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Parents Need to Stop Taking Out Loans So Their Kids Can Attend a Pricey School

Baylor University, a Baptist institution located in Waco, Texas, is a well-respected school. Over the years, it has risen steadily in the college ratings and now ranks among the top 100 American universities. But Baylor is expensive–tuition and fees are about $50,000 a year. Low-income students can take out federal loans, but these loans are …

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Will You Lose Any Inheritance to Pay Student Loans – Maybe

Martha Standish took out student loans when she was in her late 40s to get an undergraduate degree in accounting. Later she took out a Parent Plus Loan to help her daughter with college expenses. Eleven years after graduating, Standish filed an adversary proceeding in a Kansas bankruptcy court seeking to discharge about $30,000 in …

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The Parent PLUS Program Drives Down Disadvantaged Parents

Our government’s Parent PLUS Program is an insidious scheme to lure low-income parents into taking out student loans so their kids can go to colleges they can’t afford. Insider Higher Ed’s Kery Murakami tells the story of Ewan Johnson, whose mother owes $150,000 in Parent PLUS loans–money she borrowed so her son could get a …

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Parent Plus Loans: Driving mom and pop into poverty kids can go to college

money book

If you are not outraged by the federal government’s Parent Plus student-loan program, you have a heart of stone. According to The Hechinger Report, 3.5 million parents have taken out federal student loans to help their kids pay for college. Collectively, these parents owe almost $100 billion in outstanding debt, and about 12 percent have …

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Can I Consolidate My Parent Plus Loan With My Loans?

Confusing and Frustrated

Question: Dear Steve, I have student loans in my name and parent plus loans I took out for my daughters. I read on several sites that parent plus loans taken out for a dependent’s education can be consolidated with the parent’s own student loans. Does that make the consolidated loan eligible for the REPAYE student …

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I Feel Like Sallie Mae and Navient are Just a Predatory Lender Against Seniors

Question: Dear Steve, I borrowed 31,000 from Sallie Mae on a Parent Plus Loan. In 2006. I had been paying 485 per month but Navient the servicing company says that I agreed to increase my payment to 1100 per month in 2019. I never did. They lie, they can not provide a document proving I …

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Do Consolidated Parent PLUS Loans Qualify for Forgiveness?

Question: Dear Steve, Will have $160,000 of undergraduate parent plus debt for 2 kids. Recently divorced and debt is solely in my name Do consolidated parent plus loans qualify for forgiveness after 10 years of working at a community health clinic (FHQC)? Amber Answer: Dear Amber, My condolences on the $160K of Parent PLUS loans. …

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Federal Student Loan Program – “An Outrage”

Last month, Adam Looney of the Brookings Institution released a paper that is chock full of ideas for fixing the federal student-loan program. Looney began his paper with a withering condemnation of the program in its present form, which he accurately described as an outrage. I am quoting his critique verbatim, just putting his words …

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Navient Says My Unle Still Has to Make the Student Loan Payment on Social Security

Question: Dear Steve, My uncle has a parent plus loan with Navient and is 76-years-old, is retired and only has Social Security income of about $1700 a month to live on. Navient is insisting that he still has to make his student loan payment monthly payment. Is that true? Is there some way of getting …

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