Politics And Current Events

[mac5155]

Ah yes, that's who needs student loan forgiveness, those who took out $12,000 or less.

Actually it is. The majority of those in this range started but didn’t finish college and many of those in this range are at high risk of default.

Its just unfortunate that forgiveness goes to those who aren't paying anyway. What does that actually solve other than to clean up the balance sheet. There should be some incentive for.. I dunno actually paying them.

I just looked and my current balance is almost the same as my initial disbursements. And I've been paying on them for 14 years minus the 3.5 year covid pause

[dodint]

My first student loan payment went entirely to interest.

[nocera]

r/pslf is a rare useful sub.

I’m going to resubmit once after four months. You completed yours right? What else is there to do other than resubmit?

[dodint]

I still have 77 payments to go.

My understanding is if you submit a review, and it is your final review, you check that box and they put you into forbearance while they do the review. Then one day you login and there is a big smiley face saying you're done.

[AuthorTony]

Its just unfortunate that forgiveness goes to those who aren't paying anyway. What does that actually solve other than to clean up the balance sheet. There should be some incentive for.. I dunno actually paying them.

This makes it sound like forgiveness is only for those who have been paying.

Borrowers are eligible for cancellation if they are enrolled in the SAVE plan, originally borrowed $12,000 or less to attend college and have made at least 10 years of payments. Those who took out more than $12,000 will be eligible for cancellation but on a longer timeline. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond $12,000, it adds an additional year of payments on top of 10 years.

[mac5155]

The save program states forgiveness is after 20 years. I can't determine if that's 240 payments, or 20 calendar years from the date of repayment entry. If The latter, I should just get on the SAVE plan and in 7 years they're wiped. (I still have 8.5 years of payments left at the "full payment amount" and the SAVE payment amount is significantly less, about 35%.

[mac5155]

Its just unfortunate that forgiveness goes to those who aren't paying anyway. What does that actually solve other than to clean up the balance sheet. There should be some incentive for.. I dunno actually paying them.

This makes it sound like forgiveness is only for those who have been paying.

Borrowers are eligible for cancellation if they are enrolled in the SAVE plan, originally borrowed $12,000 or less to attend college and have made at least 10 years of payments. Those who took out more than $12,000 will be eligible for cancellation but on a longer timeline. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond $12,000, it adds an additional year of payments on top of 10 years.

Ah, okay. I misunderstood.

[nocera]

I still have 77 payments to go.

My understanding is if you submit a review, and it is your final review, you check that box and they put you into forbearance while they do the review. Then one day you login and there is a big smiley face saying you're done.

My bad I thought you were one of the chosen ones.

[NTP66]

Look at all you liberal moochers looking for handouts with your student loans. PULL UP YOUR OWN BOOTSTRAPS AND STOP SUCKING ON THE TEET OF CAPITALISM.

[Morkle]

I mean, I kind of dislike loan forgiveness in a sense that you're cognizant enough to take out those loans. I don't know, it's probably one of the things I am just against in general. I have a friend who went to school to become a park ranger and because there's like 3 of those jobs in the state, they're now doing something completely unrelated and they're upset for picking that degree path.

School loans are exactly why I went and got an associates. Obviously I am doing fine and am likely the outlier to the norm regarding degree, but I knew going in I was working to pay that stuff of for a portion of my life.

[dodint]

Just a reminder that PSLF is statutory forgiveness that has been in place for decades and it's only relation to Biden is that the Biden administration fixed the mechanism that allows the applications to actually be processed. Prior to now the acceptance rate for PSLF applications was in the single digits.

mac, the 'years' is measured in payments. So 240 payments for 20 'years.'

[skullman80]

I keep telling my wife we need to log back in and look at the PSLF stuff again. She submitted something during covid but I feel like it got lost in the sauce.

