I, like many and hopefully some of y’all, stopped paying my student loans during Covid and never restarted paying because we’re supposed to have gotten relief from this debt that should’ve never existed in the first place. Now we have Trump coming back which kills the possibility of debt relief. So should I start repaying so I don’t get my wages garnished? Or do we think the government is going to be too inefficient to come after it?

Edit: At one point when I heard that it was the only way to get forgiveness, I moved all my debt from a third party to being a government loan. Does that change anything?

  • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
    223·
    5 days ago

    I hate that, as someone who was truly on top of this 4 years ago and submitting paperwork for public service forgiveness and all, I have no fucking clue as to what is happening now or what’s next. So, as someone who definitely owes money on that, and had a kid right before the pandemic hit, and is desperately adrift keeping shit together, I really hope someone has a great ELI5 coming on this thread lol

      • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
        1·
        23 hours ago

        I mean, I have been paying this whole time lol, did I say otherwise? That shit is on autopay. What I do mean is that I haven’t kept up with the constant shifting of rules and programs that start and then get stopped by the courts, etc. I am busy working my ass off, and if last time I had to deal with this is any indication, I have to take the equivalent of a whole day off, do research, spend hours on the phone with the servicer, then do a bunch of paperwork just to ensure I have things the way they are supposed to be (unlike a whole year I was overpaying because I didn’t know about some consolidation process).

        These are government loans that are then managed by private companies. Considering I pay not only interest but also taxes, I think is fair to ask that the way it be managed by some better means than some shifty inefficient third party business, that makes me do their job for them just so I can be paying the fair amount I am supposed to, and also get the forgiveness the government promised me for applying my advanced degree to non-profit work for 10 years: that’s not a fucking hand out, it’s a deal the government made with me to satisfy a policy need they had. I am doing my part and making all these payments for a decade, and they’re not exactly doing their best to keep their end of the bargain when you have some byzantine program they outsourced and screws over a bunch of people that have kept up their end of the bargain.

        So, get over yourself. I don’t understand what’s your fucking problem here

        • thisguy1092@lemmy.world
          1·
          19 hours ago

          My problem is you expecting a bail out for something you signed up for yourself. I’m not over here complaining about my my loans. I pay them.

          How does a 30 year mortgage sound then? Gonna whine and complain about that for ten years and just expect it paid off by others? Get outta here loser

          • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
            1·
            15 hours ago

            What fucking bailout are you talking about? I signed up for IDRF, a 10 year program that I knew about from the get go, as did the government, and I am paying the entirety of it, at year 9 as of now. I know how it worked. But they also changed several terms since, as I said. When did at any point did I say I am not paying? I am saying they have a shitty service outsourced service provider and keep changing the rules back and forth. I expect better than that, as I am keeping exactly to the terms of my deal…

            Are we talking about the same thing here?

            Edit: to put in the terms you mentioned, if I got a 30 year mortgage - I would you expect that I would be paying to the same bank, on the same terms, for the duration of the loan - and that the bank wouldn’t keep losing your shit or taking months to process each piece of paperwork you submit

            It seems you’re really just parroting some political view, I am not expecting some magical bailout for getting in over my head. The government asked me to apply my degree to non-profit work for less pay than I would get in industry, for a price - since I guess the free market is not exactly throwing around PhDs to go teach when they can make better money. They would compensate me for filling an underserved need by reducing the overall term of the loan if I kept up with my end of the bargain. AKA they were paying me to go work where they needed it, instead of where I could make up that same money on my own. See there, a clear business transaction between us: they offered to pay me to fix something they decided was a policy priority - how is any of this transaction a bailout, when we both entered into with knowledge of its terms almost 10 years ago?

            Now, them being really bad at managing that, and outsourcing it to some poorly run outfit, that’s them not keeping their end of the bargain.

            The world is not black and white my friend, think before you spew hate at strangers. What you’re proposing is akin to the government hiring a contractor and stiffing them. This program is intended to get people with good educations into needed public service positions. You obviously don’t care about teachers/education, but I sense you would be up in arms if I said that instead I got a degree in criminology to be a cop, and then took a deal from the government to go work where officers were needed, and the government didn’t pony up on their end of the bargain.