primitives discuss student loans

[franksolich]

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7707876

Oh my.

We're into the final hours of the fund-raising drive for Skins's island, and it's heartening to see a campfire where many of the primitives have actually coughed up some cash for my fellow alum. 

However, the "scarlet lettering" of non-donors must continue, to remind them time's running out, in case they've forgotten.

Liberal_in_LA  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 04:04 PM
Original message

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.

It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.

"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."

Michelle Bisutti borrowed $250,000 to pay for medical school. The debt has since ballooned to $555,000.

To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703389004...

In 2005, the bill for the Wells Fargo loans came due. Representatives from the bank called her father, Michael Bisutti, every day for two months demanding payment. Mr. Bisutti, who had co-signed on the loans, finally decided to cover the $550 monthly payments for a year.

Wells Fargo says it will stop calling consumers if they request it, says senior vice president Glen Herrick, who adds that the bank no longer imposes origination fees on its private loans.

Turbineguy  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. This is what happens when you take a good idea and put it in the hands of Bankers. If everybody will be so kind as to pay off their student loans the banks can then lend the money to corrupt countries and lose it.

Richard Steele  (1000+ posts)         Sat Feb-13-10 04:10 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. Very well stated.

Greyhound  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-13-10 04:41 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Reply #1

6. Exactly. A great idea, educating Americans, turned into another corporate welfare program.

RavensChick  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 04:21 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. Dayum!!!

How greedy do these banks have to be in getting their money back? Next thing they'll do is garnish wages, put liens on the house, the car, the cat, the dog, and the goldfish!

Makes me glad I'm going to a community college and I'm more glad to pay out of pocket. That's insane to put it mildly!

TwixVoy  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-13-10 04:32 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

4. Student loans need to totally eliminated

they should be outlawed completely.

Make school affordable instead and expand grant programs for those who need them.

WCGreen  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-13-10 04:36 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
THE GREEN COMMODE PRIMITIVE
Response to Reply #4

5. the easy availability of student loans are a major contributing factor to the increasing price of higher education.

There is no connect between the cost of an education when you really aren't paying for it until it is too late...

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 04:44 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
THE FARMERETTE IN WISCONSIN
Response to Original message

7. All student loans should be forgiven.

Just wipe them off the books. It would be a boon to the economy.

old mark  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 04:54 PM
THE OLD PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message

8. I applied for forgiveness of my loans about 5 years ago due to illness - they "lost" my application, finally heard from them several months later and not only was denied, but they added interest to my debt for the period I was in "forbearance". When I asked about forgiveness, the person replied "Oh, I don't know anything about that."

I owe almost 50% more now than when I started paying on it. I went back to college in my 40's because I could not get a job. I am now retired after 2 heart attacks.

aquart  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 04:56 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
10. I have one of those loans, too.

QC (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 04:56 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Reply #8

11. Get a direct federal consolidation loan, stat.

Sign up for income based repayment. That takes 15% of discretionary income, which is much lower than standard payments. It's the only thing that has kept me from having to leave the country over my own debt.

Walk away  (980 posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 04:55 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

9. All student loans should be government issued.

If we don't take the profit out of this we will end up with a nation of Burger King managers.

G_j  (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 04:58 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

12. I have a friend, not only did they harass his parents, but they found his grandmothers phone # and harassed her!

aikoaiko  (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 05:12 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

13. When you take on debt 3x, 4x, or 5x your expected yearly salary after graduating, you're setting... 
 
...yourself up for disaster. At least since the 1990s, students have been very clear about payment post graduation.

Having said that I hope there is significant college tuition reform. In the end, people like Dr. Bisutti probably won't get to go to med school.

Did Pres. Obama make some recent noise about debt forgiveness if you get a job in public service?

peace13  (1000+ posts)         Sat Feb-13-10 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #13
 
14. Add to it.

Jobs that should pay graduates are either nonexistent or way under payed. Salaries that were supposed to rise after initial probation turn into final numbers. The young people are really getting screwed from both ends on this.

cbdo2007 (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 08:50 PM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

15. Sorry....but you don't rack up this much student loan debt unless you blatantly disregard paying back the loan and try to hide, which is what it's describing that she did.

She's playing the victim now but any normal person who makes an effort to pay off their loans do NOT get them turned over to collections. Not only that but the original bank, Wells Fargo wouldn't have gone after her dad in 2005 unless they couldn't find her and she wasn't paying.

I'm all for fair collection of student loans and leniency when people can't pay. Unfortunately, too many of these extreme cases get the news to get everyone worked up, especially now that everyone is sour on the banks to begin with, and this woman obviously was trying to take advantage of the system in some way to take out such large loans she didn't think she'd be able to pay back and then completely ignoring them after she finished school.

Historic NY  (1000+ posts)       Sun Feb-14-10 12:38 AM
Response to Original message
 
16. This is what happens when your a moron about handling money...

you borrowed the money with the obilgation to repay. So you blow off the payment and don't expect hte consequences, get real. No sympathy here. I worked my way through school with a full time job, no loans and finished my masters w/o borrowing a dime.

SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)        Sun Feb-14-10 12:52 AM
THE SILLY PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message

17. Pretty shameful stuff.. a DOCTOR lets her DADDY take over a $550 a month payment

There's more to this story than they are telling..

Perhaps Dr. B thought it would all "go away" if she ignored it ..

davidpdx (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-14-10 06:55 AM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

19. I thought my $60,000 was bad

Owch! I'll be paying on mine the rest of my life more then likely.

reformist2 (8 posts)      Sun Feb-14-10 10:25 AM
NON-DONOR TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
Response to Original message

20. This shows the insanity of compounding interest.
 
At the rate she's going, she'll owe a cool $1 million in a few years. Then it will really snowball. Maybe when she dies she'll owe $10 million, even $100 million!!!

This is insane. Even if she's a deadbeat, there should be a dollar limit on the fines they can add to her initial debt.

[Lord Undies]

First, make all college professors work for minimum wage coupled with volunteering time.  Bring those costs down!

[debk]

Wonder what they will be saying when the government takes over all student loans....and they can't get one?

Runnin' Buddy's kids have student loans....and she's just switched them over from private student loan lenders to government loans, to make sure that they could get them.

She works at UT and from what she was hearing at work....she was afraid that her youngest may not be able to continue to get one, if she didn't go ahead and switch, before the only source for student loans was through the government.

[BlueStateSaint]

My wife has never had a problem with her student loan payments, that she incurred for her master's.  Must be that she isn't a DUmb****.

[The Village Idiot]

The government is taking over student loans. Its going to be funny seeing how DUmmies react when they try to get one.