Woman with $555,000 student loan balance

[Liberal_in_LA]

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.

It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.

"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."

Michelle Bisutti borrowed $250,000 to pay for medical school. The debt has since ballooned to $555,000.
.To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703389004575033063806327030.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_personalfinance


In 2005, the bill for the Wells Fargo loans came due. Representatives from the bank called her father, Michael Bisutti, every day for two months demanding payment. Mr. Bisutti, who had co-signed on the loans, finally decided to cover the $550 monthly payments for a year.

Wells Fargo says it will stop calling consumers if they request it, says senior vice president Glen Herrick, who adds that the bank no longer imposes origination fees on its private loans.

[Turbineguy]

1. This is what happens when you take a good idea

and put it in the hands of Bankers. If everybody will be so kind as to pay off their student loans the banks can then lend the money to corrupt countries and lose it.

[Richard Steele]

2. Very well stated. nm

[Greyhound]

6. Exactly. A great idea, educating Americans, turned into another corporate welfare program. n/t

[Lorien]

21. She, like the rest of us, already gave the bank a bailout

it's past time they returned the favor.

[RavensChick]

3. Dayum!!!

How greedy do these banks have to be in getting their money back? Next thing they'll do is garnish wages, put liens on the house, the car, the cat, the dog, and the goldfish!

Makes me glad I'm going to a community college and I'm more glad to pay out of pocket. That's insane to put it mildly!

:wtf:

[wolfgangmo]

78. Unfortunately one cannot become a doctor at community college.

You can start there, but then you need your M.S., your doctorate, and then residency. All of which cost big bucks.

But hey, let's just let doctors go to correspondence school or take a few weekend seminars. Holy cats.


My wife is a doc and her student loan payments are almost the same size as her income. We have an old house that is falling down and only one car. We get the bills paid, but for the amount of work she puts in (80 hours a week) she gets paid about $6.50 per hour for which she has to pay the highest tax bracket (because on paper her income is high).

She loves medicine, but like many doctors is now wondering if she made the wrong decision. She talks about either moving her clinic to Canada (where she would work fewer hours because she would spend half her time arguing with some clerk with an AA degree who decided that he knew more than she did and denied treatment - note; a typical doctor spends up to 50% of their time justifying treatments to insurance companies) or chucking it all and moving to some tropical country where the student loan folks couldn't find her and work for coconuts and chickens.

I am making light of this but many of the doctors we know are ready to quit. WTF will this country do when the only docs left are those who service the uber weathy?

[TwixVoy]

4. Student loans need to totally eliminated

they should be outlawed completely.

Make school affordable instead and expand grant programs for those who need them.

[WCGreen]

5. the easy availability of student loans are a major contributing factor

to the increasing price of higher education.

There is no connect between the cost of an education when you really aren't paying for it until it is too late...

[Blue_Tires]

18. very true

[ParkieDem]

70. Agree 100%.

I graduated from a liberal arts college, and unlike many of my peers, I graduated with less than $15,000 in student loans. Many friends of mine had upwards of $50,000 in debt, some pushed $100k.

Now, I'm all for "education for the sake of education," and believe wholeheartedly that education has an intrinsic value other than mere enhancement in earning power. However, my alma mater did nothing to prepare these students for the debt-to-income ratio they'd be facing upon graduation. Unless you have a concentration in business or are going on to graduate school, it's almost impossible to find a job with a liberal-arts degree that pays more than $40,000 per year. With student loan payments getting upwards of $500 per month, this is a huge burden.

Some say the solution is "more financial aid," and that should definitely be a part of it. However, colleges (both public and private) have used the easy availability of loans, grants and other financial aid as simply an excuse to raise tuition even further. For example, if the government made available to every student a $10,000 per year federal grant, I can almost guarantee you that 90% of colleges would raise their tuition by that amount. It's a racket.

[Toucano]

25. +1

Except grants contribute to the escalation of tuition as well.

[SOS]

29. From the Humboldt University (Berlin Germany) Doctoral page:

"As with most doctoral programs in Germany, our programs do not charge a tuition fee."

Why is everything in this country a Wall Street rip-off?

[go west young man]

95. So true.

My wife who is Russian (now a naturalized US citizen) received a free education in Russia and speaks 5 languages. She's an interpreter and a concierge at a 5 star resort here in the states. No debt whatsoever. Every country but the US offers free education. What is our problem? Why is everything in the US a racket? Her four year Russian degree was transferred into a masters degree here so it goes to show that US colleges respect Russian education.

