Student loans | Imamother

amother

Crimson

Sun, Dec 22 2019, 3:57 pm

amother [ Babypink ] wrote:

A lien on your house!?! Which State are you in, I want to look into this further. Where I'm from (CA), a creditor cannot put a lien on your home, if it's your primary residence! A creditor can put a lien on a second, third or fourth home (for example, you are a real estate investor who owns several properties). But a lien on a primary residence, that's completely new to me!

At this point you must find out 3 things:
1. What are your State laws regarding whether a creditor can actually put a lien on a primary place of residence (highly unlikely);
2. What are your State laws regarding the Statute of Limitations as regards debts. In California it'a 4 years. After 4 years of not making payments, a creditor cannot pursue the debt anymore.
3. When was the last time you made a payment on the loan?

Please do not do anything rash until you figure out these answers. Do not contact the collections agency! Do not agree to make a payment yet- this will restart the Statute of Limitations. To illustrate: if this were in California, where the Statute of Limitations is 4 years, and you made your last payment 2 years ago, that means the creditor has 2 years left to collect on the debt. Once 4 years passes, the debt goes off your credit, and the creditor cannot legally contact you (in California). You need to know what your State laws are and where you're standing in regards to those laws. DO NOT panic and let the collections agency bully you into agreeing, let alone actually doing, anything about this debt until you're informed of your State laws and know how they will affect you.

It really depends if your student loans are private or federal. There are no statute of limitations on federal student loans so please be careful before dispensing this kind of advice.
Op, I would suggest you speak to a lawyer to know how to best resolve this matter.

amother

Babypink

Sun, Dec 22 2019, 4:05 pm

OP, Chanukah Sameakh, first of all:) I think there is confusion (certainly I'm confused) as to whether these are private or government loans? Originally I assumed these were private loans. But now I wonder if you received something like a Sallie Mae student loan? This is something you need to find out, so you can receive better advice. Because that will make all the difference in how you must handle this.

I hear you about not being able to not pay back these loans. I always felt that way too, until I had a medical emergency and health insurance covered 98.5% of the bill... well the bill was hundreds of thousands of dollars, so you can do the math, my bill to the hospital was thousands of dollars I could not pay. And being upper-middle class with kids in Jewish day school, there was no government assistance for me. These things happen, and sometimes, you simply can't pay back a loan without losing your home or what not. So if you can't pay these loans back -and to be honest on your salary, it doesn't seem that you can- you're not alone. There are people, many of us frum Jews too, in the same boat you're in right now. It's unfortunate, but you didn't go out and spend reckless amounts of money on credit cards, vacations, cars. You were 18 and suckered into paying way more for an education than that education was worth. And you're not alone. That's been happening for years, and the frum community still hasn't caught on yet, that paying Harvard prices for a degree from Stern or YU isn't worth it by any stretch of the imagination. This degree clearly did not give you the earning power needed to pay back the loans you were told to take out in order to get it. What are you supposed to do? Chas v'Shalom work yourself so hard tutoring 10 hours a week on top of your work schedule that you end up in the hospital with exhaustion or worse yet not have kids for the next few years to pay these loans back? You've got to be reasonable about your earning power, your physical needs (you can't live on rice, beans and cucumbers) and the amount of energy you have to work.

What I'm having trouble understanding is, why your father took control over your education, but left you with the debts? Please do not be offended, I mean this respectfully, but it seems to me that you were very young, probably immature and had no idea what sort of a financial burden you were signing up for. Your father controlled your education to the extend that he set you up for these loans, receives the mail from your creditors and knows more about what's going on with the debts than you do, so it might be a good idea to speak with a Rabbi about how to proceed with your father, and what to do about a debt you were essentially suckered into taking on, when you had no knowledge about what you were doing.

amother

Orange

Sun, Dec 22 2019, 4:12 pm

It sounds like op is not quite sure. Could be some are private and some are federal. Agree, OP, you need to sit down (calmly and rationally) with your father to find out exactly what's what. You need a list of each loan and all paperwork involved.
If the loans are in your names, then you need to be the one to deal with it and figure out the best plan. Doesn't matter what a rav says, legally the loan belongs to the person whose name is listed:(
And btw, op, I went to a state university and had student loans. Not $40,000 but still an amount that took time and effort to pay off. Unless you get a really good scholarship and/or have parents who can help out, or some sort of fabulous part time job with an amazing salary that's just the way it goes.

baby12x

Mon, Dec 23 2019, 10:58 am

amother [ Babypink ] wrote:

Wanted to comment on this: this is the real issue with student loans these days.
Parents are able to convince, force kids to take out student loans for an education and the kids have NO IDEA what they are getting into.

Not only that, but many of our parents come from a different generation where an education was THE MOST IMPORTANT thing NO MATTER WHAT. they assumed that a good college degree would equal a good job and that certainly an investment in an education no matter the cost would be worth it. But the world doesn't work like that anymore and many people are stuck with loans that they can't pay back.

OP, you really need to get a handle on how much and what type of loans we are talking about before you can proceed