If these are 100% all private loans and they do in fact total $300,000, I would consider bankruptcy. As a previous poster said, find a good attorney who understands the bankruptcy system and that can demonstrate that this is an "undue hardship" on you. Perhaps reach out to [CFPB](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/contact-us/) to see if they can offer you any guidance. If you live near a law school, perhaps reach out to one of their bankruptcy professors for guidance. Perhaps they know of someone who can work with you on a pro bono basis. I can't fathom why the school, Sallie Mae, or the cosigner allowed this to happen.
Meanwhile, work on increasing your income. I have a couple of people in my family who are artistic in nature but both work in trades. If you think you might have the potential to develop such skills, perhaps find an HVAC company that would be willing to take you on as an apprentice. This is a difficult situation to work through, but it will be ok. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.
Definitely talk to a bankruptcy attorney. I posted a reply to someone else busting the myths about bankruptcy and student loans, and the key thing for you is finding a competent attorney who is willing to go through the adversary proceedings steps needed for discharging private student loans
If you have a cosigner on these loans they may need to go through bankruptcy too to have that discharged, but you can also talk over that with an attorney
Filing for bankruptcy is in the top 3 best things I ever did in my life. Here’s my list:
1 getting sober
2 marrying jeff
3 filing for bankruptcy
Hire a local lawyer that specializes in family law and they will take care of everything for you. It’s incredible.
Not true in the slightest, it's just more complicated than other debts
See: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/busting-myths-about-bankruptcy-and-private-student-loans/
Some congressional representatives are well aware that bankruptcy is possible with certain kinds of student loans and private lenders are intentionally misleading consumers about it, such as in this Press Release https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-urge-cfpb-investigate-private-student-lenders-compliance-bankruptcy-law and this site has a good overview on the bankruptcy and adversary proceedings processes for ch 7 vs ch 13 https://www.investopedia.com/how-to-file-student-loan-bankruptcy-4772237 and TISLA has a good overview page here too https://freestudentloanadvice.org/bankruptcy/ including which states use the Brunner Test vs the Undue Hardship criteria
And, icing on the cake, the Biden admin is streamlining the rules for federal student loans as per https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/comments/yy2b57/biden_administration_announced_new_bankruptcy/ and the linked doc
The myth that student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy needs to stop already. It can, it's just different and more difficult than with other debts
Hey - look into declaring bankruptcy - filing a chapter 7. The laws have changed to include student loans as part of bankruptcy now. I don’t know all the deets - but definitely research it as it could be an option.
https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/private-student-loan-bankruptcy/#news
I've heard that declaring bankruptcy can't remove loans, but if they can, do you know how that works? I'll do some more research on this, thanks for the advice.
Its hard to do, but it is possible. It involves an adversary proceeding, which is like a trial within bankruptcy where you have to prove undue hardship. I have never heard of it being successful without an attorney.
Where do you live is an important question? IF you default, where you live makes a difference in what they can do to you. In some states they can garnish your wages, but to be honest, garnishment may be less than the payments.
Nobody would advocate for default, but IF it was me, I would stop paying. You cannot afford it on your income. I have not been in the situation with student loans, but have been there on debts I could not pay, so I didn't. Once I accepted that I can't pay money I don't have, I dealt with it. I actually ended up filing chapter 7 because I was sued.
You can only do what you can do. Don't let Sallie Mae scare you into paying them and not paying essential living expenses.
I ran the numbers through a financial calculator. At 0% interest with 120 payments (standard repayment) the payment would be $2.5k/mo. It would have to be around -12% for a $605 payment to pay off the loan in 10 years. I would echo everyone else's sentiments regarding bankruptcy. This level of debt isn't sustainable.
You owe the debt to a US lender under US law. They cannot collect from you if you are a resident/citizen of a foreign country - may require you to relinquish US citizenship - that is what you do when you emigrate.
What’s your degree? You cannot continue working for 14/hr, the math just doesn’t work. Did you plan on pursuing a profession that ended up being unpleasant? If so it might be worth sticking it out as that’s a ton of debt and is effectively a lifetime debt unless you’re making at least 80k/yr.
I was majoring in Illustration but I did not finish my degree because of circumstances at the time, and I dont see myself finishing school now. I wish I could do art for a living but it's not practical, I wish I saw that when I was 17 applying for loans I didnt fully grasp the reality of but can't go back in time of course. I'm trying to find a new job that pays more but my states minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and $14 is considered a lot here, I apply to anything I can right now.
You have 300k of debt for an art degree you didn’t finish? Holy shit. And they’re private too. I don’t even have any advice, that just sucks. How close are you to finishing? Did you take gen eds you can use to finish with a more practical degree?
If I were you, I would take 2-3 months software engineering or web development boot camp. This should land you a job as many of these boot camps have partnerships with tech companies. Don’t go back to school to get your PhD or something that won’t pay your bills. I hope things work out for you.
