Loans Forgiven

[purplefdu]

You can get a settlement for your loans of around 50% easily. If you have the cash readily at hand you might be able to get them down to 1/3. Start low and work from there. Once you give them a figure they will stick on it like super glue. I don't think they will ever pass a forgiveness program (unfortunately for people like me who got pushed into default and really can't afford to pay the x4 payment they want to get out). You can settle credit card debt or get it forgiven in bankruptcy, but if you instead "spent" that money on an education to better yourself not a shiny car or a Mcmansion you have to pay until you die. Its rediculous and awful but its hot the government thinks we should be treated.

[Philip Brewer]

Originally Posted by purplefdu

You can get a settlement for your loans of around 50% easily. If you have the cash readily at hand you might be able to get them down to 1/3.

It's certainly worth seeing if you can get the company to settle for less than 100 cents on the dollar, but I'm very doubtful about it being "easy" to get a settlement.

If you're already in default and the lender has about given up on ever seeing any money at all, then you've got a pretty good chance--but they'll want to check over your finances and make sure they're getting whatever you've got. If you're current (and especially if you have some money in the bank), I doubt if the lender will take settle for less than the total sum you owe.

[olena99]

Pacific Leaders B.C. Loan Forgiveness Program.
604 660-2610 in Vancouver, or 1-800-561-1818 anywhere else in B.C., and ask to speak with a repayment counsellor.

[Aimee918]

I suppose I should have at least tried to pay less, but it didn't occur to me and I'm reading a chunk of these posts after the fact.

rats!

I done paid 'em off.

it felt good.

I kind of expected more fanfare... ya know? Like a certificate or something - a letter, even.

But they just stopped sending bills.

Education is overpriced.

[arkadofbabylon.org]

I'm an Assistant Director of Financial Aid and I can definitely say that we Financial Aid Administrators desperately wish there was a way to help our students (and ourselves) with workable loan forgiveness programs.

I just returned from a conference in Las Vegas where we financial aid administrators annually meet with (and often yell at and heckle) the Dept. Of Education re: these very issues (ahem...those who work in education make very very little money so we really feel the student loan debt burden plight on a personal level).

Unfortunately there were really no new or remarkable plans to ease the debt burden for students placed on the table at this time. No new incentives, no ability to re-conolidate your loans for a lower interest rate, no truly better way to pay for education. Very sad indeed. We adminsitrators were quite up in arms to say the least. But never fear, we keep pushing for legistation through our state resources and are doing everything we can to try and force the educational system to give students a break.

I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that most of us who work in financial aid often wish that education was 100% free. Our jobs would no longer be to counsel the burdens of debt after graduation, but instead to aid our students in their educational growth and endless opportunities after school. After all, your choice of employment would be vastly different if you were not left with the question of "How the hell am I going to make my $700 a month student loan payment for the next 25 years?".

[Philip Brewer]

Originally Posted by arkadofbabylon.org

After all, your choice of employment would be vastly different if you were not left with the question of "How the hell am I going to make my $700 a month student loan payment for the next 25 years?".

This is what really bugs me about the way we pay for higher education in the US.

It used to be, students would leave college broke. But broke is a situation people can deal with. How many starving artists or actors or writers left college, found a place where they could live for free (maybe a friend's summer cottage that they could spend a few winter months freezing in, or a rich uncle's guest house, or their dad's RV) and then went on to create something wonderful?

That kind of option isn't available to someone with a student loan. There are lots of people who might let you sleep in their rec room for a few months while you write a first novel or spend your days auditioning for off-Broadway productions. There are practically none who will make your student loan payments as well.

How much great art have we lost, simply because the artist had to get a job straight out of college, just to make his student loan payments? More than a few. And even a few would be too many.

[starshard0]

Where would all the money come from to forgive these loans in the first place? With ideas like these floating around it's no wonder we're in a recession.

[Philip Brewer]

Rather than forgive the loans, I'd like to see higher education paid for out of tax dollars, much as elementary and secondary education are paid for.

I think it would be every bit as much of an "investment" as money spent on roads and bridges.

[olena99]

Hi Aimee,
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[starshard0]

Originally Posted by Philip Brewer

Rather than forgive the loans, I'd like to see higher education paid for out of tax dollars, much as elementary and secondary education are paid for.

I think it would be every bit as much of an "investment" as money spent on roads and bridges.

Can the government really afford to be shelling out even more money for education though? Our deficit is bad enough as it is.