The Trump administration recently announced that student loans will resume starting May 5th, with little to no options, other than repayment. Those in loan default could face garnished pay, cuts to their social security, a reduction in federal aid, and more if loan repayment is not provided.
To those with student loans, how are you feeling as May 5th inches close? Were you tracking this news?
Comments
i didn’t even know about this. thank you.
i tried to get into some kind of program before the election but the website kept fucking up and not letting me finish the form. i’ve been unable to pay for almost 20 years, before you all lecture me please understand i was homeless, domestically abused the rest of the time, serious drug addict, and just all around not okay.
was off the grid for a lot of that and so i didn’t work and didn’t do a good job keeping things up to date. i was in default and forbearance once before already. and anyway now i’m sober but can’t work, on social security income which is far below the poverty line, and am permanently disabled, but i am hearing my doctor needs to fill out a form and that the trump administration is going to reject all of those and make disabled people pay.
with what money? they’re coming for my social security already so i don’t know what i’m going to do. qualifying for these programs are interdependent and if an administration decides i don’t qualify for one, other programs will have audits triggered and reject me (food stamps, my housing voucher, medicaid) i’m panicked af
Every day I wake up and I wonder who voted for this. So many people stuck in jobs that refuse to pay well. I think about how I when I first job hunted in 2011 after I graduated how many jobs were in the 50-60k range. And when i look at jobs today so many are the same or even less than that. ( some may say 50-60k is good or they wish they had that- I’m coming from a HCOL area where my career services wealthy people ). I don’t get why government does not do something about this and how instead they make it harder for those who are barely getting by. My heart breaks for everyone because people are living paycheck to paycheck despite having a college degree. This isn’t the America I thought it was when I was younger but here we are.
I might get downvoted, but I have always kept an eye on my student loans so I’m not worried. My recertification has been pushed back and since I’ve been making payments, they aren’t officially due until next year.
However, I find it quite frustrating hearing people being shocked and surprised that they have to pay their loans back. I have sympathy for those who really are struggling, but none for those who never made periodic checks on their loans and essentially ignored them. What did they think? That the loans would never have to be paid back? There are people who are trying to write letters to credit bureaus to reverse the effect of the default report on their credit score. You know when you don’t pay your bills so the lack of accountability surrounding student loan debt is annoying to hear and read about.
The loans were going to have to be paid back eventually. This just is an unfortunate time for it.
From my understanding the May 5th is pertaining to those only in default. I would recommend for anyone who is in default to reach out to their loan servicer ASAP to look into getting on a IDR plan. There are options. Please just don’t do nothing cus the government is moving forward with their decision regardless if anyone likes it or not.
I’m out of the loop on student loan issues (graduated in 2007 before costs got super crazy thankfully). What exactly happened during covid and what’s happening now with repayment?
Did literally everyone not have to pay on their loans for 5 years? Did interest accumulate in the meantime?
Tbh, I joined the military at 17 for free college and now I don’t have loans and I have free healthcare. I’m hoping student loans starting again will start a foreclosure wave across the country and remove some competition from the housing market.
Smartest decision I ever made as a teenager. Even back then college loans seemed like a bad deal to me.
HOWEVER I think every American should have my benefits. AND you should be able to declare bankruptcy for college loans. They’ve only gotten so expensive because people can’t default and they’re government backed.
You should have specified in your title that you are only referring to US based women.
I suggest any of you who can’t afford to pay enroll in a class at a local community college. If your loans are through the Dept of Ed they pause your loans when you are in school.
My student loan payments have been coming out of my paycheck for awhile now. I didn’t get this forbearance that a lot of people are saying they got. I didn’t try to apply to the SAVE plan and am on a standard repayment, so I think that is why? The changes refer to those in default right? I don’t see why thats any different than any other loan you’re in default on. If you have no money, they can’t take anything. If you do have money, they’ll garnish it to pay for your loans. That’s how things go. It sucks for those people but I don’t really see why people didn’t expect that to happen. Forgiveness was never the move (except in cases for forgiving loans from scam schools)
I’m not panicking as Biden had this plan anyways and it “only” impacts folks in default- who have been being contacted by the feds for months prior telling them such and to get on a plan, and whose credit scores have dropped in prior months due to it. Plus, may 5 is when they start working with other departments to garnish wages, etc- folks have until the end of summer to get stuff right before consequences occur.