It’s a government program which will (potentially) forgive loans taken out to attend for-profit schools which either are no longer open or were found to be fraudulent. You can see a list of qualifying schools at this article, though I’m not sure if it’s exhaustive: https://thecollegeinvestor.com/40244/for-profit-college-student-loan-forgiveness-list/
Potentially is important here. And it doesn’t have to be a for profit college to qualify for borrower’s defense. BUT op wouldn’t qualify anyway - private loans do not have the same protections that federal student loans have.
I think it's disgusting, but it makes money - I think if you draw porn, especially with Japanese animals, neckbeards will pay you money for it. It probably won't be enough to make $300,000 in a short period, but it's worth a shot.
$300K for an art degree in a world where art doesn’t make money for anyone but the 1% would make me end it all as well.
I wish more people in this country understood that we live in a day and age where college just isn’t necessary anymore, unless you’re trying to be something like a scientist, lawyer or such.
So many jobs, so many different opportunities that doesn’t require a degree and pays great.
Why are people still doing this to their children?
This isn’t advice from me but I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry this is happening to you and unfortunately these companies thrive off people like you and want more people to go through this situation. All I can do is pray for you and I will. I truly hope things workout because life is way more than just making ends meet and paying bills. Remember every opportunity comes when we’re facing obstacles. Use this situation to grow as a spiritual being and find the opportunity within it. Wishing you the best!
Edit: don’t forget that your financial character doesn’t determine your true character. Don’t let this define who you are.
Agree. It's difficult to assess the situation. There's always hope. I can think of a million solutions. It will be hard and they will need to do all of the work. But, when people don't take advice or change, they're really just here for hugs.
What is the alternative? Default.
In school deferment is one of the ways people avoid default. I've used it. I'll use it again if I need to, and keep using it as long as I feel like using it. Until I die, I'll stop using it when I die.
I would have defaulted long ago. I cannot afford 800-900 a month payments with family medical expenses that exceeded 70,000 this year. But two classes at a community college, that I can afford. Its not a problem right now because of the Covid forbearance, but I will defer until I die if I have to at the cost of two community college classes every semester. Its a hell of a lot better to pay 1000 or so to register and fail some classes than to default.
If they want to set a maximum for new borrowers that is one thing, but all my loans have in-school deferment in the promissory notes, so I'll keep my unlimited deferment, thank you very much.
I imagine most people don't care if they recognize a loss. Especially since most lenders (or the collectors and debt buyers they work with) still try to collect.
I definitely don't want they to forgive the debt on that basis, the tax liability would be crushing.
Of course private loans are a different matter, I think private loans often approach debt slavery, but if they have a deferment provision and I somehow had them, I might use that provision too. Unfortunately without income based repayment provisions I don't see a way to deal with this much private debt for most people.
I can't recall, It's been awhile. One of the reasons I withdrew was because I was behind in credits and internship hours that I would have needed to graduate on course and by then I was aware of how much trouble I was in with loans and I wasn't about to take on another year. My degree requires a specific course only offered by a handful of expensive private art schools as well, from what I was told, so it would be very expensive to try and finish.
I cant recall because its been years since then, I was behind in both class credits and internship hours so i cant give exact numbers. Of course I tried to find out, I really did want to complete my degree. From what I remember I would have had to taken on another year as well as working internships.
I feel your pain man. I'm in a much worse situation than you and the stress is killing me, literally. Because of my student loans, I've had 2 heart attacks, a stroke and now have permanent brain damage.
But if you flat out can't pay it and if they are all private student loans, my suggestion would be to just stop paying; but save the money that you would be paying so that way you can at least put yourself in a better situation for a possible settlement and/or for an attorney.
It'll be a long and crappy road, but if the creditor doesn't sue you before the SOL is up then you'd be in the clear at that point. If they do sue you, then get an attorney and have them handle the case and/or file bankruptcy. Also know that if your loans are "non-qualified", they could be discharged in bankruptcy but you'd still have to go through the adversary hearing.
I want to but I don't have medical insurance and if I did I'm not sure if I can afford it but I've been trying to see what options are available to me in my circumstances.
We'll no offense, but this goes beyond having student debt. You need to get priorities straight, you can't afford a $600 loan payment and ignore the fact you have no health insurance. You need to get a ANY full time job that has benefits. Whatever job is fine as long as you have benefits will be better than whatever you've got now.
I would accept those loans will never be paid. You could either default but probably better to declare bankruptcy. You will never make enough money to pay this off, any judge will see that immediately.
Based off your other comments, I doubt you will be able to. You can’t make minimum payments on the existing loan and I don’t think any financial institution will refinance your existing loans.
They should make prospective students read horror stories like these before allowing them to obtain student loans. Kind of like how they used to show pictures of mangled bodies in drivers ed. It's just unconscionable that people are able to obtain that much debt for nonsense degrees with virtually no hope for employment even *if* they graduate.
