indiechick
New member
My husband took out private student loans during the period of time when they were flowing like water. He went to an expensive school and the advice he was given was to take out as much as he needed to pay for his school because he would make a lot of money when he graduated. Well, we aren't poor, but 1/3 of our take home pay goes to his private student loans and the interest rate is about 10%. I understand that we spent the money, so we owe it, but we're sort of stuck. We've had mega medical bills in the past few years and at one point, we were paying 1/3 of our salary on student loans, 1/3 of our salary on medical bills and the other 1/3 was for rent and all our living expenses together. We live in fear that something is going to come up medically or otherwise that we won't be able to pay back and we will be forced to file for bankruptcy and our student loan rates will skyrocket and make things worse. I'm hoping that the new bill will give us some relief on the interest rate or something. Will it do anything for people who already have private student loans?
I think the 4% you're talking about is for regular student loans, not private ones. Private student loans are a pretty bad deal. They can put the rate at any level they want and you can't ever get rid of them by filing for bankruptcy. Also, now that the market tanked, no one offers them, so you can't refinance. So you really are stuck with whatever they give you. And it is spread over 25 years. That's as long as we could get it. It's still very high.
I think the 4% you're talking about is for regular student loans, not private ones. Private student loans are a pretty bad deal. They can put the rate at any level they want and you can't ever get rid of them by filing for bankruptcy. Also, now that the market tanked, no one offers them, so you can't refinance. So you really are stuck with whatever they give you. And it is spread over 25 years. That's as long as we could get it. It's still very high.