[indy legend]

67. I agree 100%

but you do realize every right wing neo fascist who read that just had a massive coronary. Why these people go ape shit over the idea of making health care available to all, making lunches available for poor children, and providing shelter for the homeless. Can you imagine the outcry from these shit stains on society if we suggest making education affordable to everyone. We can't have that. Why if kids get an education they won't grow up stupid enough to become the next generation of morally and intellectually bankrupt republifux.

[dysfunctional press]

80. there's nothing wrong with the concept of student loans.

they just shouldn't allow onerous fees and interest rates.

[grasswire]

7. All student loans should be forgiven.

Just wipe them off the books. It would be a boon to the economy.

[gmoney]

71. But it wouldn't be fair to those whose families scrimped and saved.

Not to sound too republican on this, but some parents actually think ahead that their kid might want to go to college, so they sacrifice by putting money away for their kid's education.

So, you scrounged and saved $100,000 by the time your kid turns 18 to send your son to school. But his best friend's parents didn't save at all -- they took vacations, got new cars and a swimming pool, etc, and their kid just got a bunch of loans when it came time for college. (That is their right, of course... let the son be responsible for his college.) They both graduate, and someone comes along and says "oh, buddy, your loans are forgiven at taxpayer expense!" Wouldn't you, uh, just slightly resent that a bit? Is that even remotely fair?

I would have loved to just get loans and stay in school indefinitely and studied everything under the sun then "poof" the loans vanish...

I'm all for reforming education so that it's not so insanely expensive, creating more scholarship funds, and making college loans interest free, but we gotta have SOME responsibility, don't we?

[wolfgangmo]

79. So give them a retroactive tax credit

Honestly, if I get your argument it is that we shouldn't do loan forgiveness because someone, somewhere saved and scrimped and it wouldn't be fair to them.

Hmmmmmm. Where have I heard that argument before? Oh ya, it's a variation of the Old Reagan Welfare Queen argument, to wit that we can't be helping the poor in this country because someone somewhere works hard for their money and we can't go giving it to them.

Christ on a Harley.

[gmoney]

88. well, the OP is about a fucking DOCTOR who can't be bothered to make payments

So, just because she's to lazy or dense to make the minimum loan payments out of her copious salary, we should just magically forgive her the loan? How is that about "helping the poor"?

I'm all for helping those who demonstrate actual need, but just saying "oh, we should forgive all student loans because all students are poor and deserve to be endlessly subsidized" is idiotic.

LOTS of wealthy families take student loans because the rates are so low, and it saves them from selling off any of the blue-chip stocks to pay for college. I went to school with a kid whose parents were paying for his college expenses, so he got a student loan to buy a house to rehab and flip. You wanna forgive THEIR loans too?

Don't try to paint me as taking food out of the mouths of starving children. I'm all for making it possible for people to afford to be able to go to school. But the "tooth fairy" approach of just magically forgiving the loans is not the answer.

[hfojvt]

97. she didn't make payments while she was in residency

admittedly I only read the snip, but I don't think residents are making all that much money.

Otherwise I think you are spot on.

[grasswire]

89. seriously

would it be better to forgive student loans, or to bail out banks?

Which of those acts would put money directly into the pockets of people who are going to use it and get the economy rolling?

The banks used the bailouts for huge bonuses and for acquisitions of other banks. Then they sat on the rest, apparently.

If student loan money was freed up in a one-time jubilee, many millions of folks would be spreading that around.

[gmoney]

99. it wouldn't put much into circulation

These people aren't paying their loans now, so they either don't have it, or they're already spending it on something else. And it would just be another big wet kiss to the banks holding the loans.

"Hey Banksters, Uncle Sam is going to pick up the check for all these loans you made. Here's $$$ billion to add to this year's profits and bonus payouts! Enjoy!"

Yacht merchants rejoice! Demand for ivory back scratchers skyrockets!

Or if we forgive even the non-delinquent ones, it's that much more of a payday for the banks. Paid for largely by those who did not have the opportunity to attend college, or who did and found a way to pay for it.

On edit: the linked article in the OP says "There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org" -- that sounds like the magic number we had to cough up to save the "too big to fail" banks about 18 months ago.

[dysfunctional press]

84. why not do the same for auto loans or home mortgages...?

"Just wipe them off the books."
:eyes:

[old mark]

8. I applied for forgiveness of my loans about 5 years ago due to illness -

they "lost" my application, finally heard from them several months later and not only was denied, but they added interest to my debt for the period I was in "forbearance". When I asked about forgiveness, the person replied "Oh, I don't know anything about that."

