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467 Comments
- pinkflyingpig, on 05/21/2009, -6/+205Kids from Middle Class got screwed again!
- Otto, on 05/21/2009, -2/+158THIS. IS. FAFSA!
- Alwaysandnever, on 05/21/2009, -5/+134Gee! Lenders aren't straight with us about student loans? Who woulda thunk it? Next thing you know, we'll find out that banks are using deceptive techniques to obscure their polocies regarding credit card fees and interest rates!
- yesbeegee, on 05/21/2009, -2/+122Hmmm ... could it be that the colleges have a vested interest in getting students to sign up for these loans? :-)
- SexyGeekGirl, on 05/21/2009, -3/+104we sure know how to start the "debt cycle" early
- Lucas123, on 05/21/2009, -0/+84Let me tell you my story about Sallie Mae. It's short. Nine-percent interest on a $13,500 student loan that they set up to be paid off over 10 years. Of course at the time I did not realize that at that rate I'd be paying back more than twice what I borrowed. The company reels you in by selling you small payments over extended periods. Sallie Mae is no friend to students. Avoid that company if you can or pay the loans off quickly if at all possible. Or, I think loan sharks may have better terms.
- omgwtflawl, on 05/21/2009, -5/+83>bachelor's degree in photography
>$140,000 in student debt
Was she lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills? - chjbaker, on 05/21/2009, -12/+81I worked for Sallie Mae for 4 years and articles like this make me laugh. Did anyone else miss the part where she spent $120,000 on photography school? The school is the scam there. You don't have to go to school to be a photographer, you could spend a few thousand dollars on a good camera and books... not to mention all of the resources online. People fall into this trap all of the time. Between photography schools, culinary art "institutes", Full Sail, etc it's bananas that people think it's a good idea to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an education that isn't med school or something that will actually pay off. Even if Sallie Mae gave her a 3% interest rate on the loans over 20 years, the payments would still be near $700. I heard the complaint all the time, "Why do you expect me to pay $1000 month payments on $140,000 worth of loans?" I'd generally answer, "because that is how borrowing money works, if you borrow a lot, you have to pay more." Also, people think Sallie Mae makes all of their money from late fees, etc... not true at all. Late fees are the last thing you pay on the loan, they don't accrue interest and the maximum late fee is 5% of delinquent month's payment.
Believe me, Sallie Mae is a piece of ***** company. I hated it there. That aside, it still irks me when people take all of the blame out on the people they borrowed money from. You know how to tell if you are borrowing private or federal money? Look at the top of the application. It will either say FFELP - Federal Family Education Loan Program or PRIVATE LOAN APPLICATION. It's not hard. - JohnnyDIGGme, on 05/21/2009, -5/+67Ouch. $140,000 for a degree in PHOTOGRAPHY?
I don't know about anyone else, but when I signed my student loan documents, the interest rate was clearly stated. If it wasn't I wouldn't have signed them. - clvngodess, on 05/21/2009, -2/+63Welcome to the new indentured servitude.
- atlasdugged, on 05/21/2009, -8/+66This is madness!
- DangerCollie, on 05/21/2009, -1/+46This whole process is broken. Students graduating with tens of thousands in debt. We can squander 10 billion a month in Iraq but we can't find a way to fund public education. And, even if we did find a way to fund it, schools keep sucking down ever increasing amounts of money. What's with costs going up so fast at colleges and universities?
Something has got to give on both sides of the equation.
Everyone complains about taxes. No one wants to pay for education and health care, but they want their home interest rate deduction. We have something like 12 aircraft carrier groups. I wonder if we cut that back to 6 if we could afford to send everyone to college?
Or if we cut farm subsidies? We can't keep funding everything. We have the best tanks in the world and a populace in debt slavery trying to get an education. People losing their homes because of medical bills. This is just nuts. - jmpeagle, on 05/21/2009, -3/+48we need to solve financial illiteracy in this country. Everyone seems to be retarded when it comes to it. Read your entire agreement...not that hard. How do people get taken advantage of so easily in this country? If you've ever seen an interest rate above 9% for any personal loan, you are getting financially raped and it is your own fault. You can blame small print or "sneaky" financial companies all you want. When it comes right down to it, you are financially retarded for getting yourself into that situation.
- AcesandEighths, on 05/21/2009, -4/+47Actually Sallie Mae, like any other loan company, makes most of it's money on "late fees". It is a shame that at a time in history when an educated society is an absolute necessity for survival, the affordability of that education is such that only the privileged few may make use of it.
