I got lucky. I started university in 1999 and got a private student loan from a bank. Once done, my loan was roughly $37k - I worked full time and paid as much as I could throughout 4 years. I was lucky to have my husband (bf back then) paying for our living expenses. He has 3 degrees and his employer paid for all 3. The bank gave me 3 months to find a job before repaying. I already had a job so I started paying right away. I paid extra and 7 years later, all paid off. Is private loan a possibility? How are these people going to pay off these huge loans? It's just sickening to even think about owing more and more even though you're paying every month.
My wife is smarter and more organized than I am. When each of our children were born, she started 529 plans for them and enrolled them in the state guaranteed tuition program. I was no always easy to make ends meet, but we always made the payments. Now that they are at university, the money is there, and no loans need to be taken out. My oldest is now paying for his advanced degree with a military scholarship. Even so, when I helped each kid in the initial enrollment process, the schools tried to get us to sign for loans which they called "student aid". The line they used was "You have qualified for $$$ student aid, you just need to sign here". The lenders are sleazy, we all know that. But someone at the schools must be in on it in a big way.
These loans look a lot like the ones from shady loan sharks, when interests are sky high and when you cannot afford to pay them, they are sold to distrainor for disgustingly high fees on top of that so from 10.000 CZK loan you end up paying 150.000 CZK. Saddest fact is, student loans are specifically for betterment of whole country, for educated population, for gaining smart, chosen field oriented experts, not for useless materialistic things you don't need.
Asking as non American... were the student loans provided by loan sharks!?!? That's the only reason I could think of that people still owing so much AFTER paying so much!!
I went to Uni in Australia, government gave me an interest free loan for education. A Bachelor degree in art was about 12,000AUD. They also gave me 200dollars a week for expenses that i never have to pay back. I would never have chosen an art degree if I lived in the US
To put it in the simplest and shortest of descriptions: this is STEALING and this is CORRUPT.
That's the American government for you..it really is a shame.
Load More Replies... This is why people say NOT to pay your Student Loan from your own money in the UK, it's better to pay for it via your wages via tax instead. Student Loans are completely dispicable in the US - I don't know why anyone would want to go to university.
Because you're 17/18 years old and have heard all your like that college is what you do after high school. Because $100K to a teenager is the same as $1M is the same as $10K.
Load More Replies... When I had student loan here in Norway I owed almost 6000$ and I payed that of in a few years with the choice of adding more into the payback and I got money back when it was all done. The American system seems like a wreck.
Wouldn't if be cheaper to just get a loan from a bank instead of finance through the school? It really does sound like a scam because they're charging interest on interest which is illegal in most countries. If I were in that boat, I'd just do a Trump and declare bankruptcy to get out of the debt and start over. #AmericaIsWeird.
I'm pretty sure that in America student loans aren't cleared by declaring bankruptcy
Load More Replies... This is criminal. Y'all need to reform. School loans should be maxed out at 1% interest.
There is alot here in America that needs to be fixed. We need free healthcare, cheaper college and cheaper daycare. One kid in an average daycare was $80+ a week.
Load More Replies... Student loan :Capitalism's way to get you hooked and work, and work and still owe money. My advice: learn a foreign language and study abroad where most universities are free: Spain, France, Mexico etc.
I became sick my junior year in college, dropped out my senior year. Was in a hospital bed when all my friends walked. I was disabled, yet later finished college but interest piled. Went to graduate school so could ensure I had a job I could physically do... nursing was out. I work PSLF, but hopeless after years and finding my applications was mismanaged by the government. I owe 110K due to a decade of disability, I make a barely livable wage because public service employees make a minimum wage for their work despite advanced degrees. I have reoccuring bills, pay for medicare to prevent high costs. I worked 50 hours a week before the pandemic but work 60 hours during. I carry others, help those in the greatest need. I would make more money at Starbucks, suffer less mentally and emotionally yet rapped by my debt. Getting ill college should not destroy anyone's life more than necessary. Why is there nothing to help, paying 4x's over.
These stories are all upsetting. Does the USA really want a future where (because people will not be able to afford a better education) there will be a tiny minority of rich snots who are educated (and won't use their enlightened status, except to control the masses)? Of course, it means there will be a huge pool of folk to service the industries, and the military, where people who don't have any choice but to work there because.........oh, now I understand these policies. Shame on the privileged who rule this system and get rich off people who are trying so hard to succeed.
I took $96,000 for my business degree....been making $1,000 payments EVERY month for 10 years...that's $120,000 in payments....my debt is down to $79,900
Folks have struggled to repay borrowed money for millennia. There's nothing new about folks with degrees struggling as well.
NEVER do an income based repayment, deferment, or only pay minimum payments because yes, this will happen. We were in $130k of student loan debt in 2017 and within 2 years paid it ALL off. How? LOTS of hustle, side jobs, selling everything except our 4 kids. For 8 years we were paying on that debt and the balance barely went down. When we realized that, we were like screw this, and then worked hard to pay it off. Now we are DEBT FREE and it feels so good!! Dave Ramsey helped us and can help you, too!