I owe almost 50% more now than when I started paying on it. I went back to college in my 40's because I could not get a job. I am now retired after 2 heart attacks.

mark

[aquart]

10. I have one of those loans, too.

[QC]

11. Get a direct federal consolidation loan, stat.

Sign up for income based repayment. That takes 15% of discretionary income, which is much lower than standard payments. It's the only thing that has kept me from having to leave the country over my own debt.

[bergie321]

32. Doesn't work

For private student loans.

[QC]

37. That is very true. The private loans are a whole other story.

Unfortunately, the banks that offer them have bought enough members of Congress to get themselves special protections that even the Mafia would envy.

[malaise]

27. What a mess

These bankers are criminals on steroids.

[wolfgangmo]

81. I am working with our loan company.

The only thing I KNOW they are good at is losing paperwork.

They lost 5 different applications for economic hardship. FIVE!

And yes, they keep adding interest and penalties.

[Walk away]

9. All student loans should be government issued.

If we don't take the profit out of this we will end up with a nation of Burger King managers.

[wolfgangmo]

82. All student loans used to be government issued.

They still are in places like Canada and the EU. And guess where their tuition levels are at...

[G_j]

12. I have a friend, not only did they harass his parents, but

they found his grandmothers phone # and harassed her!

[dajoki]

50. The same thing...

is happening to my daughter, she is an RN and the company that gave her the student loan is now calling my mother, her grandmother.

[aikoaiko]

13. When you take on debt 3x, 4x, or 5x your expected yearly salary after graduating, you're setting...

...yourself up for disaster. At least since the 1990s, students have been very clear about payment post graduation.

Having said that I hope there is significant college tuition reform. In the end, people like Dr. Bisutti probably won't get to go to med school.

Did Pres. Obama make some recent noise about debt forgiveness if you get a job in public service?

[peace13]

14. Add to it.

Jobs that should pay graduates are either nonexistent or way under payed. Salaries that were supposed to rise after initial probation turn into final numbers. The young people are really getting screwed from both ends on this.

[aikoaiko]

28. Its true that times are really bad, even if they were good she could only expect to make 45-55k as

a resident for the five years after graduation. At 10 years and 6.5 APR she was looking at $2800 per month. If she consolidated and stretched her payments out 25years, she was still be looking at $1700 per month. Benighted financial decisions for sure.

[Statistical]

40. She could have arranged for graduated payment plan.

Where for first 5 years she is essentially only making interest only payment ($1280 per month).

While she wouldn't have reduced the principle she could have avoided it ballooning to twice as much.

[northernlights]

58. unless I'm remembering it wrong (and I hope I am)

President Obama's debt forgiveness program is that if you work in certain nonprofit, public service areas (usually at lower salary and not necessarily living in great areas) and make good on your payments for 10 consecutive years, the rest of your debt is forgiven. That said, as I recall student debts are set up for payment over 10 years. So if you make good on your payments for 10 consecutive years...there *is* no debt left to be forgiven. :wtf: but maybe I'm remembering it wrong, or maybe that's for people who go into forbearance and end up with scads more debt than they started with or anticipated.

[QC]

62. That forgiveness plan has been around since 2007.

Unfortunately, the clock starts in late 2007, so if you had been making payments for years prior to the start date, they do not count. Still, it's a great program for those who can take advantage of it.

[aikoaiko]

68. I think 10 years is still the norm, but a lot of people

have different loans from different people and they consolidate and stretch out the years.

I had loans from a couple of different places (undergrad, two grad schools). I consolidated and stretched it to a 23 year plan for the lower payments. IIRC, the payments would have been about 40% higher if I hadn't.

Its been 10 years since I graduated and entered the workforce and it would nice to be done with loans, but as it turned out the lower payments were a good thing. I've never missed a payment.

I hope Pres. Obama's debt forgiveness program goes into effect. It will help a lot of people. I predict we'll see a lot of English majors go into public service. ;-)

[cbdo2007]

15. Sorry....but you don't rack up this much student loan debt unless you blatantly

disregard paying back the loan and try to hide, which is what it's describing that she did.

She's playing the victim now but any normal person who makes an effort to pay off their loans do NOT get them turned over to collections. Not only that but the original bank, Wells Fargo wouldn't have gone after her dad in 2005 unless they couldn't find her and she wasn't paying.

I'm all for fair collection of student loans and leniency when people can't pay. Unfortunately, too many of these extreme cases get the news to get everyone worked up, especially now that everyone is sour on the banks to begin with, and this woman obviously was trying to take advantage of the system in some way to take out such large loans she didn't think she'd be able to pay back and then completely ignoring them after she finished school.