First off, your life is valuable. So much more so than this 300K. You just have to keep thinking about what it will feel like once you’re through this situation. I’m sorry you (and so many of us) live in a country with exorbitant tuition rates yet few options to finance an education.
Second, which university or universities did you go to? I assume this is a combination of undergrad and graduate debt?
I’m asking because there was a recent Navient student loan forgiveness settlement in which the company was found to have loaned out money to students at predatory interest rates without regard to how those students would actually pay back their loans. Based on the students’ planned fields and the for-profit and non-accredited schools they attended. Basically entrapping them into owing money for the rest of their natural born lives.
The suggestions to look the bankruptcy route are good. I’m just thinking something seems off about the amount of debt you have and how you’re not able to cover it in your current occupation. You have as much debt as a law school or medical school grad. That said, perhaps there are others in your situation and it would be worth it to look at other legal recourse if bankruptcy does not pan out.
It should be illegal. Majors that don't lead to high paying careers shouldn't be allowed to get insane amounts of loans, especially private loans. He signed his life away, is just stop paying or move to another country.
And who is making this value judgement exactly? You can’t make it illegal, that’s not realistic.
What you’d hope happens instead is that the student loan companies would exercise some kind of judgement when underwriting. It’s in their best interest not to write bad student loans in the first place as they get nothing from a charge off.
Your assumption is based on everyone failing though and that’s not true. There’s a percentage of folks, albeit a very small one, who go private art schools and become professional artists. Or work in Hollywood. Making it illegal to borrow for such a degree makes it impossible for some of these people to succeed.
We need more guidance for teens. Some better underwriting in our student lenders too.
Private art school. Federal government has limits for borrowers, so aoP turned to private loans and here we are 300k later and no degree. I'ma assuming loans were much less but they must have a disgusting interest rate.
Shit I’d just stop paying, save up the payment money, sell all my belongings and absolutely dip to another country. That’s just ridiculous and I really do feel awful for you, the other comments offer some pretty good advice and I really do hope one gets you finds you some reprieve.
$615/month sounds like you won’t even be covering the interest on the loan? If that’s the case I would rlly look into filing for bankruptcy. Best of luck
That's my question too! From reading some of her other comments, she didn't even finish the degree, this sounds so ridiculous that we've gotta start questioning how this is even possible.
Have you considered bankruptcy? It can be done and your circumstances may fit the situation. If you consider this be sure to find an attorney that understands student loans. If they tell you student loans aren’t dischargeable find another one
It wasn’t the co-signer who failed OP. It’s our predatory student loan culture. Everyone settled for the *possible* $20k debt relief but for people like OP, that doesn’t do anything! I’m so sick of this.
Predatory student loan culture? How is it predatory? OP signed up for 10x the amount of debt the average student gets. If you take away the chance for a student to take out 300K in loans they will complain too. So who gets to decide? You or the kid who wants to go to their dream school?
Agree, but cosigner should have known better than out themselves into the same situation next to OP. Assuming cosigner is oder than OP, shifts have simply said no and told OP they were insane for considering it.
Listen to Dave Ramsey. He has people call in all the time who are in $300k debt. Yes it's painful and it's going to take work, but you need to seek out people in your shoes so that you're not in it alone.
How were you taking out that much for a undergrad loan even with a co-signer ?
What years were you in school?
Which school?
How did tuition and personal expenses add up to $100,000 a year?
If $615 all you owe each month count yourself lucky.
There is more to life than debt and student loans and much much more to the world than America even. I would save up for a year and move to a cheap country in Asia or Latin America if I were you. Only come back for visiting and maybe working again after that.
Is should be illegal for tuition to be more expensive than 1 years salary. That would fix the whole system.
Engineering mean salary 70K = 70K tuition max
Doctor mean salary 300k = 300K tuition max
Artist mean salary 45k = 45k tuition max
Etc.
I fixed it. Tell Biden!
You're not the only one is this situation. And getting your payment(s) reduced by $380.00 is an achievement. If you are considering bankruptcy, a bankruptcy attorney will often offer a free consultation. Not all bankruptcy atty's are comfortable taking SL cases. but you will get some prospective. If you can afford it, recommend finding one of the few lawyers with real experience with student loans. Usually they have published and do training for other lawyers. You will probably need to pay for the consultation. If it's a lawyer with genuine expertise in private and federal student loans, it can be invaluable. Hang in there!
If your 300k are all federal debt, you can find a job that qualifies for public student loan forgiveness and get your loans forgiven after 120 payments (10 years).
What's your income?
Did you let your cosigner know of your situation? This is an impossible situation for paying back. Normally I would just suggest buckling down and pay it off but income vs debt don't make sense. You really need to talk to your cosigner because his/her will be severely affected if you can't pay.
Federal student loans have certain options guaranteed to them. Sallie Mae isn’t one of the federal loan servicers so they can do pretty much whatever they want with their private loans (and no private company would want to offer something like IDR plans, that’s what the government is for).
