VOPS, fully agree. I wish I knew this 4 years ago. But I had High School, and previous education in college, telling me this is the thing to do. Also, I didn't know at this time Sallie Mae was privatized and no longer a part of the government. Their papers looked exactly the same as it was when I first went to college years back (I went to retrain into another industry 4 years ago) and they sell it as a "Federal guaranteed loan" and I now know that it was a reversal of the words "Guaranteed" and "Federal" that made all the difference. Where one is a part of the government, and one is simply "guaranteed" for a big payoff from the government, once they force you into default. They now have no incentive to ever allow you to pay when they get their money anyway, plus everything you own after they force you to default.
Ashley Luthern, I do not know why you left out so much more of what goes on. What you reported has been reported before. Leaving out the abuse and the total imbalance that has been created by the student loan sharks. You talk a little about not having any bankruptcy protection, but again that has been talked about before. Never going to the root of it and talking about all of the other total lack of consumer protection there is.
Guess what? I sure as hell have severe hardship. I wasted my last dollar that got me evicted from my home to sue for hardship exception to no avail. The judge barely even took a look at the case. Regardless of the prepared testimony from a previous employer swearing that I was terminated due to the harassment from Sallie Mae and that the employers business interest was to treat me almost like a drug addict and would be a risk to be around their equipment in the case I might steal it to sell just to pay this loan.
I have even worked, in the past, with Congressman Patrick Murphy, had dealings with the staff of Harry Reid, and even tried to have my story told (with documented proof) of whats been going on to the Wall Street Journal. All of them, at the last minute, opted to not help or leave me, and many others stories out.
I am pretty sure you talked to a lot of people for this article too, and just like the others it seems you avoided the root of all this. That's why this article seems so much like all the others. A lot of nothing. Thanks for trying anyway, now I have to finish typing this because my time is up on the library computer. I need to see if I can somehow eat something tonight. But perhaps not.
Default is sometimes, and more often, the ONLY option. But not willingly so. Especially after a loan company, such as Sallie Mae, has sabotaged your credit rating, raised your interest rate by over 3X and more than tripled your principal when you can't pay more than half your income to them in a little over 2 years.
I had a score over 800 4 years ago. Went to school, and now I am less than 500. All due to Sallie Mae. They approve one loan account (calling it a "Loan") and for the amount they "approve" you for they open separate loans under the one account, each time hitting your score and lowering it for every disbursement to tuition and other school expenses. This raises your "credit risk" and allows them to inflate your overall interest sky high.
My payments were to be no more than $450 at 9% interest (APR) and by the time I was done with school they ballooned that to over 27% and $1250/mo.
Not a single company on Earth will let me "consolidate". Even outside of "credit crunch" times. Worse yet, Sallie Mae and their predatory collection practices keeps me out of work and in a position where I have no choice but to default.
You try paying on a loan that is now over $1700/mo (more than half my paycheck at the last job I had before I was laid off) and having to deal with 20-30 calls per day to both your pre-pay cell phone (nope, I don't get a regular cell phone now either due to Sallie Mae) and your place of work and your bosses/co-workers.
As we speak, I type this at a library. I am homeless and living out of my '97 ford explorer that I got very used at auction.
So curse you, and this mamby pamby article for dancing around the REAL issue. Student Loan companies are supremely predatory and that includes "college loan consultants" as all they want to do is get you tied up (if even at all possible now) with another loan company to abuse you. Which will probably be either associated with Sallie Mae or bought by them in a year or so anyway.
Posted on August 13 at 6:31 p.m.
VOPS, fully agree. I wish I knew this 4 years ago. But I had High School, and previous education in college, telling me this is the thing to do. Also, I didn't know at this time Sallie Mae was privatized and no longer a part of the government. Their papers looked exactly the same as it was when I first went to college years back (I went to retrain into another industry 4 years ago) and they sell it as a "Federal guaranteed loan" and I now know that it was a reversal of the words "Guaranteed" and "Federal" that made all the difference. Where one is a part of the government, and one is simply "guaranteed" for a big payoff from the government, once they force you into default. They now have no incentive to ever allow you to pay when they get their money anyway, plus everything you own after they force you to default.
Ashley Luthern, I do not know why you left out so much more of what goes on. What you reported has been reported before. Leaving out the abuse and the total imbalance that has been created by the student loan sharks. You talk a little about not having any bankruptcy protection, but again that has been talked about before. Never going to the root of it and talking about all of the other total lack of consumer protection there is.
Guess what? I sure as hell have severe hardship. I wasted my last dollar that got me evicted from my home to sue for hardship exception to no avail. The judge barely even took a look at the case. Regardless of the prepared testimony from a previous employer swearing that I was terminated due to the harassment from Sallie Mae and that the employers business interest was to treat me almost like a drug addict and would be a risk to be around their equipment in the case I might steal it to sell just to pay this loan.
I have even worked, in the past, with Congressman Patrick Murphy, had dealings with the staff of Harry Reid, and even tried to have my story told (with documented proof) of whats been going on to the Wall Street Journal. All of them, at the last minute, opted to not help or leave me, and many others stories out.
I am pretty sure you talked to a lot of people for this article too, and just like the others it seems you avoided the root of all this. That's why this article seems so much like all the others. A lot of nothing. Thanks for trying anyway, now I have to finish typing this because my time is up on the library computer. I need to see if I can somehow eat something tonight. But perhaps not.
Posted on August 13 at 6:19 p.m.
Contrary to what most "loan consultants" say:
Default is sometimes, and more often, the ONLY option. But not willingly so. Especially after a loan company, such as Sallie Mae, has sabotaged your credit rating, raised your interest rate by over 3X and more than tripled your principal when you can't pay more than half your income to them in a little over 2 years.
I had a score over 800 4 years ago. Went to school, and now I am less than 500. All due to Sallie Mae. They approve one loan account (calling it a "Loan") and for the amount they "approve" you for they open separate loans under the one account, each time hitting your score and lowering it for every disbursement to tuition and other school expenses. This raises your "credit risk" and allows them to inflate your overall interest sky high.
My payments were to be no more than $450 at 9% interest (APR) and by the time I was done with school they ballooned that to over 27% and $1250/mo.
Not a single company on Earth will let me "consolidate". Even outside of "credit crunch" times. Worse yet, Sallie Mae and their predatory collection practices keeps me out of work and in a position where I have no choice but to default.
You try paying on a loan that is now over $1700/mo (more than half my paycheck at the last job I had before I was laid off) and having to deal with 20-30 calls per day to both your pre-pay cell phone (nope, I don't get a regular cell phone now either due to Sallie Mae) and your place of work and your bosses/co-workers.
As we speak, I type this at a library. I am homeless and living out of my '97 ford explorer that I got very used at auction.
So curse you, and this mamby pamby article for dancing around the REAL issue. Student Loan companies are supremely predatory and that includes "college loan consultants" as all they want to do is get you tied up (if even at all possible now) with another loan company to abuse you. Which will probably be either associated with Sallie Mae or bought by them in a year or so anyway.