- SolituSneiku, on 05/21/2009, -0/+43I'e got friends who didn't go to college who are better off than I am now, FML
- walker4bc, on 05/21/2009, -2/+44It is kind of funny that there is a difference in rates between government and private loans these days given that all loans seem to be guaranteed by the government...
- janjamm, on 05/21/2009, -4/+43Is there no where we can look for high ethical standards? Is this the most cynical time in our history? Has something been put in the water that has distorted, completely, any sense of fairness, or moral high ground? There is so much of this kind of borderline, criminal duping. It targets the most innocent, the unprepared. This is all so dark and cruel.
- nojoegohome, on 05/21/2009, -2/+37Thank god i am in the UK £3,000 a year for 3 or 4 years minus government grants, $100,000 for a degree would make me cry
- canada42, on 05/21/2009, -3/+38And another glaring reason this entire industry needs a major overhaul. Not having to even disclose the cost of the loan and the ability to change interest rates whenever they want? When the goal of the industry has shifted from providing a service in exchange for compensation to preying upon people who are inexperienced or don't know better its time to gut it and start over. That's not a business, that's a scam. These people make me sick.
- kamakazitp, on 05/21/2009, -5/+39yep, screwed by her own stupidity.
"She borrowed heavily, presuming that all her debt was part of the federal student loan program."
Thats why usually, when you get a loan, they print a bunch of words onto paper that you can read that explains the terms of the loan.
Also, no one forced this girl to move across the country to go to a $35k/year school in Cali, only figuring out how she was gonna pay for it until she was already there enrolled as a freshman. Usually, you spend a few weekends figuring this stuff out sometime in your senior year of high school.
Oh look, there happens to be a school in her home state of Ohio called Ohio State University, you may have heard of it. They apparently have a photography department. Yearly tuition for state residents: $8,679. 4-year cost: ~$35k. Oh look, I just saved Natalie "whats financial planning??" Hickey one hundred thousand dollars.
The only shame is that no one taught this girl any concept of money before she racked up $140k in debt to get a degree that has little chance of paying off that debt with any haste. Hopefully, if she has any kids, she can pass her lesson on before they screw themselves as well. - wannaBdug, on 05/21/2009, -3/+34Parents are going to have to home school kids through Grad school ath this rate
- minorthreat, on 05/21/2009, -0/+28I had sallie mae and I locked my interest rate in on 10.5k of loans at 3.5%. Of course they wanted me to pay $75 a month over 20+ years. But anyone with a brain should pay off your debt as soon as possible. Even though it was only 3.5%, I don't care.. debt is debt and I don't want any. I just dropped 6k a few months ago and paid it off... Excluding my mortgage I'm now debt free... eat ***** Sallie Mae
- Lionhart, on 05/21/2009, -0/+26140k in debt for a Photography degree. Brilliant.
Maybe she shouldn't have insisted on an overpriced private luxury Santa Barbara, Ca university. - magamiako, on 05/21/2009, -5/+30And we wonder why our economy is falling apart.
- Daggorath, on 05/21/2009, -1/+26Welcome to American Education, sell your soul for useless degrees.
- magamiako, on 05/21/2009, -2/+26A lot of the people sitting here are saying that it's the student's responsibility to read everything--this is correct only to an extent. But you have to keep in mind that ultimately the loan company is the one with all the information that they need to present to the student.
It's deception, they're not lying to you. They're just deceiving you. And it's possible the loan person giving you the loan doesn't know everything about the loan themselves. They just sit there and hand these things out to anyone who says they want to go to school.
We don't have enough education for it. The way education works in the US (higher education) is the student is told to decide to go to school first, then figure out how to pay for it later. - theutopian, on 05/21/2009, -1/+25All right, you're an idiot of you stay with Sallie Mae after you're done with school. The first thing you need to do when you graduate it consolidate your student loan with the Department of Education. They pay off the loans and become your sole lender. All your loans get lumped into one payment and you end up saving money.
Sallie Mae will try very hard to get you to consolidate with them - I can assure you they will figure out a way to rip you off somehow. - jgzman, on 05/21/2009, -2/+26Should I point out that 9% is not 0.9, but 0.09? Or shall I just assume that neither of you are in math either?
- RadiatedAnt, on 05/21/2009, -2/+26FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK I AM ONE OF THOSE SORRY SAPS
[caps lock off] I didnt know untill it was too late now I'm paying for it with a 18,000 slap in the face. at 18% interest. Run away from salie mae while you still can! RUUN damnit RUN!! - robbob, on 05/21/2009, -4/+28Students need to educate themselves BEFORE they sign up.