[count2infinity]

My two biggest gripes with student loans are:

1. The idea of "YOU TOOK OUT THE LOAN YOU PAY IT BACK!!!" The vast majority of us were 17 or 18 when we took out those loans. Tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars is not a concept that a typical teenager understands. Most of us were just told "you have to go to college to be successful. Sign here." and boom. Student loans. Now, I know there are a handful of gifted oracles who saw all of this in their youth, or were lucky enough to have cognizant parents explain how things work to them and they either went military or tech school or community college or whatever. But that's not what the norm was for millennials. The fact that people coming out of college right now also went through the same rigmarole that we did 20 years ago is astonishing to me.

2. Interest rates. The interest rates on a student loan should be like 1%. I have no problem paying back what I borrowed, but at 6-7%? Come on now. And if I refinance through private institutions now that I understand what interest rates mean, I lose any possibility of forgiveness. It sucks.

[eddy]

Unfortunately I paid mine off before the forgiveness started, but I can see both sides. More specifically, towards the end of my loan payments, they got bought out by a different company and I was presented with the choice to pay off the balance or go through the new service which would have added an incredible interest rate effectively adding numerous years of new payments. I had to go into my 401k to pay off the balance so I didn't end up throwing more money away. That's not right and I will never side with the loan people going forward.

[mac5155]

Yeah I've been paying the full payment for 11 years now. Around 130 payments. And my current balance is almost equal to my original disbursement. They could adjust the interest rates and do nothing more and that would be a burden lifted off of a LOT of responsible people.

[skullman80]

My wife had been paying off her federal loans for 6 or 7 years now....800ish hundred dollars a month, her balance now is more than she owed when she took the loans out because of the interest rates on the loans. That is insane to me. With the save plan I think she is at like $550 a month right now?

We paid off her one private loan during covid by just throwing money at it while the others were in forbearance so that helped a little bit, but the federal one she will either hit the limit of 20 years or whatever, or have it forgiven some other way (not likely) before it ever actually gets paid off.

[skullman80]

Yeah I've been paying the full payment for 11 years now. Around 130 payments. And my current balance is almost equal to my original disbursement. They could adjust the interest rates and do nothing more and that would be a burden lifted off of a LOT of responsible people.

Yeah my wife has always said just drop the interest rates down to 1% or something and that would make things much more manageable for folks. Loans would actually get paid off. When you are at 7 or 8% interest on a loan balance of 100k/150k/200k plus.....there isn't much of a path forward to paying that off.

[MR25]

My wife had been paying off her federal loans for 6 or 7 years now....800ish hundred dollars a month, her balance now is more than she owed when she took the loans out because of the interest rates on the loans. That is insane to me. With the save plan I think she is at like $550 a month right now?

We paid off her one private loan during covid by just throwing money at it while the others were in forbearance so that helped a little bit, but the federal one she will either hit the limit of 20 years or whatever, or have it forgiven some other way (not likely) before it ever actually gets paid off.

This is why there shouldn't be any question about forgiveness. The interest rates are predatory, and it's ridiculous that someone could remain on time with payments but somehow owe more than they originally took out after a number of years have passed.

[Beveridge]

There shouldn't be interest on school loans. The only time interest should come into play is if payments are missed.

[Pavel Bure]

My two biggest gripes with student loans are:

1. The idea of "YOU TOOK OUT THE LOAN YOU PAY IT BACK!!!" The vast majority of us were 17 or 18 when we took out those loans. Tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars is not a concept that a typical teenager understands. Most of us were just told "you have to go to college to be successful. Sign here." and boom. Student loans. Now, I know there are a handful of gifted oracles who saw all of this in their youth, or were lucky enough to have cognizant parents explain how things work to them and they either went military or tech school or community college or whatever. But that's not what the norm was for millennials. The fact that people coming out of college right now also went through the same rigmarole that we did 20 years ago is astonishing to me.

2. Interest rates. The interest rates on a student loan should be like 1%. I have no problem paying back what I borrowed, but at 6-7%? Come on now. And if I refinance through private institutions now that I understand what interest rates mean, I lose any possibility of forgiveness. It sucks.