[Mojorabbit]

44. It took us almost 10 years to pay off my

husband's medical school loans. They do not teach them anything about business in medical school or at least in the 80's they did not and he somehow was under the impression he would be wildly successful right out of school. Instead, I worked mega extra shifts and supported us while he got his practice started. We scraped by for years till he built up a practice and those loans were a huge drag on us financially.

[cbdo2007]

54. Right....this is the trade off. It took me 10 years to pay off my student loan as well...

just got it paid off in November and my wife and I both paid ours off WAY early. We paid them off probably twice as fast as we were supposed to. But now we're doing just fine and have tons of money and opportunity that we wouldn't have had without college.

I don't have a problem with your husband not understanding how much he would make after medical school and what not, most of us don't fully understand that when graduating, but the people who's loan amounts balloon up 2 times, 4 times or more than they are supposed to owe...these are people who don't use their degree, and when their loan company calls them to ask why they missed a payment last month they never call them back and just keep not paying.

I had a few years in there as well where I had to defer my loans, so the interest just added up, but I couldn't pay. I couldn't afford cable tv or a cell phone until last year because of my debt...but that's what people do. They don't move away and get cable and cell phone anyway and just hope the loan people can't find them.

[Historic NY]

16. This is what happens when your a moron about handling money...

you borrowed the money with the obilgation to repay. So you blow off the payment and don't expect hte consequences, get real. No sympathy here. I worked my way through school with a full time job, no loans and finished my masters w/o borrowing a dime.

[Lorien]

22. Banks count on the majority having the same authoritarian viewpoint you do

responsibility is for the people, risk is for the banksters. If they screw up we bail them out. If we become, ill, unemployed or underemployed (like a residency) or suffer any other major setback well, then-it's our own damn fault for not preparing better. Hell of a system; just perfect for making those that don't contribute to society far wealthier while those that do get screwn.

[cbdo2007]

23. ha ha, borrowing money with an agreement you'll pay it back is "authoritarian"?

[TwilightGardener]

26. Yes. My car loan and house loan should also be optional to pay back. Who the hell is the

bank to expect me to repay what I borrowed from them? THEY'RE JUST BEING AUTHORITARIAN!!11

[SOS]

30. Perhaps not "authoritarian", but sleazy profiteers for sure

From Publishers Weekly on "The Student Loan Scam":

Think credit-card debt is a problem? Take a look at the lives ruined through the corporate thug tactics, usurious fees and vicious harassment employed by some of the nation's largest student-loan providers in this shocking exposé from Collinge, founder of StudentLoanJustice.org. The author had a manageable $38,000 in loans—until he missed a single payment. Fees and charges quickly piled up, and his debt mushroomed to more than $100,000. The author reveals that since lenders make far more money from defaulted loans than they do from borrowers in good standing, they go to extraordinary—and illegal—lengths to force borrowers into default. There are currently more than five million defaulted loans on record, and incredibly, student loans are the only type of loan in U.S. history to be nondischargable in bankruptcy. The author exposes the engineers (and profiteers) of this predatory system and urges Congress to restore standard consumer protections to student loans, concluding with a call to arms for progressive changes, refinancing rights and a plethora of practical advice for borrowers. Comprehensive and stirring, this extraordinary book is whistle-blowing at its finest.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://www.amazon.com/Student-Loan-Scam-Oppressive-History/dp/0807042293

[cbdo2007]

49. I won't argue that *some* people are not treated fairly.....but the majority

of their stories don't hold up.

I've been to StudentLoanJustice.org when someone posted about it here about a year or 6 months ago and I read many of their stories but they all have these details to them that the people leave out of their sob story. I promise you, there is NO WAY the guy who's loan went from $38,000 to $100,000 only missed one payment when this happened. Most likely, he missed one payment and then raised his interest rate so he stopped paying for a few years and then moved and forgot to tell them his new address. Then they tried to contact him and couldn't get ahold of him, etc. The "Fees and Charges quickly piled up" are because most of those people blatantly blow off their student loans.

I read through story after story on that site and about 75% of them there was a catch to them that was glossed over. Like one girl went all the way across the country to go to some college to get a degree in photography, then was surprised at how $80,000 had piled up for her degree and living expenses so she blew it off and went to the news to get relief.

It is definitely your right to go to college and I support anyone getting a student loan to go, but it IS people's responsibility to go somewhere rationally within their means to pay back and to make an attempt to pay it back.