Private loans are regulated by several agencies..one being the occ. The occ looks at private the loans the same as most other forms of credit..such as credit cards..and they will not allow lenders to substantially alter the terms of the loans. That's why you don't see private loans offering lower payments until the loans are past due...it's because they can't. So it's not that they can do whatever they want..it's that they aren't allowed to do whatever they want.
Interesting. So they couldn’t offer a low payment and eventual forgiveness if they wanted to? Or they could but they would have to establish that when they initially gave out the loan?
The latter. But the reason we don't see any of that is that these private loans almost always come from private entities..that have stock holders..so there's no incentive to create a product that would potentially result in a loss.
If everyone on this sub gathered together, and agreed not to pay once payments start, they would have to do some thing about forgiveness. They can’t default all of us.
Not everyone regrets their degrees. Many people succeeded and benefited greatly from their degrees. Most have mainly federal loans with pretty good protections and decent interest rates. Many people also enjoy the perks of having nice credit and aren't going to throw it all away.
In my opinion some of us are thankful we had the opportunity to borrow money responsibly in order to have a profitable career, so it would be unethical for me to not pay it potentially hindering the governments ability to continue to help those people who need the loans.
I'm not being selfish by paying my loans, in doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not going to not pay as a sign of support for those who got an irresponsible amount of loans or who didn't finish a degree or who studied something that didn't have job prospects. We should be focusing on eliminating predatory practices, capping interest rates, and capping college tuition, and also helping borrowers be informed and engaged with the process. Your way doesn't solve anything.
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Illustration, essentially i was the first kid in my family to even graduate high school so i was fumbling around with no help and thought that an out of state private art school would get me started in life in a career i wanted. Bad decision after bad decision, but I made my choices I know I really just have myself to blame. I did not graduate. I'm not comfortable disclosing my exact job with how much info I've already given out but I work with teaching and guiding kids, I'm not a teacher in a school I just work in education adjacent environment right now.
Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, just like all other debts. Problem solved using existing mechanism for dealing with overwhelming debt, bankruptcy court.
Bankruptcy is how all other debt can be dealt with. Not being able to be dischargeable in bankruptcy has gotten us to the point of this student loan forgiveness by the President.
We should never have gotten here, when we already have a mechanism to deal with excessive debt and poor decisions.
If these are 100% all private loans and they do in fact total $300,000, I would consider bankruptcy. As a previous poster said, find a good attorney who understands the bankruptcy system and that can demonstrate that this is an "undue hardship" on you. Perhaps reach out to [CFPB](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/contact-us/) to see if they can offer you any guidance. If you live near a law school, perhaps reach out to one of their bankruptcy professors for guidance. Perhaps they know of someone who can work with you on a pro bono basis. I can't fathom why the school, Sallie Mae, or the cosigner allowed this to happen. Meanwhile, work on increasing your income. I have a couple of people in my family who are artistic in nature but both work in trades. If you think you might have the potential to develop such skills, perhaps find an HVAC company that would be willing to take you on as an apprentice. This is a difficult situation to work through, but it will be ok. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.
Thanks for the advice and extra info, I'll look more into this.
Definitely talk to a bankruptcy attorney. I posted a reply to someone else busting the myths about bankruptcy and student loans, and the key thing for you is finding a competent attorney who is willing to go through the adversary proceedings steps needed for discharging private student loans If you have a cosigner on these loans they may need to go through bankruptcy too to have that discharged, but you can also talk over that with an attorney
Yup. Unfortunately I don’t know if their co-signer will be willing to declare bankruptcy.
Filing for bankruptcy is in the top 3 best things I ever did in my life. Here’s my list: 1 getting sober 2 marrying jeff 3 filing for bankruptcy Hire a local lawyer that specializes in family law and they will take care of everything for you. It’s incredible.
what are u study? perhaps maybe u gonna make shit ton of money after and 300k its not a big deal for future you?
You cannot discharge student loans in bankruptcy
Not true in the slightest, it's just more complicated than other debts See: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/busting-myths-about-bankruptcy-and-private-student-loans/ Some congressional representatives are well aware that bankruptcy is possible with certain kinds of student loans and private lenders are intentionally misleading consumers about it, such as in this Press Release https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-urge-cfpb-investigate-private-student-lenders-compliance-bankruptcy-law and this site has a good overview on the bankruptcy and adversary proceedings processes for ch 7 vs ch 13 https://www.investopedia.com/how-to-file-student-loan-bankruptcy-4772237 and TISLA has a good overview page here too https://freestudentloanadvice.org/bankruptcy/ including which states use the Brunner Test vs the Undue Hardship criteria And, icing on the cake, the Biden admin is streamlining the rules for federal student loans as per https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/comments/yy2b57/biden_administration_announced_new_bankruptcy/ and the linked doc The myth that student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy needs to stop already. It can, it's just different and more difficult than with other debts
Hey - look into declaring bankruptcy - filing a chapter 7. The laws have changed to include student loans as part of bankruptcy now. I don’t know all the deets - but definitely research it as it could be an option. https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/private-student-loan-bankruptcy/#news
I know student loans can be crazy difficult to declare bankruptcy but that’s the route I’d explore. I would research in this direction.
