Lenders Taking More Borrowers To Court Over Student Loans

[Purveyor]

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Fall behind on your student loans these days and you could end up getting more than hectoring phone calls and threatening letters. Some lenders are taking more people to court, attorneys say.

The number of lawsuits filed over delinquent student loans that were made by private lenders has increased significantly in the past two years, lawyers told The Associated Press, even though borrowers are missing payments much less often than they did during the height of the recession.

While no one tracks exactly how many such lawsuits are brought, an AP review of court websites in several states found several thousand, an overwhelming number of them filed since 2013.

"I'm seeing it steadily getting worse," said Joshua R.I. Cohen, a lawyer representing people in student loan cases in Connecticut and Vermont. "They're going to court more often. They're pushing for harder settlement terms."

Loan industry officials did not return calls or would not comment on the apparent uptick in lawsuits.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STUDENT_DEBT_COLLECTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-18-13-01-37

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Bubble ready to pop?

Eom

[villager]

2. I wonder if Democrats will ever have the spine to address/redress this?

...after having helped cause these problems in the first place?

[yeoman6987]

4. Happening in Connecticut and Vermont. Liberal states are doing strang things lately

Seems they've got republicanitis.

[villager]

18. Well, there's only "Republicanitis" and "Fascistitis" to choose from now.

"True Democrat syndrome" appears to have been... eradicated.

[Orrex]

3. I hope that this generates another round of scolding.

In any discussion of predatory student loans, we can rely on a certain number of DUers to scold those irresponsible fools who, at the age of 17, lacked the foresight to predict the realities of the global market place a decade or more in the future.

[trumad]

5. LOL

When I debate those types I usually walk away---with the realization that I'm debating someone who is not to bright.

[ryan_cats]

6. No

No, the scolding should be for those who felt entitled to go to a UC school or equivalent (as I am in California) when they could have gone to an excellent state school, as well as choosing a worthless degree. Did these 17 year olds spring up unannounced as 17 YO? Where were their parents, where were the good counselors?


I don't have any sympathy left for anyone who chooses a prestigious institution they couldn't afford while I and everyone I know went to community college and transferred. Granted, the community colleges were free when I went and now they are near the CSU system's prices which is a bigger tragedy than student loans.

Is it now too much of a burden to carry a full load and work? Then again, work takes time away from protesting.

[CoffeeCat]

8. For both of our teenaged daughters to attend a nearby university...

It will cost 20k per year each. That's a $160k bill for both of their educations.

That's the cheapest college/university in the state.

What are middle-class parents supposed to do? What are these kids supposed to to?

Our girls have part-time jobs and they are saving. We're saving as well. They'll work during the summer and part time while in college. But it's not enough. We're hoping for scholarships too.

This is crazy. It wasn't like this 15 years ago. College was affordable. It's so out of reach now for middle-class folks, even some upper middle class people.

And this is for in-state tuition at the state's most affordable college!

And if you don't have a degree, you are screwed unless you have an interest or a skill that doesn't require a college degree.

[ryan_cats]

22. What state?

What state are you in?

$20K to stay at home a year? That is an incredible nut to crack.

This is the kind of gap community college was supposed to bridge.

[CoffeeCat]

28. I'm in Iowa and this would be the cost for Iowa State University...

Tuition/Room/Board/Books

http://www.registrar.iastate.edu/fees

Undergraduate Students Fall & Spring — All Years
Resident
Year '15-'16
Tuition & Fees $7,736
Room & Board $8,070
Books & Supplies $1,034
Total University Expenses $16,840
Anticipated Personal Expenses $2,430
Total Cost on Average (rounded) $19,270

[ryan_cats]

29. I

I screamed when a calculus book was $30 and it covered two years.

What is resident, non-resident? Is the cost the same since there is only one figure?

Is that the cheapest option, does Iowa have community colleges?

[CoffeeCat]

30. Resident/non resident...

Resident means, a resident of Iowa. Essentially it's in-state tuition.

Non-resident would mean someone who lives out of the state of Iowa, who will be attending Iowa State University.

I cut and pasted the data, and I meant to delete "non resident".

There were stats/numbers for non-resident tuition, but I deleted all of that. It's about twice as much though!

Yes, we have community colleges. Tuition/books would run about $2,500-3k per year.

[LanternWaste]

9. I do so enjoy the juicy distinctions without a relevant difference

I do so enjoy the juicy distinctions without a relevant difference to better justify the oft-offered and irrelevant anecdote, such as "anyone who chooses a prestigious institution they couldn't afford while I and everyone I know..."

