We will see what happens to that since the govt has started cracking down on them. And I didn't know their students were involved in half the defaults. I think the for profit college students only make up like 20% of the total college students in the US too. What percentage of the outstanding student loan debt do their students have? For profit colleges are such a ****ty deal. They provide inadequate training and try to take advantage of lower income/less educated people.
Really, the only reason NOT to do it is if your interest rate is lower with your current loans than it would be with the consolidated, and if there are any fees involved in consolidating. The payment thing is irrelevant - you can always pay more each month (or the same as now) and pay it off faster than you would now simply because the interest rate would be lower. Overall, I agree that these changes don't do much - but then, executive orders shouldn't really be able to do that much. If they could have made a huge difference at "no cost to the taxpayer" as the claim, I'd be disappointed that no one did that earlier.
Juan is thinking exactly what I was thinking after reading into it. I will literally stop paying my student loans if at any point i'll be paying them for anywhere close to 20 years. Unless you're going to an expensive school getting a degree that warrants a high salary, you shouldn't rack up enough in loans to take 20 years to pay back. Again, that is something that benefits the wealthy, and the soon to be wealthy. It doesn't help the guy who wants to go to an in-state school to study restaurant and hotel management or what have you. I had it in my head beforehand that whatever the plan was wouldn't benefit me unless it was something crazy like letting me pay back 80% of what I borrowed. But this doesn't seem to be do much of anything.
You obviously had the drive to make it work for you. Not everyone college student does. I am glad you made it work for you to go on and be a productive tax paying individual. Student loans are a great thing but not everyone can handle them and there are some unrealistic expectations about what a college degree can get you. When I say I speak from experience, I do refer to myself at a more nieve age. I milked an extra 2 semesters in college just because I knew in the back of my head that I had student loan money at a really great interest rate to keep me in school and the attitude that when it came time to pay back i'd have a great job to do it so i allowed myself to take on the extra debt. It did in the end work out for me like it has for you and many others on here but again, the people on this board don't represent everyone out there. I have a friend I graduated with that were in college to get the degree but had no ambition to do anything with it themselves and ended up waiting tables paying back 25k in tuition. I stand by my statement that cheap money whether it be for housing (0% financing on avail on arms in 2004) or student loans is a double edge sword. What I was refering to when I dogged the current system was the beaurocrats involved and a particular thread posted in the hangout about 6 months ago about the default/cronies truth of the current student loan program.
I suppose the one thing it does do is if you are a hard-luck college grad you can at least save your credit score from getting destroyed by crushing student loan payments that force you to default on them or other loans. Given the excessive importance of the credit score, that's a pretty signficant benefit.
Thread necromancy... Matt Taibbi has a pretty enlightening and depressing new expose of the student loan scam.
The student loan default rate would be very very high if it weren't for the forbearbance and deferment options. Of course the interest compounds which makes it all the worse when the bill finally has to be paid. This will eventually end up worse than the housing crash because of the lack of the ability to discharge through bankruptcy. Until someone addresses the record amount of cash and profits major companies are enjoying while wages are declining and costs of necessities like college tuition, healthcare, fuel, housing, and groceries skyrocket nothing will get solved. College tuition increases are just one tumor in a body full of cancer.
Why does the GOP hate students? I guess the sons and daughters of their patrons don't need student loans?
A little financial analysis of the actual proposal presented to Congress might be helpful before you resort to your knee jerk GOP hate mongering.
