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Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

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Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#141

Post by twblalock »

lr4444lr wrote: post #130
OrwellianChild wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, then... New rule: the primary loan provider for higher education in America - education that is argued in many circles as being a public good and benefit to society - shall be considered to be in a "special relationship" with the student borrower... Let people know what they're getting into. I don't see how this should be any different from the relationship a fiduciary has with his/her client. Can we make this…

* Let people know what they're getting into.* Are you suggesting that when people signed for the loan - which was not with Navient, as they're on the servicing and collections side - that they didn't know what the terms of repayment would be?

When I got my student loans, I had to do a whole bunch of online orientation. It included the various repayment plans, and even what the monthly oayment would be under each plan, and how much total interest each plan would eventually cost me. I think its a federal requirement that this information is provided before the loans are disbursed.

If someone doesn't take the time to understand their student loans, which are one of the most important things in their lives at that age, I just don't know what to say.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#142

Post by twblalock »

theseatoms wrote: post #37
bluGill wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that school loans should only be allowed for jobs. If you love art and are interested in "under water basket weaving" as a degree that is great, but it won't pay the bills and so you should save your money to pay for it. When you decide to become a medical doctor, it is understood your eventually worth will pay off reasonable loans. My solution: student loans may be discharged in bankruptcy, but your school…

Allow borrowers to default on student loans. Then banks can charge an appropriate interest rate for the credit risk of the borrower, based on pursued major (among other things).

Very few students would qualify. Most of them have no credit history and little to no income. If it were easy to default, the entire system would collapse.

Obviously the impossibility of defaulting and the ease of getting loans feeds the problem, but what you are proposing would destroy the system rather than fix it.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#143

Post by twblalock »

jorblumesea wrote: post #26

Everyone, if you are with any major big loan lender, please consider refinancing under So-Fi or others.

This is good advice for a certain subset of people. If your income is high enough that you won't qualify for the income-based repayment plans, it can make sense to refinance.

On the other hand, if you need IBR, or some of the other protections offered by federal loans, you are taking a risk by refinancing. You'll lose those protections, and you might need them in the future. If you are pursuing one of the public service loan forgiveness programs, you probably need to keep the federal loans.

I refinanced with Commonbond, a Sofi competitor, a few years ago. My loan balance was fairly low compared to my income, I would never qualify for income-based repayment, and my federal loan rate was something like 6.8%. I refinanced my 10-year loan to a 5-year loan with a low interest rate. My situation was ideal for this. However, if your loan balance is more than your annual salary, or you need to rely on the federal loan protections for some other reason, you shouldn't do it.

On the other hand, there seems to be no downside to refinancing private student loans.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#144

Post by School-Cotton »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #121
kchoudhu wrote: post #36

Why is a student loan servicer any different from a mortgage servicer? I don't go to my mortgage servicer for leniency or charity; why should my student loan servicer be any different? If we want student loan servicer behavior to change, we need to legislate it. Just like we did (or didn't, depending on your point of view) for mortgage servicers.

Not to actually argue for or against, but mortgage holders don't hand 5 or 6 figures of unsecured debt to an 18 year old without any due diligence on if the loan has a chance of being repaid.

Neither does Navient.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#145

Post by Larrikin »

djrogers wrote: post #107
techsupporter wrote: post #4

> There is no expectation that the servicer will act in the interest of the consumer... Navient says its public statements encouraging borrowers to contact the company didn’t mean it would act in their best interest. So, pardon in advance for the vulgar language, but why the fuck is this OK? From any company? I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" and how we'r…

> why the is this OK? From any company? For the same reason that it's always been expected from any company. Do you expect a local car dealer to act in your best interests if you show up as a result of a radio ad? Caveat Emptor is in Latin for a reason - people have been living by the maxim for a really really long time.

Its becoming apparent that a lot of people do expect them to at least not be malicious. People don't want to be ripped off because of an information asymmetry, and when they have the information they don't want to waste hours haggling it down to an actual fair price.

I'd be willing to bet that played a role in the large number of those direct to consumer pre-orders and why Tesla is valued higher than Ford.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#146

Post by taneq »

noonespecial wrote: post #9
techsupporter wrote: post #4

> There is no expectation that the servicer will act in the interest of the consumer... Navient says its public statements encouraging borrowers to contact the company didn’t mean it would act in their best interest. So, pardon in advance for the vulgar language, but why the fuck is this OK? From any company? I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" and how we'r…

>I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" I propose "the bigger the print, the stronger the statement". Therefore, if you make one claim in 24 point and then attempt to rescind or modify it in 8 point, the 24 is legally binding because it was larger and so nullified the smaller. This also means that if you want to place limitations (like 'one per customer' etc)…

I love it. You have my vote!

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#147

Post by taneq »

iandanforth wrote: post #82
noonespecial wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" I propose "the bigger the print, the stronger the statement". Therefore, if you make one claim in 24 point and then attempt to rescind or modify it in 8 point, the 24 is legally binding because it was larger and so nullified the smaller. This also means that if you want to place limitations (like 'one per customer' etc)…

Billboards would be blood oaths guaranteed by the life of the firstborn of the CEO.

Same with political advertising. This is a good thing.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#148

Post by rbcgerard »

noonespecial wrote: post #9
techsupporter wrote: post #4

> There is no expectation that the servicer will act in the interest of the consumer... Navient says its public statements encouraging borrowers to contact the company didn’t mean it would act in their best interest. So, pardon in advance for the vulgar language, but why the fuck is this OK? From any company? I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" and how we'r…

>I'm getting real damn sick and tired of "what the big print gives, the spidery print takes away" I propose "the bigger the print, the stronger the statement". Therefore, if you make one claim in 24 point and then attempt to rescind or modify it in 8 point, the 24 is legally binding because it was larger and so nullified the smaller. This also means that if you want to place limitations (like 'one per customer' etc)…

That is awesome!

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#149

Post by cornellwright »

Lazare wrote: post #112
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The energy drink company's interest is to minimize its cost. Years of bad behavior in this regard eventually led to pure food/drug laws, but in places with weak rule of law plenty of people are still poisoned by dodgy food.

Oh yes, absolutely. We have laws banning outright fraud, setting minimum food safety standards, a lot of rules about packaging and labelling. And that's good! But we don't have any laws or expectation that a food vendor is going to be acting in my best interests. If I want to spend my rent money on 87 large pepperoni pizzas, nobody is going to arrest the guy who took my order because he didn't sit down and have a 30…

However the pizza restaurant also doesn't have anything about helping you make good, long-term financial decisions plastered all over it's website.

If Navient wrote "call us and we'll screw you" then that would be fine as the customer would get what exactly what they were promised.

Re: Student Debt Giant Navient to Borrowers: You’re on Your Own

#150

Post by da02 »

jordanmoconnor wrote: post #33
paulpauper wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, reality paints a sightly more optimistic picture...the average debt per graduate is $30,000--about the price of a new car, but as measured by wages, a degree gains value (this is because since 2009 wages for grads have seen much stronger growth than wages for non-grads) http://greyenlightenment.com/is-college-a-big-waste-of-time-... I read stories on Reddit about grads who have debt but are also making decent 5…

I went to an engineering focused private university, borrowed my way through the whole thing (housing, food, everything), parents didn't pay a dime. Stupid? Yes. But that's reality for a lot of people. I'm shocked those averages are that low.

How much was the tuition per year? Did it take long to get a job when you finished your studies?
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