Sallie mae changes school loan fee policy

hterry85

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/education/sallie-mae-to-change-forbearance-fee-policy.html?_r=1&utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=LSWmiAiAjQ_iktSahhWSz&me=aa

?Student debt has sort of stalled my generation in a state of arrested development,? she said. ?You can discharge gambling debt or child support obligations in bankruptcy, but not student debt, so I guess in the eyes of the law, it?s better to be a deadbeat dad than an unemployed graduate with loans.?

I signed this petition just a few weeks ago. DH and I both have loans through sallie mae, and DH was unemployed a year ago. I think the way school debt is handled in this country is insane. We don?t make bad money, and we budget very well. But when nearly 24% of our income goes to paying school loans its made things VERY hard. We drive 10 year old cars and we have yet to get a mortgage (trying again soon we hope) because our debt to income ratio was too high. I get that you have to be smart about taking out your loans, but its just insane that trying to have a future is exactly what?s preventing us from having one.

And I guess that?s my FFFC for the day.

 

peakboo5

LoisLane23:

We are the same way. Half my paycheck every month goes to student loans.

Same here. Drives me nuts.

CinemaGoddess

It's stories like that that convince me that the next generation would be better off becoming tradesman/woman instead of going to college. 

hterry85

Mom2Oli:

weird, I had my student loan on forbearance with them, I didn't pay anything every 3 months.

Really? That's weird, was it for unemployment? Although I don't see why the reason would make a difference. I know there were going to charge DH these fees. He was also told (which the article didn't mention) was that he only got x amount of those 3 month chunks over the life of the loan. After that you're out of luck.

Chelz

Oh ya. DH's student loans is what we'd pay if we owned a house.  SUCKS

MrsMommyQ

CinemaGoddess:

It's stories like that that convince me that the next generation would be better off becoming tradesman/woman instead of going to college. 

I think about this all the time too.  My mom, dad and stepdad all have trades and all do VERY well for themselves. In fact, my mom works 3 days a week and earns what I used to make in 5 days as a teacher.