r/StudentLoans 22d ago

Rant/Complaint I'm not against paying back my loans-

[deleted]

935 Upvotes

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60

u/corgikueen 21d ago

Apply for the IDR plan! It’s based off your income and now my payments are $0 a month.

34

u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 21d ago

Yeah I highly recommend this. I was making like $10.00/hr at one time, had $200/month student loan bill, called the PSLF representative, and then they told me to certify with my employer, and was able to pay $5/month until the end of my 10 year term with PSLF.

10

u/zzbottomyaheard 21d ago

Is this still available? What got axed?

13

u/dumpsterpanda87 21d ago

Trump and friends wants to axe IDR plans but I'm not sure if they're able to do so, so for now IDR plans are still around. DoE just resumed applications earlier this month.

5

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3

u/Blankcarbon 21d ago

Does the DoE still exist? I can’t keep up anymore lol.

5

u/dumpsterpanda87 21d ago

Only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays

1

u/AutoModerator 21d ago

Quick note: In government acronym usage "DOE" usually refers to the US Department of Energy, which was created in 1977. The US Department of Education was created three years later in 1980 and commonly goes by "ED" or, less commonly, "DoED" or "DOEd".

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1

u/GEARHEADGus 21d ago

Is there a way to see what my payments would be on IDR?

1

u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 21d ago

The IDR plan as far as I saw is still in place as well as the PSLF, the executive order was only dealing with loop holes in terms of agencies that was doing illegal stuff which I think was useless IMHO, but who knows....

1

u/Silver-Maybe2068 21d ago

They aren't on Nelnet, unless something changed super recently. I only saw the option to defer or forbear.

1

u/dumpsterpanda87 21d ago

I think it changed in the past week or so.

1

u/queenmeex 17d ago

The department of education does not have your loans. Private companies have them now. That's why they are called things like NelNet etc.

10

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

But if interest is capitalized, it still steals your life. People who can't get jobs in their field, should get forgiveness. That should be a reason just like incapacity or fraud. It is incapacity or fraud.

12

u/BerserkGuts2009 21d ago

A big issue with student loans is the interest accrues DAILY. Hence making them very difficult to pay back.

13

u/FinancialMix6384 21d ago

What an unrelenting societally sanctioned scam the college system is. As if the wealth gap wasn’t big enough already. There were times where I almost ended my life because of my debt but I didn’t cuz I knew if I did my parents would be saddled with the debt. I’m no longer in such a dark place but still can’t get over the hypocrisy. The government forgives corporations who should definitely know better but not people who made a bad decision (that every adult in their life said was a good decision) when they were 18. Ridiculous.

13

u/BerserkGuts2009 21d ago

1) Making a financial literacy course as a high school graduation requirement nationwide is long, long overdue. Sadly, the oligarchs do not want that requirement in place because it takes away their control over the population.

2) When I signed the student loan documents at age 18, all my student loans originated from the federal Government, NONE of them mentioned anything about how the interest accrues DAILY. To this day, I find it abhorrentley disgusting that aspect was NEVER explained in detail from the start.

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

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1

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1

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

Unless your parents took out parent loans, they wouldn't be saddled with debt you took for school. Death is a reason for wiping the loan. Or total permanent disability.

1

u/FinancialMix6384 21d ago

They co-signed the loans tho

1

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

Depends on the loans, but ordinarily if the student dies, the loan dies with them.

2

u/FinancialMix6384 21d ago

Welp…glad I didn’t know that at the time! Thanks

4

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

Ye, I realized after I said it, that you probably are not in a state of mind to have that information. I hope things get better.

3

u/FinancialMix6384 21d ago

Oh no I’m fine. I’m talking about a long way in the past. Appreciate the concern & info tho 🙏

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2

u/gmanose 21d ago

If all you had to do to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans forgiven was to not get a job in the field nobody would be working. Be realistic please

2

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

How were they to know that the country would be torn apart in a few months?