What is the interest rate (disclosed) and the terms (disclosed) and what the pay off total is at the end of the term (calculate)
This is not difficult, certainly within an educated mind of a high school senior.
Some people are just gullible and stupid - Lionhart, on 05/21/2009, -0/+23Private university in Santa Barbara, California.
That's all that needs to be said. - jaybudzik, on 05/21/2009, -5/+28Loan payments are a drain on consumer spending. If more federal loans were available new college grads would spend more and stimulate the economy!
- mwilhelm, on 05/21/2009, -2/+23This isn't that hard. Trust me, I learned the hard way.
To all hs seniors and or other soon to be college dropouts:
GO LOCAL, or at least go to a cheap state school for a couple years first. You're going to drink your tuition away anyway so why get yourself in debt just to get lucky with a fat chick.
Then, after you get your ***** together, when you're 21 or 22, xfer somewhere else if you feel so inclined. But really, the smart thing to do is to wait until you are 24 (or go to trade school) when your parents can't claim you as a dependent. Since you are undoubtedly under-employed; you'll automatically qualify for the maximum Pell grants. Plus youy get all that partying out of your system so you will be more inclined to actually go to class.
In case you didn't know, I'm all for a mandatory year off to party for all 18 year olds. at that age, you need to be getting down; not skipping your feminism class. - o76923, on 05/21/2009, -0/+21bankruptcy won't save you either. Student loans are one of the only things that aren't wiped with bankruptcy.
- pingpants, on 05/21/2009, -1/+21Exactly, to bump up enrollments.
- pinkflyingpig, on 05/21/2009, -0/+20they will charge late fee, plus interest...
- Daggorath, on 05/21/2009, -1/+21I HATE Sallie Mae, these scumbags while I was still in school started mailing me bills to my old address even though I told them I had moved and given them my new address. I never got the bills and then went to buy a house and saw my credit score because Sallie Mae had put that I was over 120 days late and instead of putting the one payment I owed broke it down by my five different student loans. 5 loans over 120 days and no payment, is like dropping a nuke on your credit score. I contacted them of course, they sent me a letter admitting that I should not have been billed since I was still in school and that they sent it to the wrong adress, but they would not remove it from the credit score because I should have paid it?! *Boggle* How do you pay a bill that you weren't supposed to get, sent to the wrong address? I have tried and failed to get it removed from my score for 3 years now. Another victim of our broken credit system and Sallie Mae, from my experience I've found there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of us out there. Anyway NEVER BORROW FROM SALLIE MAE!!!!
- mjk340, on 05/21/2009, -1/+20It's impossible to get rates that low when you have deadbeat parents, no one to cosign, and you are right out of high school. Of course, you shouldn't be going to an expensive private school if you are in that scenario, but your counselors will tell you to follow your dreams and worry about the money later.
- Solkre, on 05/21/2009, -2/+21300 Diggs for you!
- vtnerd, on 05/21/2009, -0/+18garnish wages
- 8FoldPath, on 05/21/2009, -0/+18They can take up to 50% of your income.
And they will. - Novagenesis, on 05/21/2009, -2/+18With $60,000 I could've started my own business and educated myself... Then I wouldn't be another $60,000 in debt.
"Good Colleges" are a scam so deeply embedded in society that nobody would ever win the court battle suing them for this fraud. - LanceUppercut, on 05/21/2009, -0/+16Actually student loans are one of the only things not forgiven by bankruptcy. It is pretty much a given that this is the case, as anyone is legally bankrupt as soon as they leave college with around 80k in liabilities and $5k or so in assets.
- alais, on 05/21/2009, -5/+21If you aren't smart enough to read the fine print college may not be the thing for you.
- Daggorath, on 05/21/2009, -0/+15Destroy your credit rating, keep stacking on fees, and send debt collectors after you. Try buying a house, car, scooter with that on your record.
- rblancarte, on 05/21/2009, -0/+14Right up there with "hey, want this free t-shirt for getting our credit card?"
- mccune, on 05/21/2009, -1/+15Ah, so they must have fixed this problem by now. Good news then!
- clvngodess, on 05/21/2009, -1/+15Or search for grants.
- inactive, on 05/21/2009, -2/+16The mae family are a**holes.
- jgzman, on 05/21/2009, -0/+14I blame the fact that each company is expected to make more profit this year than it did last year.
I'm not an economist, I'm an engineer. I am uncomfortable with the idea of creating money out of thin air, or value, or assuming that any numerical amount of ANYTHING whatsoever can be expected to climb forever without catastrophic results. Even entropy will level off someday, but there will certainly be catastrophic results well before then. -
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