[a la izquierda]

59. I know what I'm getting into...

and it annoys the crap out of me when people plead ignorance about student loans. I understand people have been royally screwed...but I've been careful to take out only government loans (with the exception of about $5000 that Wells Fargo owns). I owe about $90K-when I graduate I'll be making about $60K to start (unless I whore myself out to the government, in which case I'll make about double that). I don't have kids, my husband and I are on this "minimal lifestyle" kick and I've been making $16K for 6 years now...I'll be able to get my debt paid.
To do a PhD nowadays, you pretty much need to take out loans to survive.

[Doremus]

41. +1

[bergie321]

33. In what year?

[northernlights]

65. healthcare education is not set up like regular college

So unless you worked your way through medical school, you have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm "working my way" through Med Lab Tech right now. They sprange a couple *big* surprises on us last fall -- nobody was prepared for it.

1. The summer school normally is sequential -- one intensive in May/June, the second intensive in July/August. But unexpectedly, the MLT summer intensive is *all* in May/June. We are in classes and labs all day/every day in May/June, withhomework forced into evenings and weekends...then nothing in July/August. How the eff are you supposed to work through that? Then we have an intense fall, with 3 very advanced classes. And then 5 months of clinicals, working unpaid 40 hours/week plus homework and special projects for evenings and weekends. How the eff are you supposed to work through that?

2. they cut off the financial aid for4 out of 5 of us. We "didn't read the fine print" on the web page....which page DOES NOT EXIST!

Oh, I have no doubt if anyone elevates this, that page will miraculously come into existance for any investigations. It's just a private page that they'll turn into a public page when necessary.

The state university I'm attended is in on the scam...anything to boost enrollment, but the "winners" and "losers" were chosen by administration in advance.

[backscatter712]

85. So what if she was a "moron"? You want her to be a debt-slave for the rest of her life?

This is why we have bankruptcy. Not for the people who are perfect with money, but for the rest of us - who make mistakes, who take risks and find things didn't pan out, that sort of thing.

It's because we've come to the conclusion as a society that we don't throw people into debtors prisons or force people into indentured servitude for bad debt.

At some point, we have to say "OK, she was bad with money. She's not going to be your slave, so you're gonna have to write off the loss."

Otherwise, we'd all be indentured servants or in debtors prison.

It's time to fix bankruptcy law so these people can write off student loan debt.

[dysfunctional press]

86. "This is what happens when your a moron..."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

isn't irony GREAT?

(since you probably have no idea what i'm referring to- you're definitely going to need this clue.)

[SoCalDem]

17. Pretty shameful stuff.. a DOCTOR lets her DADDY take over a $550 a month payment

There's more to this story than they are telling..

Perhaps Dr. B thought it would all "go away" if she ignored it ..

[davidpdx]

19. I thought my $60,000 was bad

Owch! I'll be paying on mine the rest of my life more then likely.

[reformist2]

20. This shows the insanity of compounding interest.

At the rate she's going, she'll owe a cool $1 million in a few years. Then it will really snowball. Maybe when she dies she'll owe $10 million, even $100 million!!!

This is insane. Even if she's a deadbeat, there should be a dollar limit on the fines they can add to her initial debt.

[Stevenmarc]

24. "Didn't look at the fine print".... then it's all your fault

If you are incapable of reading fine print then hire a lawyer to do it for you.

[bergie321]

31. I had

16% interest rates on my private student loans that were accruing while I was in school. Luckily, my parents' credit improved after I graduated and they were able to cosign with me on a refinance. 16% on loans that can not be bankrupted that they can even garnish social security to get paid back. This is ridiculous. They need to cap interest rates at like 2% if the lenders want all of the special protections that the Republicans gave them.

[reformist2]

35. I agree - She'll owe $1 million soon if nothing is done.

It's absurd.

On the other hand, it's an example like this that makes it clear to people how high interest rates can be to someone who can't pay it off. In addition to limiting the interest rates they charge, they need to put a cap on how much a creditor can fine a deadbeat, like no more than 50% the original amount borrowed. Under current law, unpaid debts can snowball to infinity!

[Statistical]

39. She won't owe a million IF SHE ACTUALLY STARTS paying it.

Essentially she was loaned $250,000 on the understanding that when she graduated she would begin paying it back.

She didn't... for 7 years thus interest capitalized and no she is in a bigger whole that she started in.

I have been paying my student loans on time for coincidentally about 7 years and I make far less than a doctor does.

[reformist2]

43. She should stop paying any of it off.

Watch it snowball to $100 million....maybe even $1billion! It will show the world how insane it is to allow banks to charge compound interest like that.

[Statistical]

47. Have you even considered how long that would take.

6% interest.

final=principle*1.06^y

1000K = 550K * 1.06^y
y = ~10. It will take about a decade to get to 1 million.