Americans get proactive and pay off debt all the time. Thanks for your post.
Load More Replies... What happens if you just dont pay it back? I will not encourage my children to to go collage. Most everyone I know, that has a degree and thousands in debt, do not use their degree because there are no jobs in their field. I think its a waste of time.
I agree, if something isn't worth it, don't spend money on it.
Load More Replies... Hey India Frost. Please accept my apologies, as I just made a dum comment on the unfortunate situation in U.S. What I actually meant was that it's B******t, that private cooperations takes over your educational system just as they took over your healthcare system, making it extremely expensive and leaving the bill to the citizens. I hope you will accept my apology.
Got my masters degree in Germany. The fee back than was 25 German Marks per semester/half year (about $ 10). Those who didn't live close to their university already did have to pay for an apartment though (there is no housing on campus here). The few student apartments are very hard to get. Those on the free market can be very expensive. And there was an organization called ZVS (central office for the allocation of places at university) and those guys were complete idiots: It seemed that they intentionally placed people as far away from home as possible so that you couldn't live without your parents and save money on rent.
Medical system...f****d.....student loans...f****d. Why anyone lives in the USA is beyond me!!!
Can there be a class action suit filed against the student loan industry? If so, let me know..I'd like to apply. To those that say they've made steady payments over 20 years, never missed a payment, check into student loan forgiveness. After you've paid for that long of time, you can qualify.
No. Student loan forgiveness is only offered with certain repayment plans like IDR.
Load More Replies... First: It does not make any sense. Second: Is the education in USA really 100 times better than Europe, if the taxes are 100 times (not %) higher?
we can't...Americans are totally put off by any sort of socialism and do not see value to an educated and healthy workforce...basically, we like to cut off our nose to spite our face
Load More Replies... Like any country there are flaws which hopefully one day we unify and figure out. I live in a beautiful beach town that's sunny all the time where I surf everyday so it can't be total s**t...:)
Load More Replies... Muricans with their health system and with this student loan scam no wonder the economy of the new generations is doomed
Another major expense at universities are the textbooks. And the greedy professors who publish new editions every year, thus pressuring students to buy NEW instead of USED textbooks. For example, Elizabeth Warren has a textbook, 9th edition, goes for $249.00 on Amazon. Just another hypocrite democrat.
Oh yeah! This makes me so angry as well. The books are beyond pricey and you can't resell. Education is becoming such a scam. We talk about all these phony people calling you from Nigeria, but this is worse. Its all legal.
Load More Replies... This makes me again much more grateful for being able to study university for free (until the age of 26, then I'll pay about 1200 USD per semester and it's only my fault I didn't manage to finish by that time). And it makes me wanna go back to my paper that I need to write from which I went here to procrastinate a bit. So sorry for the US guys. :(
The U.S. student loan system seems to be pure evil. How do they calculate their interest rates? Is the student loan program basically loan sharks? Even when paying what is asked of them, the balance barely moves an inch. That's like a 30 year mortgage where you pay only the minimum. Then yeah, it'll take 30 years! Except they don't tell you the actual loan duration.
Are you guys just paying the minimum or something? I don't know how this is possible.
Kind of hard to pay more than the minimum when the minimum on my loans equal about $1,000 a month It's more than my mortgage
Load More Replies... Everything about university is wrong in terms of people wanting to ever pay back their loans. Can't get a job that pays well without a degree, can't afford to live with the debt of getting that degree. Is everyone supposed to just start their own business?
Slavery is involuntary. Borrowing money to buy stuff like cars, houses, and a college degree isn't.
Load More Replies... The economic illiteracy on this thread is stunning. Hasn't anyone ever heard of capitalized interest? It's part of our daily life and these people seem absolutely clueless about it. Spend $1000 on a 25% APR credit card and only pay the minimum payment of $25/month. Will you pay off the debt in 40 payments? Of course not, Try double that - and you can blame capitalized interest instead of Capitalism. Think that's unfair? A century ago average people didn't have access to cheap credit. They saved and bought things because they had no choice. Banks were for the wealthy. Everyone else did without.
A better route may be to stop asking for free higher education ( which I would like to see but doubt it will occur) and to start demanding that our public K-12 school systems start teaching kids valuable things such as personal finances and how interest rates really work. Free college for all is great but I just do not see that coming to fruition anytime in the near future simply because it makes too much money for anyone to want to stop milking it. Instead promote education on things that really matter in adult life like finances, interest rates, credit card debt etc. Offhand I am curious how many if any finance majors find themselves in this same situation, if you do you should consider seeking a refund on that degree.
So how much did your tuition cost per year?
Load More Replies... But we have enough evidence to know that you are indeed that whiney a*****e you speak of.
Load More Replies... You clearly don't know what you're talking about. Did you not read about the doctors and lawyers?!
Load More Replies...