It is just a fact that the over one trillion (uh, yeah, not billion, not hundreds of billions, trillion) dollars of student debt now outstanding in our fair land will not be repaid. Because the graduates will not generate sufficient income to pay it back. The jobs they were told were out there for them [...]
Student Loans
Congtressman Clarke makes a modest proposal The latest news out of the Department of Education is that student loan default rates have risen 25% over previous figures, and the increase is especially pronounced among for-profit colleges. This should come as no surprise in dismal economy, but the economy is a copout to the real problem [...]
The government can garnish 15 percent of disposable pay to collect a defaulted student loan. They do not need a court judgment to do so. “Disposable pay” means the amount of money left in your paycheck after amounts required by law, like taxes, come out. However, you are always guaranteed to be left with an [...]
I discuss financial problems with people everyday. I usually ask people to give me a little history–how did they get to the point of needing to discuss bankruptcy? Some of the answers wouldn’t surprise you–job loss, medical bills, divorce. But it might surprise you how frequently I hear a story that involves financial help to [...]
The Income-Based Repayment Plan (“IBR”) for student loans is designed to be a better plan than the older Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (“ICR”). Here are some details: * The IBR applies to Direct Loans and government-guaranteed FFEL student loans. * You cannot be in default and enter the IBR, but after you get out of default, [...]