100,000K (100 mil) = 550K * 1.06^y
182 = 1.06^y
y = ~90. It will take about 90 years (she will be 131 years old for debt to reach 100 million).

1,000,000k (1bil) = 550K * 1.06^y
1820 = 1.06^y
y = ~125. It will take 125 years (she will be 166 years old for debt to reach 1 billion).


Of course in 125 years 1 billion will only be worth about $20 million today due to inflation (at 3% inflation annually).

[SOS]

46. She is paying it

The article clearly states she is paying $990 a month on her federal loans and $550 a month to Wells Fargo.
They added $85,000 in "fees" so it's not just the interest.
She also deferred the loans during her residency, so it's not seven years.

[Statistical]

73. NOW she is paying it off after 7 years.

"It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates."

"After completing her fellowship in 2007, Dr. Bisutti juggled other debts, including her credit-card balance, and was having trouble making her $1,000-a-month student-loan payments. That year, she defaulted on both her federal and private loans."

"The debt load keeps her up at night. Her damaged credit has prevented her from buying a home or a new car. She says she and her boyfriend of three years have put off marriage and having children because of the debt. "

So initially she borrowed 250,000 in 2003 for Medical School. She had deferred payments from 2003-2007 (4 years) which allowed her to avoid payments but the interest continues to accrue.

Then when she finished her fellowship she did NOT repay the loan which resulted in penalties and higher interest rate. She defaulted on both private loan and subsidized (by taxpayers) public loan. The sad part is she is "prevented from buying a home or new car". WTF? She is up to her eyeballs with debt and she can' buy a new car.

That is her problem. She also indicates problems with credit card debt too. She isn't thinking about repayment. Where do I sign for my credit card, where do I sign for my new car, where do I sign for my quarter million in student loans.

Nothing about. How much will it cost to repay it? What is my budget?

Moral of the story avoid your debts and they will get really big, really fast. It isn't just the evil bankers her FEDERAL student loans have also increased due to 7 years of non-payment (4 authorized and 3 more unauthorized).

[caraher]

34. Don't forget, she borrowed for med school

that's way more expensive than undergraduate tuition.

While she may have mismanaged her situation, allowing interest to compound while payments are deferred is cruel. It's not real help to students if you do that; they should stop the clock on interest when you can't make payments for a legitimate, recognized reason until you're able to resume payments.

But the better idea is to bypass the private lenders altogether. The best idea is to have free higher education to the academically qualified, like many civilized nations do (echoes of health care here?).

[cbdo2007]

55. Right...everyone should have free health care, free higher education, free cable,

free Nintendo Wiis, and free Taco Bell for life. And it will all be paid for by......by......by?????? Let me guess, everyone but you?

[caraher]

91. The necessities of civilization should be paid for by everyone

That includes health care and education. It does not include Taco Bell and Wiis. And I am happy to pay taxes toward these public goods. In fact, I'm very pissed off at my own state (Indiana) for gutting property taxes and cutting funding for public schools.

And by the way, other countries manage to do this. Google is your friend; smart-ass remarks are not.

[surrealAmerican]

36. If we don't do something about not just predatory lending ...

... but the excessive cost of medical school, we'll be finding ourselves with a severe shortage of doctors. I don't see how anybody could afford medical school without loans now.

[Statistical]

38. She hid from her debt for 7 years and is *surprised* it doubled.

Hint #1: pretending you don't have a $250K debt for better part of decade isn't going to make it smaller.

[redqueen]

90. Yep...

this is a very strange thread.

[tammywammy]

93. +1 agreed n/t

[Doremus]

42. It's high fucking time they forgave all outstanding student loans.

Then outlaw the making of profit on the pursuit of education in this country.

Most ironic of all: Lending us our OWN fucking money at usurious interest rates for the sin of wanting to acquire an education.

Must keep the common people dumb & dumber.


Wait, on second thought, the MOST ironic thing is that so many commoners have already been dumbed down so much that they actually AGREE with the money changers.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[gmoney]

72. They should be interest free, but students must be responsible for principle amount.

If they can get a scholarship or grant that doesn't need to be repaid, I'm all for that, and more should be available to qualified students.

Loans should also be paid directly to the schools, rather than funneled through the student. I know way too many who use their loan money to pay their other bills, then can't register for classes.

[keep_it_real]

45. Student loans forever as long as students willing go into debt

The banks are making too much money off it. But what will happen to America when people just give up on their dream because it cost too much? Or America becomes higher ed for the rich only?

