With over 43 million Americans paying off student loans, John Oliver discusses how so many people have come to take on student loan debt, why it’s so hard to pay off, and what we can do about it, mama.
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Please. Please . Thumb this up so people can see it. Don't apply to income based repayment plans through your provider. Apply to it through studentaid . gov
It's still a pain in the butt because you have to remember to redo it every year, but it at least bypasses the b.s. the providers put you through because the government isn't incentivized to make you pay more the way the loan sharks are
If anyone who doesn’t understand what’s going on, let me explain it for you. These are simple interest loans. The government is using you to make money; that’s all they’re doing, they’re using you to make money. That is why they charge you a high interest rate, that’s why that your payment goes mostly towards interest. That’s why they go on and on and on for years the American public needs to be outraged over this and stop being outraged that the government is now going old. We’re going to cancel the student debt because they have made billions on students loan interest. It really is that simple. they’re acting like they’re doing us a favor when they are in fact stealing from us and then saying “oh, we’re not gonna charge you for that” using our own money. You should be outraged. It’s a shell game and until people stand up and say something about it and financial companies and banks stand up and say something about it, so that people understand what is happening, then this is going to continue. My daughter had a student loan that was taken over by Navient and they were absolutely criminal in their behavior.
Navient fucked me with a forbearance too. They wouldn't let me fucking pay them. This country is a joke
Started PSLF in 2015. Called each year and spoke to whoever at Nelnet to make sure doing everything right. All is well. Then 2019 hit and for the first time, someone told us we weren't part of PSLF. We thought they didn't know what they were talking about because we've called each year and spoke to 1 or more people and were always told things were fine. Had to call again and again was told not part of it. Then Covid hit and things shut down. Things are now fixed, but they are crap companies
Pharmacist here. I graduated 2010 with relatively low debt, but it’s been rough for anyone graduating after that.
Tuition has more than doubled and wages have stagnated. Some of these colleges and programs are straight up predatory. Healthcare used to be a safe bet for job security and decent earnings. Not anymore.
I wish you had also gone into the fact that the loan “servicing” companies have changed names and/or switched hands several times over in the last 20 years that I’ve been repaying student loans… Every 3-5 years, I get mail explaining how a new company is now in charge of my loan, and the companies that previously serviced them weren’t even on the list you showed. So what was/is happening there? ?????????
My brother as a F1 visa international student is paying more per semester at community college than I did at a 4 year university as a citizen. And I'm head of household so I'm the one paying 🙁 He's not even allowed to do student loans and not allowed to have even a part time job unless it's on campus, but non citizens can't work on campus the first year and when they're allowed, the jobs give priority to citizens.
Estonia is directly south of finnland the northern most Baltic state. Tere!
These students (supposedly with the guidance of parents or guardians) are choosing to take on all that debt when they go to college. If they can't afford it, they should look into something else, like trade school.
I know a girl who wants to go to college to be a marine biologist. And after spending all of that money, she will come out to realize that there is high competition for those jobs, and she will most likely end up being a waitress at Olive Garden trying to pay back her loans.
How the hell is the amount of the payment applied to principal so small compared to what certainly appears to be usurious interest charges?
The college industrial complex is a complete lie
I took out $350,000 in loans for med school. My income based repayments don’t even cover the interest (interest rate is 7%) so every year the principal grows (which is currently an unspeakable number). I’m comfortable, I do well, but this js just crazy.
I have 41k in federal student loans. I had an additional ~40k in private student loans but I paid off about 8k of it on my own and my parents refinanced their house to pay off the rest (I love them so much). One of the things that really annoys me about the federal loans is the fact that if I make a payment outside of my automatic payment, they automatically push back my next auto-payment unless I select a poorly worded box. Which for an interest generating loan, is ridiculous and predatory. Thinking about it, that's probably the real reason I have a year past the repayment restart before my auto-payments start again. Because I was still making (very occasional) payments during COVID. Meanwhile: $13 of interest has accumulated since your last payment…
Mostly I pay by group, though. I have one 2.7k 6.55% interest loan and the rest are 2, 3, and 4 percent. I pay off interest on everything and make a much larger payment for just the high interest loan. For the months that I remember, at least. I would be making even bigger payments, but I have a lot of credit card debt after my cat died from cancer and the interest rate on that is so much freaking higher… Actually, I'm going to take a break from this video to check my bank accounts and make some payments
If they're upset that the students aren't paying back their loans let's maybe just make them less predatory… 0 or near 0% interest would solve the issue for the vast majority of student loan holders.
You neglected to mention the fact that high schools force you to apply for colleges and feel out the fafsa your senior year for a grade.
I feel like John missed the big reveal that MOHELA was one of the reasons why Biden's student loan forgiveness program was shot down by SCOTUS.
Sorry fella, if you went to college by your choice, no one held a gun to your head and said you had to go here sign those papers and get that degree at this price. Then you owe that money back because that’s a contract and you know what you’re getting into. If you didn’t know what you were getting into when you looked at those papers, you should have chosen to do something else. That said, it’s not taxpayers responsibility to pay one cent of your choice to go to college off with their money. That is unjust and unfair. Joe Biden is a tyrant, a horrible president, a liar, and a fraud for trying to pay off other peoples debts with other peoples money.
I loved this; it's called "incentive" and yes, you deserve it. Don't move to Europe.
I usually agree with everything John reports on but I have very little empathy for this issue. You can repossess a car but you can’t repossess a degree. The people who had to pass on higher education due to financial hardship themselves ultimately picking up the tab doesn’t sit right with me. Meanwhile they go on to earn more and be the boss of those same people.
I don’t think the solution is wiping the debt clean like a get out of jail free card. I do however agree we need to make some changes. Possibly closing the loophole which prevents declaring bankruptcy on these or cutting their interest rates etc. There has to be a balance here.
And on this week’s episode of ‘JFC What Is Wrong With You, America?????’…
The unending HELB loan ????
I would love for you to do a video on TicTok. I didn't realize how crazy and diabolical it was until I did a little research. I finally understand why it was banned in so many countries and why so many governments don't allow officials in office to have it.
I worked my butt off in school getting good grades, graduated at the top of my class, and got into the best college for my career. Because it was in another state, all my state grants and scholarships were taken away. I should've went to college for next to nothing, instead I had to get a loan for almost full price. 10 years after getting my degree, I'm still 100K in debt.
Another side effect of the amenity competition colleges now have with each other is the constant construction on campus