Question: Dear Steve, The DOJ has undone my daughter’s Trust and is putting the house I live in, in my name, so they can lien it to take it- they say I owe $438,000 in student loan debt. I took out approximately $75k in HEAL and Stafford loans in the 1990s. I’ve already been through … Read more
The White House is extending the pause on student-loan payments until August 31st–an extraordinary development. By the time this pause ends in September, millions of student borrowers will have been relieved from making payments on their student loans for almost two-and-a-half years. Indeed, as Ron Kline, President Biden’s chief of staff, pointed out: Joe Biden, … Read more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently sanctioned Edfinancial Services, a student-loan servicer, for making deceptive statements to student loan borrowers and misrepresenting their forgiveness and repayment options to them. Edfinancial deceived borrowers, with Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), loans about their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The Bureau is ordering the … Read more
In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Education allowed 37 million student-loan borrowers to pause their monthly loan payments due to the COVID pandemic. DOE extended the payment moratorium several times, allowing all these college borrowers to skip making payments for two years without accruing interest or penalties. This moratorium gave student debtors much-needed relief … Read more
Paolo Bacigalupi’s apocalyptic novel The Water Knife is a tale about the struggle for water in the desert Southwest. Lucy, one of the novel’s lead characters, is an investigative reporter trying to understand the major power players who use the law, violence, and vigilantes to control water for their various constituencies. At some point, Lucy … Read more
Betsy DeVos, the Wicked Witch of the Midwest, was perhaps the most despised member of President Trump’s cabinet. As Trump’s Education Secretary, she coddled the for-profit college industry and (in my opinion) bungled the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Nevertheless, in a speech delivered in November 2018, DeVos revealed to the nation just how … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, I took out a student loan in 2007-2008. I was incarcerated in State prison shortly thereafter. (2008) I was released in 2020. I am now trying to buy a property but the student loan just caught up and took my credit score down 75 points, making the process difficult. Am I eligible … Read more
Rodger Love filed an adversary proceeding back in January 2020 that Richard Fossey wrote about here. In that Adversary Proceeding, Love made the argument the Department of Education should allow him to discharge his student loans because they “would place an undue hardship upon Plaintiff and his minor daughter if said debts are not discharged.” … Read more
Many people don’t realize while I’ve been a consumer debt expert since 1994 I am also an airplane pilot for the fire department. So public service issues are near to my heart. There has been a great uproar regarding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offered by the Department of Education since 2007. That program … Read more
Nearly 16,000 borrowers will receive $415 million in borrower defense to repayment discharges following the approval of four new findings and the continued review of claims. This includes approximately 1,800 former DeVry University (DeVry) students who will receive approximately $71.7 million in full borrower defense discharges after the U.S. Department of Education (Department) determined that … Read more
Student Debt Strike, an online Reddit community, advocates for a mass student-debt strike as the best way to pressure Congress to grant wholesale student-loan forgiveness. I support this group’s goals. Economist Stephanie Kelton and others have argued persuasively that forgiving all federal student-loan debt would stimulate the economy. Relieved of burdensome student loans, more than … Read more
On October 20 of last year, the Department of Education announced that Navient, a giant student-loan servicer, was turning its business over to Maximus, a government services company. [Ed: They will be providing services as Aidvantage.] DOE spokesperson Richard Cordray said this about the switchover: “We are confident this decision is in the best interest … Read more
Forty state attorneys general sued Navient Corporation for deceptive lending practices in its student loan business. Navient settled the lawsuits last week for $1.85 billion. The loan giant admitted no wrongdoing, saying the claims against it were “unfounded.” The participating states will split $145 million, and Navient will forgive 66,000 private student loans. In addition, … Read more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it will begin examining the operations of post-secondary schools, such as for-profit colleges, that extend private loans directly to students. The CFPB is issuing an update to its exam procedures including a new section on institutional student loans. As the CFPB begins its supervision, the exam procedures inform … Read more
There has been a lot of stories that have appeared about the Navient student loan settlement agreement that will forgive student loans but let’s look at what it actually says. The hype has been $1.7 billion in student loans will be forgiven but as always, the devil is in the details. The Attorney General settlement … Read more