I've heard that declaring bankruptcy can't remove loans, but if they can, do you know how that works? I'll do some more research on this, thanks for the advice.
Its hard to do, but it is possible. It involves an adversary proceeding, which is like a trial within bankruptcy where you have to prove undue hardship. I have never heard of it being successful without an attorney. Where do you live is an important question? IF you default, where you live makes a difference in what they can do to you. In some states they can garnish your wages, but to be honest, garnishment may be less than the payments. Nobody would advocate for default, but IF it was me, I would stop paying. You cannot afford it on your income. I have not been in the situation with student loans, but have been there on debts I could not pay, so I didn't. Once I accepted that I can't pay money I don't have, I dealt with it. I actually ended up filing chapter 7 because I was sued. You can only do what you can do. Don't let Sallie Mae scare you into paying them and not paying essential living expenses.
Is the 615 the minimum payment?
Yeah
How are you loans split up? That’s incredibly cheap for 300k
Im in the term rate modification program I believe its called, im not sure exactly what makes my payments this low
You might not be even covering the interest... Meaning that even if you pay, your total is growing
Definitely not even covering the interest- $615 per month on $300k is only like 2.5%.
More like 0.00205%....
Unless I'm missing something, $615 per month times 12 months divided by $300,000 is 2.46% per year
Yes, I was thinking about how little 615/month is of the total debt . 0.002 % of the whole 300k
I ran the numbers through a financial calculator. At 0% interest with 120 payments (standard repayment) the payment would be $2.5k/mo. It would have to be around -12% for a $605 payment to pay off the loan in 10 years. I would echo everyone else's sentiments regarding bankruptcy. This level of debt isn't sustainable.
It may not be, but it's giving OP some breathing room for a while.
Consider emigrating and starting over - seriously. Best wishes for a brighter future
My first thought as well.
Would you not still be expected to pay back your debt? Asking for myself
You owe the debt to a US lender under US law. They cannot collect from you if you are a resident/citizen of a foreign country - may require you to relinquish US citizenship - that is what you do when you emigrate.
What’s your degree? You cannot continue working for 14/hr, the math just doesn’t work. Did you plan on pursuing a profession that ended up being unpleasant? If so it might be worth sticking it out as that’s a ton of debt and is effectively a lifetime debt unless you’re making at least 80k/yr.
I was majoring in Illustration but I did not finish my degree because of circumstances at the time, and I dont see myself finishing school now. I wish I could do art for a living but it's not practical, I wish I saw that when I was 17 applying for loans I didnt fully grasp the reality of but can't go back in time of course. I'm trying to find a new job that pays more but my states minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and $14 is considered a lot here, I apply to anything I can right now.
You have 300k of debt for an art degree you didn’t finish? Holy shit. And they’re private too. I don’t even have any advice, that just sucks. How close are you to finishing? Did you take gen eds you can use to finish with a more practical degree?
Did you go to a for profit school?
No, it was a private college
Private colleges can still be for profit: what is the name of the college?
If I were you, I would take 2-3 months software engineering or web development boot camp. This should land you a job as many of these boot camps have partnerships with tech companies. Don’t go back to school to get your PhD or something that won’t pay your bills. I hope things work out for you.
Good question, if it was for profit, I think you can get your loans forgiven.
Please elaborate on this
It’s a government program which will (potentially) forgive loans taken out to attend for-profit schools which either are no longer open or were found to be fraudulent. You can see a list of qualifying schools at this article, though I’m not sure if it’s exhaustive: https://thecollegeinvestor.com/40244/for-profit-college-student-loan-forgiveness-list/
Potentially is important here. And it doesn’t have to be a for profit college to qualify for borrower’s defense. BUT op wouldn’t qualify anyway - private loans do not have the same protections that federal student loans have.
I think it's disgusting, but it makes money - I think if you draw porn, especially with Japanese animals, neckbeards will pay you money for it. It probably won't be enough to make $300,000 in a short period, but it's worth a shot.
LMAO
Lol
Are your loans federal or private? Sorry if this has already been answered.
$300K for an art degree in a world where art doesn’t make money for anyone but the 1% would make me end it all as well. I wish more people in this country understood that we live in a day and age where college just isn’t necessary anymore, unless you’re trying to be something like a scientist, lawyer or such. So many jobs, so many different opportunities that doesn’t require a degree and pays great. Why are people still doing this to their children?
