Here's the latest example of the type of message I receive on a daily basis from people all across the country seeking advice on how to handle their student loan debt:
Hi, I am desperate to find advice. I have private student loans these companies have added so much to my original loans. I must admit I should had read the fine print. I just wanted to go to school. So now they send rude threating letters. I am paying on one, but I have more than one and I need some type of relief. I can't afford to pay what they are asking. I can pay some toward the loans, but I can't pay more than what I make. Or give them all the money I have so that I can't pay any of my other bills like electric..ect.
Please I need help. Any advice would be great?
* * *
My question to you is: What am I supposed to tell this person? It never seems like enough for me to simply say "that's why I'm engaged in this fight to begin with - precisely because there are no good options for someone in your position." While that's absolutely true, it doesn't help the person asking the question one bit. So, my question to anyone willing to chime in is: what else can I possibly say or do to help?
1. Each one of us, oppressed citizens and former students, need to invest in SLM as a group or several groups of investors. $2 a month of investment/donation can go a long way. There are only very few rich investors, Board of Directors and CEO and millions of us. These wealthy are not friends of the humanity or of Declaration of Independence/Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A member (or several) of our groups need to be Board of Directors. Know your rights to invest in a company that suppress you!!
2. Get a corporation attorney, an investment attorney who are familiar with SEC.
3. Each oppressed debtors need to be educated on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov/, rules and regulations of investing before they become investors to protect themselves.
4. When there's enough of us being investors, demand that this company is to be student owned/employee owned company or have it legally dismantled accordingly.
5. Keep it ethical. Demand that all federal, city, county, state government employees and President and employees of each and every schools, universities and community colleges does not have vested interests in this company.
6. Know who is the CEO, who are in the Board of Directors and major contributors. Know everything about them. Know your enemies. They know everything about you when you write your personal information on applications. They even know where you sleep at night. Keep it fair.
Time to play fire with fire and their games.
I am in the same boat, and rather that try to fix the problem of my student loans, I've decided that, for now, my student loan debt will be a mainstay and I need to find a way to decrease my other debt, my other expenses, and make more money.
Is there any possible way you can make more money? I've taken a second job as a freelance writer for eHow.com and make *almost* enough money to cover my student loan debt each month. I do it in my spare time, and downtime at my other job. Can you write? You get $15 per article. Can you make anything? Are you crafty? Think of what talents you possess and see if there's any possible way you can make a few bucks. Investigate legitimate work at home options to supplement your income.
Can you ditch any current expenses? My husband and I, despite being super excited about watching "Game of Thrones" on HBO, have decided to cancel our cable for awhile. That will free up about $100 per month.
Do you have an Employee Assistance Program? In addition to mental health services, they also provide debt crisis help, and might be able to help with debt relief if you have credit cards. I think it depends on the services your company pays for, but giving them a call wouldn't hurt.
Live cheaper if you can. Start using coupons, look for the best deals on things you need instead of convenience. For instance, I use Diapers.com and Soap.com because shipping is free and there is no sales tax. But I get the best deals on baby wipes at Babies R Us. (just an example, you might not have kids) Cook and eat at home EVERY meal, forget fast food, stay away from the bar, stop smoking or drinking...hey, all of these things suck but you have to skim off something, look for the things you don't need.
AND HOPEFULLY, EVENTUALLY, the government or whatever will see that we need help.
If all else fails, enlist in the military...my brother does okay with the money and benefits!
You are not alone. The 'boat' you are in is so full it's capsized, righted itself, and taken on more passengers than it had the year before. And I'm one of your fellow passengers. You are not alone, believe me.
Two issues have to be clarified before anyone can give you sound advice:
Firstly, whether you have ONLY federal loans, or if your loans are divided between federal AND private loans. Secondly, if any of the loans are co-signed.
Federal loans can be negotiated with pretty fair payback schemes. Depending on your financial situation, the William D. Ford Direct Federal Loan Plan (http://www.direct.ed.gov/) may even relieve a portion of your debt based on financial hardship and the kind of work you do for a living. My sister is a social worker and had her payback total relieved significantly from the actual amount in loans she took out and owed on. She consolidated both private and federal loans through this program to come to the payback plan she's currently on. That's one option.
Write back and let me and the others here on the FSLD page know the details of your loan picture, and I (and others) can try to help you further with any knowledge I have of your particular situation.
I myself started with $65k in a mix of both federal and private loans, whose total has now ballooned to $95k+, in less than two years;I graduated in the spring of 2009. I've been unemployed for over a year and a half, and my private lender, Citibank Student Loan Corporation, has been calling me relentlessly everyday, about every two to three hours. I was informed by mail out of the blue approximately a month ago that, "this is to inform you your loans have been 'taken over by' Sallie Mae and Discover Bank." One doesn't need much of an imagination to guess what that's all about. Rob can correct me if I'm wrong, but my gut instincts tell me my loan debt bulk was pitched off to these institutions as a so-called "bundle portfolio" which will be used in a larger derivative package, which, in turn, Citibank Student Loan Corporation will hedge (buy and sell) in the market with Mae and Discover with other derivative packages. Knowing this, and considering heartbreaking stories like yours which are facsimiles of mine, it appears, fine print or not, we've been racketeered into what is the modern, unsustainable student lending scheme con.
You are not alone! Again, please let me/us know what your status is (private loans or only federal, etc), and I can gather more info that may help you.
Michael
