NationStates Jolt Archive

A Call to Arms: Let us Refinance!

Do you have a Student “Loan” that has been CON-solidated at exorbitant, non-market rates? Are you paying 7%, 8%, 9% or more for the “privilege” of graduating before the 9/11 interest rate cuts? Are you an indentured servant to the Sallie Mae Corporation, often paying TWICE that of your just-younger peers?

Make your Alma-Mater sit up and take notice of our plight. Don’t give them another Dime, and tell them in no uncertain terms why.

Forward this to everyone you know from your graduating class. Copy, Paste, Edit, Print an MAIL it your School. Put a copy in EVERY business-reply envelope sent by your school. They will get the picture eventually.

We shall overcome.

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Dear X University Alumni Association,

I am sorry to tell you the University will not be receiving any financial assistance or other gifts from me until my student loans are paid off. Though I graduated before 2001, that pay-off will not occur for approximately 30 more years – at which point I will be nearing Retirement without the benefit of Social Security and will still likely not be in a position to assist funding the school as my portfolio will be sorely diminished by excess payments to Sallie Mae Corp.

I honestly wanted to pay off my loans sooner, but I am forced to pay approximately twice the prevailing interest rate on my loans than are more recent graduates, with whom I must compete for work. This extra, unnecessary but mandatory expense puts me at a grave disadvantage during salary negotiations, thus making my University Education LESS valuable than it would otherwise be by making me LESS marketable than a similarly educated person with an arbitrarily dictated lower debt payment.

No other financial instrument but a consolidated student loan is non-renegotiable and non-relievable for ANY financial circumstance (except death.) There is no reason for these traits except to legislatively maximize profits for the finance companies involved. I paid to go to school, not be forced, by law, to line the pockets of a multi-billion dollar corporation.

It is a travesty that universities actively participate in a program that can only be considered an egregious and unethical act of age discrimination and profiteering by the Sallie Mae Corporation.

By NOT supporting debt-consolidation interest relief legislation (such as HR2711 (2004) or any other allowing student loan debts to be refinanced like home loans,) Universities stand only to lose Alumni Dollars. We are many, and we are broke.

I therefore urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to evaluate and vocally support legislation that allows STUDENTS and GRADUATES to negotiate for the best possible rates on their student loans – and takes the power of indentured servitude away from the loan-sharks.

Please take me off your Alumni/Fundraiser Solicitation List immediately. I may contact you after I am able to pay off my student loan debt, but not before.

Sincerely,

I'm sorry. This is dummy-headed.

You're holding your school's alumni association and development office accountable for federal student loan policies? Why don't you put your indignation in the right place and write Sallie, Fannie, or Freddie? Or, better yet, why don't you consolidate at current rates?

If you're unhappy with your education and don't want to contribute to your alumni association, by all means, don't. Just don't make up unrelated rationales for it.

Also, donation rates to alumni associations are one of the indicators used by U.S. News. So you're shooting yourself in the foot here as well with your little campaign.

Before posting critically, research the problem. This is where we are: :headbang: Struggling to pay the Mortgage on my Mind - Newsweek (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6884900/site/newsweek/)

Now to answer your questions.

A) I am not holding them responsible for the existing policies, I am holding them responsible for the poor "advice" they gave to students who had the misfortune of graduating when interest rates were at 8.25%. We were cajoled into CONsolidating to "save us money". Then interest rates fell.

B) By Federal Law I am not allowed to refinance my already consolidated loans at market rates.

C) Universities have more Policy-Making clout than I do.

D) The threat of Lowering Indicators is one of the reasons the universities might listen to such a campaign.

E) I am not unhapy with my education, I am unhappy with an inherently unfair program that the schools advocate.

Sallie Mae is a FOR PROFIT agency that has its income guaranteed by the legislation it pays for. :( See: Sallie Mae PAC (http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strid=C00331835&cycle=2004)

then see: Sallie Mae expendatures (http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?Order=A&txtName=Sallie&txtState=&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&txt1998=&txt1996=&txt1994=&txt1992=&txt1990=&txtSoft=N)

Sallie Mae, once a Government-affiliated non-profit agency, now uses government policies (intended to protect borrowers) to increase its Profit (to the detriment of both the economy and the borrowers).

Why do you think Pennsylvania is fighting so hard to keep Sallie Mae from forcing a hostile takeover of the PHEAA? :upyours: See SallieMaeNot (http://www.salliemaenot.com/)

This, alone among the noise, is where things get worked on: Generation Debt (http://www.generationdebt.org/)

Please take the time to research the issue before declaring how "dummy-headed" the attempt is.

I thought it was general knowledge that SallieMae was for-profit. What, did you think it was free loot? When I went through this, the differences between Pell and Stafford and SallieMae and private loans were all made very clear.

It sounds like ultimately you're upset that your university did not forsee the drop in interest rates. I'm sorry, but with the exception of loans like the Stafford or other special interest rates, consolidation was good advice. How was anyone to guess that we'd see record breaking student loan rates? They're advisors, not psychics.

Moreover, you're taking your very specific complaint, and advocating widespread mailings? If this is about you feeling badly advised by your university, why should others express their dissatisfaction with one of the Maes by writing their alumni associations?

I am advocating that ex students in the position of being unable to take advantage of historically low interest rates raise the issue with their schools through such mailings.

It would be inappropriate for any other person to do so ans they are not/have not been impacted by these rules.

Sallie Mae only recently (in December) dissolved its bonds with the Government - 4 years ahead of schedule - and can now legally rake in the excess interest paid by poor schlubs like me. Business Journal - Sallie Mae (http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/01/17/daily16.html )

At no point did I or do I believe that the money should be "free". I DO believe that I should be allowed to refinance my school debt just like I can any other credit instrument . If I don't like my Credit Card at 26%, I can try for one that will give me 7%. Ditto my House, or Car loan, or Line of Credit, or whatever. What Sallie Mae is allowed to do is simply unfair profiteering/loan sharking.

This is all I want to get changed - and if I can facilitate that by compelling the Schools to pull for it, so much the better.

I don't disagree with this, I just think that calling for a letter campaign against the alumni associations of every U in the country is inappropriate. When time came for consolidation under the new rates, I was ineligible because my debt load was slightly too low (I'd been paying off everything except the Staffords by working through undergrad and grad). Some of my loans were privately issued (Citibank) to the tune of 12%. I went to Chase, told them the situation, rates had dropped, and we set up for 9%. I paid off the old loan with a courtesy check. No questions of consolidation in that refinance. Done. I admit, it's not as low as the Stafford, but it's significantly better than it was.

And I still shave out $75 a year for the alumni.

I'm glad you were able to work off your loans so quickly. I am not so fortunate. I owe $36,000 at 8%. Why do I owe so much? I had this bad food and rent habit. See, I went to school in order to increase my marketability and earning power after I left the military and got married to a woman who just happens to be disabled.

Unfortunately, because of the excess interest I must pay, I am not competetive in salary negotiations. It's been a lose/lose situation all the way around.

The travesty comes in when students who DIDN'T listen to their exit counselors get to consolidate at sub-3% rates and BECAUSE I listened to the exit interviewer I get to (A) bay double to triple the interest and (B) put up with incessant CONsolidation solicitations that rub it in on a weekly basis.

The schools can and SHOULD help remedy this, but they won't unless they get pressured to.