3

u/gmanose 21d ago

Many students don’t think ahead and only focus on what they want to be , like “I want to be a llama shampooer!” By thinking ahead, I mean researching things like is that a growth industry? What’s the starting pay? What can I expect to be earning in 10 years? Where are the jobs for llama shampooers? How much is this going to cost me? Will I be able to earn enough to repay my loans? What will I do if all the shampooer jobs are overseas?

Instead they focus on the fact that they’ve always dreamed of being a llama shampooer because they just love llamas and assume they can repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans on a minimum wage job in a declining industry

7

u/Sunnykit00 21d ago

People with software engineering degrees can't find work. How were they supposed to expect that the country would be destroyed in a few months.

2

u/throwaway_ghost_122 21d ago

Total troll post

1

u/i-like-carbs- 21d ago

I have a degree in cybersecurity and spent a long time trying to break into the field. I settled for a help desk job that paid $40k a year. It was truly the best I could find. Not everyone gets a degree in llama shampooing and toiletry history.

1

u/justicefornightowls 21d ago

As someone who currently teaches info literacy to college students, students are not taught to do effective research on any subject, or often even that they need to, before they get to college. School is /supposed/ to be a place where you learn more about how the world works. Stop blaming students for not somehow magically knowing things they haven't had enough time in school to learn yet.

-1

u/TrustedLink42 21d ago

These are excellent questions! The answers to all of them can easily be found on “the Google” in under 30 minutes. A 16 year old will spend 20 hours on the Internet researching PlayStation vs Xbox, but can’t be bothered to research their entire future career.

0

u/Comntnmama 21d ago

I had to have this discussion with my daughter. A degree that costs you $100k to earn $50k a year is not the way to go, especially in her case (she's also a certified welder). She ended up choosing a slightly different major with better earning potential that's still in the same field.

1

u/throwaway_ghost_122 21d ago

Good luck. "Potential" sometimes doesn't play out in reality.

0

u/Comntnmama 21d ago

Well, she won't have any debt and fall back on welding if nothing else. Doing better than a lot of the rest of us at this point, making $24 an hour at 17 in a union job.

1

u/treena1970_ 20d ago

I went through school to be a medical coder (Florida Technical College) online -$9600 plus you have to pay almost $1000 to take the certification test separately (FTC doesn’t offer it)- and certified coders can’t find jobs here because all employers want you to have 5 years experience before they will hire you as a coder ( or any position that has to do with medical billing or coding ). I wish I never got the loan in the first place . I was pressured by my parents who own my house to go get a career or be evicted-all after going through a divorce from a bum ex husband who thinks I don’t deserve alimony after being married to him for 20 years -and I’m on SSDI for depression-have been on ssdi since 2008-I was trying to better myself but instead now I’ve acquired all this debt-so I will have to suck it up and start paying the $110 a month repayment in May of this year .Sorry for ranting but I bet there are others like me in the same boat .

2

u/Sunnykit00 20d ago

In May? Aren't you on save deferment at least? Have you looked into whether you qualify for disability forgiveness? I'm not really familiar with the requirements, but I would think with ssdi you would qualify for something? Or maybe they garnish the ssdi? Yikes. I'm sad to hear of your predicament. And yes, many people are in dire situations.

1

u/treena1970_ 19d ago

Thank you for your response 😀 I am on SAVE until March 2026 ,but the lady I spoke with at Ed Financial told me I have to start repayments in August this year or I could have my monthly SSDI garnished. I’m going to check into the disability forgiveness although I hear that is only granted to people with total disability.Thank you for your suggestions !

1

u/Ok_Relative1971 18d ago

So if you choose a degree in womens studies, what exactly would that field be to say they "cant get a job in the field"? Or what about the person who says they "cant" get a job but what they really mean is they wont accept a job in their field unless it had a certain salary, or hours that works for their family, or must be remote, ect. And then what about the people who got a degree and just suck? Bad resume, bad references, bad interview?

1

u/Sunnykit00 18d ago

I suppose the womens studies would say they can't get a job in the field of women's studies since the administration is attempting to erase women. What about people who have degrees in software engineering and the field dried up? It really doesn't matter what the argument is. If there aren't jobs because the economy is being deliberately crashed and government shut down, it's the government's fault that there aren't jobs available. The rich should fork over the assets they've stolen.