I'm mainly referring to the evil empire, Sallie Mae.
It all started when I was duped into attending Westwood College. It's a for profit school that has locations all over the country. They give you promises like being able to retake classes for free after you graduate to maintain your degree. Taking an updated HTML class, for example, as the industry changes.
What they don't tell you, is that your tuition will cost more than a small house, your degree won't be worth the paper it's printed on, they cancel your program after you've already started, and they won't teach you the things you need to know to be able to get a job in the real world. Oh, not to mention that employers put resumes with Westwood College education in the trash. They brag about how many students get jobs in their field of training. I guess janitorial services in a building that has a company that does web design is in my field...
My first red flag should have been the "sale" the school was having "that week only" for a decreased registration cost. "This week only" it was $25 to register for school instead of the usual $100. My second red flag should have been that I couldn't pick what classes I wanted to take, nor could I buy books myself or buy pre-owned for that matter. They were all done for me. Convenient at the time. I paid $400 for a statistics book. They don't offer selling the books back after the class is done.
What did it for me; what made me "drop out", that is, was the fact that I was teaching my web design class how to create a basic, HTML page. There were only about 5 classes left to graduate, mind you. A couple of my peers had no idea where to put the <title> tags, <body> tags, or <html> tags for that matter. And they were graduating in a few months $80,000+ in debt without the skills to get the job they want in order to pay back the loans. The final straw was when I stopped my program director in the hall outside my class real quick, asking, "when you have a moment, I'd like to go over some concerns I have with you." He followed up immediately with a very loud, angry voice, storming into my class room, asking the teacher if he was planning on teaching a certain topic at all this term. The teacher glared at me and replied to him "yes." That wasn't what I wanted to bring to the program director's attention, nor did I feel it was appropriate to do that while class was in session. This director would also discuss other student's information, including attendance situations and failing grades, with the teacher in front of the class. Not even excusing themselves and going outside. Nope, we all got to watch the show and hear about how our peers were deadbeats.
Fast forward to today. I discovered over the weekend that my minimum payment for my Department of Education loans went from $108 to almost $200. Of course, they are closed on the weekend. I call today to find out I was on a "graduated repayment plan." Every 2 years, the payment "gradually" increases, and this was the month. While I said doubling the payment is not a gradual increase, there is little I can do to alleviate this new burden. My options were:
- Put my other DOE loans on the same gradual plan, saving me $20 for 2 years (and God knows how much interest will be accumulated in the mean time)
- Put my loans on hold and only pay what I can for a determined time (again, racking up thousands of dollars in interest)
- Lower my interest rate a whopping 0.25% by going on auto pay (already at 6.8%).
While these would "help" me today, what about when the time is up? I'll be back at the price I'm at now, and then some. I would have added more money to the interest bucket and even less to the principal. And speaking of principal, my loan has barely made a dent in the 5+ years I've been paying on over $25,000 worth of debt. When I was unemployed, they lowered my monthly payments to what I was paying. They never told me it was a temporary plan, nor that the price would double. There was no disclosures, no paperwork, nothing I signed. Just a lovely chap on the phone saying "ok, I've lowered your payments for you."
What's most frustrating, is that there is NO way out of a student loan. They can't be discharged in a bankruptcy, non-payment results in being garnished up to 25% of your wages for the rest of your life, as well as garnishing your social security and taking your tax returns. Let's not forget what happens to the poor soul who was required to cosign on your student loans. Oh, you can't pay? We'll just go after your father who is retired, barely get's anything from social security, and still can't put food on the table as it is. We'll take 25% of his $1200 a month.
Plus, I don't quality for a lower rate based on income. I make too much. Nevermind the fact that I have a $400 car payment, a $400 health insurance payment, your $300 student loan payment, another $100 student loan payment (from a real company, not a blood sucking, first born eating company like Sallie Mae), $200 rent payment, and need to be able to put gas in my car and food in my stomach. I haven't even included my other costs I pay each month like internet so I can work at my job, a cell phone so people can get ahold of me and to make doctor appointments, and the monthly medication and doctor visit costs I have for being born "special."
But as long as Sallie Mae's stock is $22/share, and they make $543 million in profit off the sweat and tears of those sentenced to a life of poverty, then what does it matter that I'm just another person who's soul was sold to the for profit organization when I signed the dotted line, hoping to improve myself and get farther in this world.
There's no way out. I will never have these loans paid off, and I will never be able to put money into a savings account, nor be able to retire. There is just no way out.