[anonymous171]

48. If I ever get in that much debt I plan on taking my degree and running away to Somalia or something

[cbdo2007]

51. Then be sure and come back to the states and call your local news station

so they can do a report on how your debt quadrupled while you were away and how horrible the banks are for making you pay it back. :)

[DiverDave]

52. How about a loan

for a school that teaches you NOTHING??
I am paying for a computer school, with my salary from driving a truck.
Bullshit, the banks dont give a shit, they hook you with the promise of low payments, nevermind that you cant make enough to pay your bills.
So,yeah, be holier then thou, but it's a scam, and I'm living it.

[cbdo2007]

53. What part of this is a scam??? You seem to be a willing participant and

seem to have a pretty good idea what's going on....so which part are they scamming you on?

If you are in school and not learning anything, are you blaming the banks for that? I'm not even sure how to respond to your post, its just random thoughts.

[DiverDave]

56. HUH?

do I have to draw a picture??
The banks KNEW that this school was a mill, yet they continued to give loans.
Willing participant?, maybe, but since I got hurt and my docs told me to not drive again...
So what was I to do?, go on welfare?
I did what I thought was right for my family.
So, pound sand you republican wannabe.

I swear to god, this fucking place is full of your kind.

[demodonkey]

57. This whole thread is full of mean people blaming the victim....

...the meme here is banks = good and worth every penny handed to them in usurious interest or handouts to bail them out and pay their scammy bosses million$ in bonues, while people who owe and then get scammed, get sick, lose job or whatever and can't pay are worthless bums.

It's one thing to make a fair profit, fairly. It's another to bleed people dry and bleed our nation at the same time.

To all you bank-lovers :puke:

[wellst0nev0ter]

61. Yeah, Now I No Longer Wonder Why The Dems Are So Bought

and paid for by the banksters. Now I can see who actually voted for them :eyes:

[cbdo2007]

69. I must be posting in the wrong forum, right? Cause only Republicans believe

in honoring contracts and paying back loans....

[DiverDave]

87. You really dont get it, do you?

take your "I'm better then you, you bum tude" and just leave.
Nobody said not to pay...except YOU.
up yours.

[wellst0nev0ter]

100. Silly Me

I thought it was only mobsters who double the debt compounded in blood after a few odd years in medical residency. But now I know it's standard order of procedure among the banksters and it's the borrower's fault for not particularly liking getting reamed up the ass. Thanks for clearing that up :eyes:

[upi402]

83. I know, like the Banksters are even half this responsible. n/t

[QC]

63. Check out the join dates of the bank defenders.

You will find an interesting, though not unexpected, pattern.

[northernlights]

64. the part where the school probably lied with high quality PR

advertising a pretty much guaranteed job in the computer industry.

And then you get there and learn that you're too late and there are no jobs in the computer industry. There are plenty of people running around now with IT degrees trying to pay off student loans with call center jobs that pay $11/hour. I work with one of them right now.

Even state universities are in on the scam...I know my university offers computer degrees that will qualify you for jobs that don't exist. They lie through their teeth to naive kids to get them on the hook and keep their enrollment up.

And once you're in school and discover you've been scammed, it's pretty much too late...you're already on the hook for loans you now realize you will never be able to pay off.

And just for the record, it's happening in healthcare right now too, at least at my state university. The "advisors" flat out lie about critical information that isn't made public, in order to sucker you in but keep you out. And the financial aid office withholds critical information -- they've turned off the financial aid for 4 out of 5 people in my urinalysis lab last fall. The letters we got referenced a web page we were supposed to have read. But said web page turns up "page does not exist" even if you do have the long, intricate URL. There isn't even a link to it from the regular financial aid part of the university web site!

We now have no way to pay for the last year of school -- that's after significant investment in pre-med level bio, microbio, statistics, chemistry, A&P -- during which time we'll have 2 months with classes and labs all day Monday-Thursday, 2 months off, 4 months with classes half- days Monday-Thursday and 5 months of clinicals (working all day, 5 days per week, without pay, with homework and with special projects to fill our evenings and weekends).

The program director looked a little panicky when she learned in our last lab that *all* of us are now looking for phlebotomist jobs so we can get one of our classes waived. That will enable us to possibly work (read 18-hour days) up until clinicals and hopefully save enough to go 5+ months without pay.