I agree with these and would add,

3. Allow them to be wiped out through bankruptcy. Roght now a person can file and everything else will get wiped but not those student loans. They are still going to hang on.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

My two biggest gripes with student loans are:

1. The idea of "YOU TOOK OUT THE LOAN YOU PAY IT BACK!!!" The vast majority of us were 17 or 18 when we took out those loans. Tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars is not a concept that a typical teenager understands. Most of us were just told "you have to go to college to be successful. Sign here." and boom. Student loans. Now, I know there are a handful of gifted oracles who saw all of this in their youth, or were lucky enough to have cognizant parents explain how things work to them and they either went military or tech school or community college or whatever. But that's not what the norm was for millennials. The fact that people coming out of college right now also went through the same rigmarole that we did 20 years ago is astonishing to me.

2. Interest rates. The interest rates on a student loan should be like 1%. I have no problem paying back what I borrowed, but at 6-7%? Come on now. And if I refinance through private institutions now that I understand what interest rates mean, I lose any possibility of forgiveness. It sucks.

also student loans exist in this weird alt-universe where you don’t need any collateral, any credit history or any money down to pull out the loan. Which, if we’re being honest, is good for poor students who could use the help but a bad lending strategy. But university tuition costs are ridiculously inflated and I’m sure there’s a wink-wink deal between the lenders and universities

[count2infinity]

There shouldn't be interest on school loans. The only time interest should come into play is if payments are missed.

The question really is "what do we as a society gain by having a more educated society?". I see a more educated society as a generally good thing. If you really want an overhaul, have different interest on different majors. Right now there is a HUGE demand for people to work in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The CHIPs act was passed, foundries are breaking ground around the country, but there's no workforce available to run them. Provide a loan with a zero interest rate to encourage people to go into that. Communications major? Sorry, you're looking at 6% interest rates. We don't have educators, and many that want to go into that field look at their salary, then look at the cost to go to college, and say "no thanks"... provide a negative interest rate.

I'm not suggesting making all college free, but there are options in place to make the system better.

[DigitalGypsy66]

also student loans exist in this weird alt-universe where you don’t need any collateral, any credit history or any money down to pull out the loan. Which, if we’re being honest, is good for poor students who could use the help but a bad lending strategy. But university tuition costs are ridiculously inflated and I’m sure there’s a wink-wink deal between the lenders and universities

And state governments who have decreased funding for colleges and universities at the same time. So tuition revenue makes up the difference. They can keep cutting funding and increase tuition because student loan companies keep lending money without a limit.

What's fun is that I was always on the other side of this, working in higher ed. Now, I've got a kid going to school next year who'll probably have to take out loans. Not great. Which of course, this year, we don't know what the financial aid picture looks like yet - because the FAFSA was overhauled and **** up and is very late. We won't know until mid-March, where normally you know by November.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

my issue is that there’s been seemingly nothing done to stop this from continuing to happen. There doesn’t seem to be any legislation that curbs tuition costs or makes it so that the non-university path is respected as much (which should happen; college degrees shouldn’t be necessary for a lot of jobs)

so I don’t really see how we won’t have the same problem 10 years from now

[Beveridge]

There shouldn't be interest on school loans. The only time interest should come into play is if payments are missed.

The question really is "what do we as a society gain by having a more educated society?". I see a more educated society as a generally good thing. If you really want an overhaul, have different interest on different majors. Right now there is a HUGE demand for people to work in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The CHIPs act was passed, foundries are breaking ground around the country, but there's no workforce available to run them. Provide a loan with a zero interest rate to encourage people to go into that. Communications major? Sorry, you're looking at 6% interest rates. We don't have educators, and many that want to go into that field look at their salary, then look at the cost to go to college, and say "no thanks"... provide a negative interest rate.

I'm not suggesting making all college free, but there are options in place to make the system better.

I like that idea. Incentivize areas that is in need.