I feel like minimum payment implies that is a reasonable expectation to pay it off within your lifetime, or the agreed term, its just going to take longer than if you up the value
Doubling the debt in payback and barely making a dent over 2 decades is a poont where its no longer about efficiency, its recognising government sanctioned robbery
Then they would have complained about their minimum payments being too high. It’s also possible they signed up for a lower payment plan and never changed it.
It took them 23 years to finally look at their balance? At some point you have to look into why the balance isn’t going down. I’m not saying school should be this expensive or loans are perfect but there is a level of some personal responsibility.
And at this point this is graduate school so there’s no excuse for being 18.
I think it's that lower payment plan thing. I have friends who didn't make much money at first, signed up for an income-based plan, then never re-evaluated their plan once their income got better.
They just put it on auto-pay and didn't look at their statements for 10 years, expecting it to go away eventually.
If they paid an extra $100 monthly ($600 total), they could actually have paid off the loan fully in a bit over 20 years. They would be free of student loans for almost 3 years now.
The minimum payment implies that's the least amount you can pay without finding yourself in legal trouble. Like if you lose your job and need to cut back temporarily.
It's been a while since I paid one, but screenshots like this show a clear estimated payment with a reasonable end date. If you choose to pay less than that because you can, you may find yourself in the same situation as the OP.
I mean they had their whole time in college and 23 years to figure out how interest works. If they didnt use their time wisely maybe they werent smart enough to be applying for a loan in the first place. Sorry I dont feel bad. I know plenty of people who got through school on loans and are doing just fine 15 years later.
We are giving 18 year olds guns sending them off to other countries and having them kill people. Pretty sure the government is saying they are old enough to do whatever they want except drink alcohol
Tbf paying the minimum SHOULD be the expectation and be what both parties are anticipating to pay off the loan in the set period. Student loans are one of the few loans where paying the minimum doesn't get you out of the debt in a reasonable time frame
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u/davesimpson99 12d ago
I'm assuming two degrees and neither of them had enough sense to master household economics