It's a nightmare. It's as if the school's administration already picked the winners and the losers. The losers may have 4.0 GPAs (like me) but be "transplants" (wasn't born and raised here, only lived here for 7 years), so they sucker us in, lie us into the student loan trap, and then cut us off. Basically using us to increase enrollment and pay the way for the ignorant locals they have to carry through school. I mean this literally. There's one group of students with *everything* paid for by the state...tuition, books, living stipend. All they do is go to school....and gripe. The literally staged a strike a couple weeks ago because the ITV equipment wasn't working perfectly. Apparently they think when they're working in a hospital lab if equipment malfunctions, people having heart attacks will have to wait a day or two before tests are run to see if their anti-coags are at the right level. :wtf: But they're the "winners" in this phenomenally stoopid state.

[pitohui]

77. somalia wouldn't be needed, many wonderful nations would welcome a trained medical doctor

i don't think there is even a real gov't yet in somalia but hell there are lots of nations in africa that would welcome more docs, i was thinking the same thing

also plenty of good choices in latin america -- i was talking to a woman who was living in costa rica to flee a lawsuit judgment and nobody was even coming that far, you don't have to leave the hemisphere to make it not worth the bother of the collection agencies

some specialties, you could pretty much go anywhere

[reformist2]

60. Should her penalty for not paying be anywhere near $300,000?!

That to me is the real question for anyone who would defend the status quo. Even if she has been a deadbeat, a fine of $300,000 seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me.

[Statistical]

66. Inflation.

Loan rates are based on timely and periodic repayment.

In last 7 years inflation reduced the relative value of dollar 27%.
So 550,000 today is more like $430,000 in 2003 money.

I do agree that penalties seem too high.

I think
a) since student loan debt is guaranteed by federal govt simply eliminate the banks and have fed govt loan directly.
b) for existing loans there should be caps on penalties (and max default interest rates).

[taught_me_patience]

74. Her loan basically doubled in 7 years

That's about 10% interest per year, compounded. Not really that unusual or bad.

[reformist2]

98. 10% interest may not be unusual these days, but I say it's wrong.

Increasing the amount she owes according to inflation makes sense to me, but last time I checked inflation has not been running at 2% per year, not 10%.

[taught_me_patience]

101. Federal student loans are about 7% right now

It is a whole different argument whether those are too high or not. Therefore, her 10% interest after penalties and fees is not out of line with what millions are paying on their loans.

[dkf]

75. That isn't all a penalty for not paying, that is known as INTEREST.

You ever take a look at a mortgage schedule? You notice how much interest you land up paying? Same thing. Geez.

[pitohui]

76. don't co-sign other people's loans, it's fairly simple

even if it's your daughter's loans, even if it's your daughter the doctor's loans

i have never seen a situation where a family member co-signing a loan worked out well for the co-signer, why should the person pay off the loan when they have a family member with a house they can't afford to lose that the bank can chase after?

whenever anyone asks me to co-sign a loan, no matter how good the cause, the answer is always NO -- if you could afford to repay the loan, you wo uldn't need a co-signer, and i can't afford to sign a piece of paper that makes me responsible for YOUR debts, that's just screwy

i'm sorry the doc's father had to learn the hard way, but it ain't rocket science that you don't co-sign other people's loans -- a co-signer is ALWAYS on the hook for the full value of the loan -- i knew this when i was 9 yrs old, seems like he should have known this as a mature adult w. a daughter in college

as for the doc herself, considering she's a medical doctor under age 45, i'm mystified as to why she doesn't simply get off her happy ass and move to another country that would welcome a medical doctor and where she could quickly establish herself in a good, secure, prob. even well to do lifestyle

let 'em try to collect their half a million bucks from tanarive, madagascar

[ceile]

92. This part is truly ridiculous:

"She recently entered a rehabilitation agreement on her defaulted federal loans, which now carry an additional $31,942 collection cost. She makes monthly payments on those loans—now $209,399—for $990 a month, with only $100 of it going toward her original balance. The entire balance of her federal loans will be paid off in 351 months. Dr. Bisutti will be 70 years old."

Now she did mess up by going into default more than once, but c'mon! $990 a month and only $100 goes towards the origianl balance! That's just sick....

[taught_me_patience]

102. This is no different than a mortgage

Look at the ammortization schedule of a mortgage and see how much goes to interest and how much goes to principle in the first years of a mortgage. Nothing ridiculous about it at all.

[tammywammy]

94. I'm currently taking out student loans

You go through an informative deal before you can take them out saying that you understand that these have to be paid back and that interest in accruing. I know I'll have between $30,000-$40,000 in debt when I get my bachelor's. Once I have a degree my income will double, if I can live off of what I make now, I can do it then too and pay it off.


"The debt load keeps her up at night. Her damaged credit has prevented her from buying a home or a new car."
:crazy:

[MilesColtrane]

96. Paging Doctor Deadbeat....

I wonder why she didn't bother to make some kind of payments.