Comment on Student loan payment 'on-ramp' ends Sept. 30—missed payments afterward can have serious consequences
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoStory time: back in 2004-5 I dug myself so deep into debt that I ended up filing for bankruptcy. At the time I was also jobless and had no money in my bank account; I believe I owed the bank money too. This was right before the Bush bankruptcy law changes, so I was able to file for a chapter 7 (released me completely from my debt obligations).
Before I filed I had creditors calling me every day, making all kinds of threats about all of the bad things that would happen to me if I ruined my credit. It scared the shit out of me. I was 27 years old, broke af, lived at home with my parents, and had nothing going for me.
It was amazing how good it felt the moment the court discharged my debt. All of those scary stories about how my life would be over were just that: stories. I started getting offers for mortgages and new cars. I learned my lesson though, so I ignored them. I lived the next 10 years using cash only. Life got so much better too. I wasn’t always stressing about payments, I was able to save up money, and I even moved out of my parent’s house.
TL;DR Ruining your credit is not the end of the world.
callouscomic@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Student loans cannot be discharged.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I understand. The point I was trying to make was that bad credit is not as bad as they want you to think.
InfiniteStruggle@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Wait, what? So even if you declare bankruptcy the student debt stays on record? You still have to pay it back?
callouscomic@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Generally yes. You cannot get rid of your student loans in bankruptcy.
The real answer is far more complicated. Technically there are ways to, but the bar for discharge of student loans is far greater to pass than basically any other type of loan out there. It’s very unlikely a lot of people will successfully be free of their student loans if they go through bankruptcy. Sometimes it seems further issues with student loans originate from services basically lying to their loan holders. So you should always scrutinize what your servicer tells you (like Mohela).
Here’s some information. You must pass vague undue hardships to syluccessfully discharge student loans. A bar a lot of other loans font have to pass.
consumerfinance.gov/…/busting-myths-about-bankrup…
Some view this as predatory on the poor, since the rich can utilize all other forms of bankruptcy with ease to absolve themselves of failed businesses, and when their children need to go to college, they don’t need student loans cause they’re rich. So having more stringent rules set on a specific type of loan more commo ly used by the less wealthy is clearly an attack on income status and unequal.
I believe the rules on student loans were made more stringent around 2005, and the senator Biden headed up a lot of it.