It also means folks may have to take second or thirds jobs just to pay their loans- I’m one of them, so I don’t want to sound like I’m not empathetic. It’s just….. we’ve had a head’s up this would happen. If your income is $0/mo, your payment is that, too. I feel like influencers are overhyping this for clicks; it’s nothing that is new or wasn’t going to happen under Biden.
I know it’s tough and sucks for some but there’s still several months to get this figured out for the folks who want to do so, on top of the last five years, even tho it will mean folks have to make tough choices and it really sucks we have to do that here in America. I hate how our system works.
I already pay a couple thousand every month so it doesn’t change much for me.
I feel fine because I never quit paying them.
Too many people I know fell for “Biden is going to make them go away.” But quit paying them before that even happened. I made sure to only take out as much loans as I felt comfortable paying which meant working through college and not yet pursuing my Masters.
I usually have them paid about a year in advance because balloon payments help reduce interest paid and that way if there’s an emergency, I have some leeway.
I’ve been paying my loans since July 2023, so nothing changes for me. I’m going to continue living frugally in a LCOL area, working two jobs, and putting 63 percent of my monthly take-home salary toward the loans. I refuse to go into default or to let the interest get ahead of me.
I know this will hurt a lot of people. Buy from what I know, and correct me if I’m wrong, the amount garnished from your wages is less than the amount due per month.
I’ve seen the news but am not worried. I went to school as a non-traditional student so was very aware of the risks of taking out loans even though my field had decent job prospects. I was able to secure a job in my field before graduating and have been paying my loans aggressively.
I’m not past due but hoping I can get forbearance for the maximum period allowed while I work on getting my license so I can finally be paid more to afford the monthly payment. If I were to pay it now, things would be hard.
Wondering the fellow members of this groups opinion… perhaps we could have some kind of mutual aid pool or something as a part of the sub for people that are defaulting and struggling with payment? I have student loans myself but I’m not in that situation, and am unlikely to be… so I’d love to help a bit where I can
I’m on IDR and PSLF. Lord only knows what changes are gonna happen but I’m happy for now that I’m in repayment. Trying real hard not to stress about things I can’t control.
I’ve been paying them back without interruption so I’m not concerned. I’ve been paying them back for 20 years now and have probably paid the full amount of the original loan and then some by now. I’m sad Biden’s loan forgiveness didn’t go through. I’ve been paying student loans back my entire adult life. I also work in public service but don’t qualify for public service loan forgiveness because I don’t have the right kind of repayment plan. The kind of plans that are required didn’t exist when I started repaying my loans. I looked into switching several years ago but was informed, if I switched, I would have to pay $15,000 a month.
Every day they do something cruel to create noise that will cover up what they do that isn’t being talked about. That’s what worries me the most. Something worse is going to happen while many people are busy, struggling with making payments and getting their loans in order. This is targeted towards educated, younger, working class people. They are doing this for a reason.
I’m really ‘grateful’ that I paid mine back early. Through both my parents dying young. They certainly did not have enough to retire on but it was enough for my loans, and yes I’m aware it’s a very dark think to be even glibly glad about.
You took the loans. You pay them. The interest rate is reasonable.
There’s a generation of jaded graduates that think forgiveness is around the corner. You deferred because the government allowed it and because Covid. Sorry. It’s time to pay for your mistakes.
What other plan do you have for loans? . Predatory or not. They are yours.
I’m so glad I didn’t stop making payments and I’m now done with mine. I’m so sorry we got close to student loan forgiveness only to be led here. It’s messed up how much some of us were fucked over by essentially being forced to go to college and take out loans
Oh. Cool. Another thing to add to the list.
It’s going to cause a lot of strain to people who are already just scraping by on the bare minimum.
If you’re not in default, this doesn’t apply to you.
If you are, loan rehab/IDR plans/debt resolution/etc. have been and are a thing.
If you’ve just been treating it like Monopoly Money numbers on a screen about getting out of them, I think you spend too much time on Reddit.