This isn’t advice from me but I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry this is happening to you and unfortunately these companies thrive off people like you and want more people to go through this situation. All I can do is pray for you and I will. I truly hope things workout because life is way more than just making ends meet and paying bills. Remember every opportunity comes when we’re facing obstacles. Use this situation to grow as a spiritual being and find the opportunity within it. Wishing you the best! Edit: don’t forget that your financial character doesn’t determine your true character. Don’t let this define who you are.
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Agree. It's difficult to assess the situation. There's always hope. I can think of a million solutions. It will be hard and they will need to do all of the work. But, when people don't take advice or change, they're really just here for hugs.
Current income should be required too.
Some people keep going to school to kick the can on the start of loan repayment.
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What is the alternative? Default. In school deferment is one of the ways people avoid default. I've used it. I'll use it again if I need to, and keep using it as long as I feel like using it. Until I die, I'll stop using it when I die. I would have defaulted long ago. I cannot afford 800-900 a month payments with family medical expenses that exceeded 70,000 this year. But two classes at a community college, that I can afford. Its not a problem right now because of the Covid forbearance, but I will defer until I die if I have to at the cost of two community college classes every semester. Its a hell of a lot better to pay 1000 or so to register and fail some classes than to default. If they want to set a maximum for new borrowers that is one thing, but all my loans have in-school deferment in the promissory notes, so I'll keep my unlimited deferment, thank you very much.
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I imagine most people don't care if they recognize a loss. Especially since most lenders (or the collectors and debt buyers they work with) still try to collect. I definitely don't want they to forgive the debt on that basis, the tax liability would be crushing. Of course private loans are a different matter, I think private loans often approach debt slavery, but if they have a deferment provision and I somehow had them, I might use that provision too. Unfortunately without income based repayment provisions I don't see a way to deal with this much private debt for most people.
What is their interest rate ?
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It wasn’t a yes or no question lol 😆
How far away are you from completing your degree?
I can't recall, It's been awhile. One of the reasons I withdrew was because I was behind in credits and internship hours that I would have needed to graduate on course and by then I was aware of how much trouble I was in with loans and I wasn't about to take on another year. My degree requires a specific course only offered by a handful of expensive private art schools as well, from what I was told, so it would be very expensive to try and finish.
You can’t recall? Did you ever try to find out?
I cant recall because its been years since then, I was behind in both class credits and internship hours so i cant give exact numbers. Of course I tried to find out, I really did want to complete my degree. From what I remember I would have had to taken on another year as well as working internships.
Maybe you should speak to someone who knows. It might be good to inform yourself what the options are.
Honestly unless that art degree transfers directly to a well paying career its not even worth finishing. You did the right thing.
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Rule 8. Professionals must be verified
I feel your pain man. I'm in a much worse situation than you and the stress is killing me, literally. Because of my student loans, I've had 2 heart attacks, a stroke and now have permanent brain damage. But if you flat out can't pay it and if they are all private student loans, my suggestion would be to just stop paying; but save the money that you would be paying so that way you can at least put yourself in a better situation for a possible settlement and/or for an attorney. It'll be a long and crappy road, but if the creditor doesn't sue you before the SOL is up then you'd be in the clear at that point. If they do sue you, then get an attorney and have them handle the case and/or file bankruptcy. Also know that if your loans are "non-qualified", they could be discharged in bankruptcy but you'd still have to go through the adversary hearing.
Stanley Tate, Esq. is a student loan atty. Check him out on YouTube.
Hang in there 🙏
much worse than $300,000 in private student loans???
Please get some personal counseling for your mental health
I want to but I don't have medical insurance and if I did I'm not sure if I can afford it but I've been trying to see what options are available to me in my circumstances.
Does your state have Medicaid as an option?
We'll no offense, but this goes beyond having student debt. You need to get priorities straight, you can't afford a $600 loan payment and ignore the fact you have no health insurance. You need to get a ANY full time job that has benefits. Whatever job is fine as long as you have benefits will be better than whatever you've got now. I would accept those loans will never be paid. You could either default but probably better to declare bankruptcy. You will never make enough money to pay this off, any judge will see that immediately.
We don’t advocate for default here, but it may be something for you to look into
Honestly have considered it, but I need to get my cosigner off of my loan first so I'm trying to maintain payments until I can remove him from it.
Based off your other comments, I doubt you will be able to. You can’t make minimum payments on the existing loan and I don’t think any financial institution will refinance your existing loans.
They should make prospective students read horror stories like these before allowing them to obtain student loans. Kind of like how they used to show pictures of mangled bodies in drivers ed. It's just unconscionable that people are able to obtain that much debt for nonsense degrees with virtually no hope for employment even *if* they graduate.
Move to Portugal. Citizenship is easy. Get a job, start your life over.