[ryan_cats]

25. I prefer

I prefer it when you flail around in Latin spouting phallacies you don't understand.

Yes, going to Yale and then complaining about the cost is considered gauche, unless it's for a public service degree like ethnic studies. Where will the future telephone sanitizers come from?

[KamaAina]

12. Um, UC schools are state schools

we have both UC and CSU.

And what, pray tell, is a "worthless degree"? Anything outside STEM?

[ryan_cats]

23. A worthless

A worthless is a degree is whatever I disagree with.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Ugh. Just ugh.

The self-righteousness is just bursting out of this post.

[Orrex]

15. Wow--it's like I'm a prophet or something! Even better, in fact!

How many other prophets issues prophecies with 100% accuracy? That's one hell of a prophet margin!

[ryan_cats]

26. I

I prefer a prophet five.

[villager]

19. Hard to know where to begin with such an ahistorical post. The UCs were *set up* as "excellent state

schools" in the first place, fully intended to be free/low-cost education for Californians (presumably the same in other states w/ land grant schools).

They were never meant to cost five figures a year.

And when wages are stagnant and school costs vastly outstrip the rate of inflation, yeah, working and carrying a full load ain't what it used to be.

[Dr. Strange]

20. You shouldn't have majored in chainmailology.

Next time pick a useful major. Like rock music.

[Orrex]

21. It's chainmailurgy, you peasant.

[rhett o rick]

24. Isn't that what HRC did. She said when she was a student she had a job. nm

[CoffeeCat]

7. If they are taking these student-loans borrowers to court...

...most likely these people absolutely are at rock-bottom and do not have the funds to pay. Taking them to court and suing is most likely not going to reap a sudden windfall of payments to the companies servicing these loans.

They're doing this to garnish wages. Further enslavement. And what an embarrassment. You get a job and the accounting department knows that there is a court order to garnish your wages.

Also alarming in this article: "Some of the companies that are suing, such as the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts and Navient Corp., have bundled thousands upon thousands of student loans into trusts worth billions of dollars - investment products that are then sold to investors.

Oh geez. Did banks really bundle student-loan debt as they did with mortgages that led to the collapse of the housing market and the implosion of the U.S. economy in 2008? These student loans are a time bomb waiting to explode. I knew that many would default and not be able to pay, but I had no idea that banks had bundled these loans and sold them as "investment products."

Would be interesting to understand who or what companies purchased these ticking time bombs. Other banks? Insurance companies?

Holy buckets. Are we headed for another financial bust?

[haele]

14. Of course we are. Investing is always gambling, no matter how good or safe the investment is.

The big fund managers associated with banks are in the position to make crap-loads of money on the fees they charge for their investment products and/or "advice" no matter if the gambles pay off or not.
It's all about the love of money.
Since Glass-Stiegel was take apart, pretty much anything can be commoditized as sold as an investment product. The entire economy becomes entangled in bubbles built by wealthy people who simply want more money, and don't really care about what their "strategic plans" does to the economy as a whole.
Making money becomes more important than making things or making a life.
And I don't think that in our fragmented, isolated society that the average person really realizes what an economy really means anymore. For the most part, they certainly can't seem to think any further than maybe six months out, or any higher than "the bottom line".

Haele

[KamaAina]

10. And remember, you can't discharge student loan debt through bankruptcy

Thanks, repukes!

[smirkymonkey]

11. What if the borrower has no money and no assets (and no way of acquiring either, or at

least not enough to survive on AND pay off the loan)? They can't get blood from a stone.

Beacuse that is where a lot of borrowers have sunk to these days. They just can't realistically ever pay off the loan - even with employment - and they if they lose a job, it becomes impossible. Once they get so far behind due to compounded interest the likelihood of EVER paying off the loan looks more and more unrealistic.

[hifiguy]

16. We're only a couple of years or so away from

those people being imprisoned, which will effectlvely be a life sentence after being charged for being in jail while being paid two dollars a day, as there will never be any possibility to pay any of it off. Count on it. Slavery through the back door, just as the oligarchs desire.

And it has the side benefit - to the parasite class - of keeping those private prisons nice and full.

[Orrex]

17. Don't say "blood" in this context, because they'd come after it if they could.

[hifiguy]

27. Eventually creditors will be allowed to sell the organs of debtors.

But that still won't get you out of prison.