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Student Loans Seen as Potential "Next Debt Bomb"
Bankruptcy lawyers have a frightening message for America: They’re seeing the signs of a student loan debt bubble that is placing increased financial pressure on families struggling with their children’s mounting debt. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA), more than 80 percent of bankruptcy lawyers have seen a substantial increase in the number of clients seeking relief from student loans in recent years.
In most cases, those clients could not meet the federal hardship standards that are necessary to discharge a student loan through bankruptcy proceedings. Instead, many of these parents or guardians who co-signed the student loans face the prospect of losing their life savings, cars or homes to collection agencies for aggressive private lenders.
William Brewer, head of NACBA, has said, "This could very well be the next debt bomb for-the U.S. economy"—something similar to the housing mortgage (抵押) loan crisis that triggered the U. S. financial crisis.
"Obviously, in the short term, student loan defaults (拖欠) are not going to have the same ripple effect (连锁反应) through the economy that mortgage defaults did," Brewer said. "My concern is that the long-term effect may be even graver, because people who need student loans to try to get a higher education or retraining will be unwilling to run the risk of taking out a student loan. "
Moody’s Analytics has evaluated the chances of a student loan crisis. "Despite its rapid growth even as credit quality weakened dining and after the recession, student lending is not likely to turn into the next crisis," it said in a report. The student loan market is one-tenth the size of the residential mortgage market. And more than 90 percent of student loans are federally guaranteed.
But the rapid growth of student debt has alarmed some in the financial world and appears as the biggest long-term economic problem facing many college graduates and their families today.
The amount of student loan debt has skyrocketed in recent years to a total of $ 857 billion. College seniors who graduated with student loans individually owed an average of $ 25,250. An estimated 17 percent of parents whose children go to college take out loans, a 5.6 percent increase than before.
Last year, students and families borrowed $104 billion in loans from the Education Department, a 50 percent increase over three years. Private education loans fell by 55 percent in that time, to $ 7.9 billion.
A report last year by the Pew Research Center and the Chronicle of Higher Education warned that public anxiety over college costs is at an all-time high. Moreover, "low income college graduates or those burdened by student loan debt are questioning the value of their degrees," saying the cost of college has delayed other life decisions, the report said.
More than 125,000 people have signed an online petition (请愿书) to protest a $ 50 delay fee that Sallie Mae, the private student loan giant, had been charging borrowers for years whenever they postponed payments on a loan.
Stef Gray, a Hunter College graduate from New York who has paid $ 300 in delay fees to the company since May, organized the petition drive in hopes of persuading Sallie Mae to drop the fee, just as Bank of America and other financial institutions dropped unpopular fees in the face of Internet protests.
Gray, 23, who lives in Brooklyn, has become a symbol of the miserable situation of young Americans saddled with debt. With both her parents passed away, Gray has put herself through school with part-time jobs and three private loans with Sallie Mae.
Since graduating in May with a master’s degree in geographic information systems, Gray has been unable to find full-time employment. Instead, she says, she has gotten by with temporary jobs and witnessing. Without a steady income, she says, it has been impossible to make the $ 700 monthly payments on her $ 40, 000 in loans. Nor has she been able to negotiate more favorable terms with Sallie Mac.
Every time she delayed a payment on the three loans, Sallie Mac slapped her with a $ 50 fee for each loan.
"That may not sound like a lot of money to some," she said. "But for me, that’s a lot. " Because of the compounding effect of the interest rate on the unpaid portion of her loan and related penalties, Gray says, her original $ 40, 000 loan has grown to $ 65, 000.
Early in February, Sallie Mac announced it was changing how it would handle the $ 50 fee. The company declined to end the penalty, but said it would apply the money toward the borrower’s loan balance after six successive on-time payments. Sallie Mac originated $ 2.7 billion in private loans in 2011 alone, or about a third of all private student loans..
"The economy poses a significant challenge, but the overwhelming majority of our customers are successful in managing their obligations," Sallie Mac spokesperson Patricia Christen said. "Only 3.5 percent of our private education loans default, and no one benefits in that situation. That is why we work so actively to reach customers and counsel them. "
Gray called the policy change a "partial victory". Gray and other organizers met recently in Washington with Rep. Hansen Clarke to call for his support against the Sallie Mac fee. Clarke has introduced a bill that would provide student loan forgiveness as a means of economic stimulation.
"They put me in a situation where either I pay this fee or I’m faced with default," Gray said. "And if I default, I may never be able to buy a home at all, or rent an apartment again, or buy a car, or get a job, with employers checking credit when hiring. I think it’s ridiculous that I have to keep upholding credit card companies as much kinder to their debtors than student loan lenders. "
Because of changes in the federal law, it is almost impossible for a graduate or his family to discharge federal or private student loans through bankruptcy. Sallie Mac says it supports reform that would allow federal and private student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy for those who have made a good-faith effort to repay their student loans and still experience financial difficulty.
What is the frightening message bankruptcy lawyers have for America