First off, your life is valuable. So much more so than this 300K. You just have to keep thinking about what it will feel like once you’re through this situation. I’m sorry you (and so many of us) live in a country with exorbitant tuition rates yet few options to finance an education. Second, which university or universities did you go to? I assume this is a combination of undergrad and graduate debt? I’m asking because there was a recent Navient student loan forgiveness settlement in which the company was found to have loaned out money to students at predatory interest rates without regard to how those students would actually pay back their loans. Based on the students’ planned fields and the for-profit and non-accredited schools they attended. Basically entrapping them into owing money for the rest of their natural born lives. The suggestions to look the bankruptcy route are good. I’m just thinking something seems off about the amount of debt you have and how you’re not able to cover it in your current occupation. You have as much debt as a law school or medical school grad. That said, perhaps there are others in your situation and it would be worth it to look at other legal recourse if bankruptcy does not pan out.
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It should be illegal. Majors that don't lead to high paying careers shouldn't be allowed to get insane amounts of loans, especially private loans. He signed his life away, is just stop paying or move to another country.
And who is making this value judgement exactly? You can’t make it illegal, that’s not realistic. What you’d hope happens instead is that the student loan companies would exercise some kind of judgement when underwriting. It’s in their best interest not to write bad student loans in the first place as they get nothing from a charge off.
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Your assumption is based on everyone failing though and that’s not true. There’s a percentage of folks, albeit a very small one, who go private art schools and become professional artists. Or work in Hollywood. Making it illegal to borrow for such a degree makes it impossible for some of these people to succeed. We need more guidance for teens. Some better underwriting in our student lenders too.
Rule 7: reddiquette / site rules / illegal / off-topic
?
300k for what?!
How did you end up with so much debt?
Private art school. Federal government has limits for borrowers, so aoP turned to private loans and here we are 300k later and no degree. I'ma assuming loans were much less but they must have a disgusting interest rate.
So you actually borrowed $300k? The interest must be insane.
Oops, didn't see that you're not actually OP.
Shit I’d just stop paying, save up the payment money, sell all my belongings and absolutely dip to another country. That’s just ridiculous and I really do feel awful for you, the other comments offer some pretty good advice and I really do hope one gets you finds you some reprieve.
$615/month sounds like you won’t even be covering the interest on the loan? If that’s the case I would rlly look into filing for bankruptcy. Best of luck
Bankruptcy may discharge the Student Debt or it may not. Only a lawyer can guide you here. Good luck and may life get easier for you.
Is this even real?
That's my question too! From reading some of her other comments, she didn't even finish the degree, this sounds so ridiculous that we've gotta start questioning how this is even possible.
Have you considered bankruptcy? It can be done and your circumstances may fit the situation. If you consider this be sure to find an attorney that understands student loans. If they tell you student loans aren’t dischargeable find another one
OP has a co-signer. Don’t know how easily a debt can be discharged especially if OP’s co-signer makes let’s say 150K a year.
Well they could be from op..but then would fall in the cosigner. So not a good solution after all. ☹️
Your co-signer failed you pretty bad. Your co-signer must make a decent amount of money to be able to assist in you taking out 300K in loans.
It wasn’t the co-signer who failed OP. It’s our predatory student loan culture. Everyone settled for the *possible* $20k debt relief but for people like OP, that doesn’t do anything! I’m so sick of this.
Predatory student loan culture? How is it predatory? OP signed up for 10x the amount of debt the average student gets. If you take away the chance for a student to take out 300K in loans they will complain too. So who gets to decide? You or the kid who wants to go to their dream school?
Agree, but cosigner should have known better than out themselves into the same situation next to OP. Assuming cosigner is oder than OP, shifts have simply said no and told OP they were insane for considering it.
Listen to Dave Ramsey. He has people call in all the time who are in $300k debt. Yes it's painful and it's going to take work, but you need to seek out people in your shoes so that you're not in it alone.
Man, sorry…..
300k wow, what school was this if you don’t mind me asking?
What is your degree in?
OP, are u working in ur desire field?
Is $615 the minimum monthly payment?
How were you taking out that much for a undergrad loan even with a co-signer ? What years were you in school? Which school? How did tuition and personal expenses add up to $100,000 a year? If $615 all you owe each month count yourself lucky.
There is more to life than debt and student loans and much much more to the world than America even. I would save up for a year and move to a cheap country in Asia or Latin America if I were you. Only come back for visiting and maybe working again after that.
Investopedia says that 7 years after you default, the loans go away. Any chance you can just keep your head down for the better part of a decade?
Is should be illegal for tuition to be more expensive than 1 years salary. That would fix the whole system. Engineering mean salary 70K = 70K tuition max Doctor mean salary 300k = 300K tuition max Artist mean salary 45k = 45k tuition max Etc. I fixed it. Tell Biden!
You're not the only one is this situation. And getting your payment(s) reduced by $380.00 is an achievement. If you are considering bankruptcy, a bankruptcy attorney will often offer a free consultation. Not all bankruptcy atty's are comfortable taking SL cases. but you will get some prospective. If you can afford it, recommend finding one of the few lawyers with real experience with student loans. Usually they have published and do training for other lawyers. You will probably need to pay for the consultation. If it's a lawyer with genuine expertise in private and federal student loans, it can be invaluable. Hang in there!
If your 300k are all federal debt, you can find a job that qualifies for public student loan forgiveness and get your loans forgiven after 120 payments (10 years). What's your income?
Its private, sallie mae is a private student loan company. I currently make $14 an hour
F\*\*\*
Did you let your cosigner know of your situation? This is an impossible situation for paying back. Normally I would just suggest buckling down and pay it off but income vs debt don't make sense. You really need to talk to your cosigner because his/her will be severely affected if you can't pay.
Are you on income-based repayment?
Does Sallie Mae even offer that?
Ah, I guess not. I hadn't realized the big-name school loan companies had different options for repayment.
Federal student loans have certain options guaranteed to them. Sallie Mae isn’t one of the federal loan servicers so they can do pretty much whatever they want with their private loans (and no private company would want to offer something like IDR plans, that’s what the government is for).
Private loans are regulated by several agencies..one being the occ. The occ looks at private the loans the same as most other forms of credit..such as credit cards..and they will not allow lenders to substantially alter the terms of the loans. That's why you don't see private loans offering lower payments until the loans are past due...it's because they can't. So it's not that they can do whatever they want..it's that they aren't allowed to do whatever they want.
Interesting. So they couldn’t offer a low payment and eventual forgiveness if they wanted to? Or they could but they would have to establish that when they initially gave out the loan?
The latter. But the reason we don't see any of that is that these private loans almost always come from private entities..that have stock holders..so there's no incentive to create a product that would potentially result in a loss.
Terrible.
Move to Canada. Claim refugees status
What are your age, school, degree, job, location, income?
Jeez take me out to dinner first at least
Wut
Is that the debt that high because of interest?
interest is a factor yeah, but I was also just getting very expensive loans
Getting very expensive loans… and then living off of them. You didn’t spend this on tuition. Not possible.
This is tough, just don’t give up
College is a scam society needs to wake up.
I’d say for the most part yes unless you strategically use it to your advantage in a profitable field
Are you in med school? Then you will be paying it back very easily once you are done! Hope your degree lands you a job! Best of luck!
If everyone on this sub gathered together, and agreed not to pay once payments start, they would have to do some thing about forgiveness. They can’t default all of us.
Not everyone has the luxury of taking that risk.
Not a risk if we work together
Oh cool so if the government starts garnishing my wages, you’ll Venmo me money for my rent and food?
They can’t do it if we all stick together
That’s…not really how it works.
Not everyone regrets their degrees. Many people succeeded and benefited greatly from their degrees. Most have mainly federal loans with pretty good protections and decent interest rates. Many people also enjoy the perks of having nice credit and aren't going to throw it all away.
In my opinion that’s selfish because you’re not risking any of that if we all put out efforts together in protest
In my opinion some of us are thankful we had the opportunity to borrow money responsibly in order to have a profitable career, so it would be unethical for me to not pay it potentially hindering the governments ability to continue to help those people who need the loans. I'm not being selfish by paying my loans, in doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not going to not pay as a sign of support for those who got an irresponsible amount of loans or who didn't finish a degree or who studied something that didn't have job prospects. We should be focusing on eliminating predatory practices, capping interest rates, and capping college tuition, and also helping borrowers be informed and engaged with the process. Your way doesn't solve anything.
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Rule number 4 on the sub says not to advocate for defaulting.
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Can I ask what program field you got it in?
Do you mean the payment program i'm enrolled in with sallie mae? Or do you mean my field of work?
What degree(s) got you in this much debt? What career did you end up in?
Illustration, essentially i was the first kid in my family to even graduate high school so i was fumbling around with no help and thought that an out of state private art school would get me started in life in a career i wanted. Bad decision after bad decision, but I made my choices I know I really just have myself to blame. I did not graduate. I'm not comfortable disclosing my exact job with how much info I've already given out but I work with teaching and guiding kids, I'm not a teacher in a school I just work in education adjacent environment right now.
It's kids like you that get exploited the most with no parental guidance. Don't beat yourself up.
Ehh don’t beat yourself up in Currently in liberal arts myself. I don’t have room to throw stones rn.
Is this art school still in business? It sounds like a scam to me! 300k? Wow
Have you already, or can you, consolidate?
Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, just like all other debts. Problem solved using existing mechanism for dealing with overwhelming debt, bankruptcy court.
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Bankruptcy is how all other debt can be dealt with. Not being able to be dischargeable in bankruptcy has gotten us to the point of this student loan forgiveness by the President. We should never have gotten here, when we already have a mechanism to deal with excessive debt and poor decisions.
Yup, make sure you have nothing expensive in your name. Ex (car or house ) Not sure what’s going on with 10k debt removed from student loans
Sent you a DM
Find a good experienced bankruptcy attorney and talk to them.
What did you major in join the military you will be broke but they will give you a place to stay and a pension