Tag: bankruptcy


Bankruptcy becomes an option for some student loan borrowers

Posted on January 1st, 2017

We’ve written before about how student loans, unlike other forms of debt, can’t be discharged in bankruptcy–which is why it’s so important to be careful about how much you borrow.

Bankruptcy law says that, without proving “undue hardship,” a borrower can’t discharge a loan made for an “educational benefit.”

Recently, however, bankruptcy courts have started ruling in favor of some student loan borrowers and have allowed them to discharge their debt, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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American higher education’s “dirty little secret”

Posted on September 4th, 2013

"The dirty secret of American higher education is that student-loan interest rates are almost irrelevant. It’s not the cost of the loan that’s the problem, it’s the principal — the appallingly high tuition costs that have been soaring at two to three times the rate of inflation, an irrational upward trajectory eerily reminiscent of skyrocketing housing prices in the years before 2008." -- Matt Taibbi

President Obama’s recent signing of the bill to keep student loan interest rates low is a move in the right direction toward helping students afford college. But as we’ve discussed, it’s not enough. In the video below from Democracy Now, Rolling Stone editor Matt Taibbi discusses how the high price of U.S. college tuition is the real […]

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Suze Orman on student debt

Posted on April 9th, 2013

"You'd better think twice if you think an expensive education is what's going to get you a job, when there are no jobs out there to be gotten." -- Suze Orman

Suze Orman completely nails it in this video about student debt. She discusses unfair laws preventing people from discharging student loans in bankruptcy, predatory lenders, and the lack of options for students who can’t afford their monthly payments. It’s definitely worth a watch.   Many of these banks and institutions, they borrow at zero percent […]

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Is debt forgiveness the answer to the student loan crisis?

Posted on March 15th, 2013

With student loan debt at an all-time high and more students than ever falling behind on their payments, some people have called on the government to forgive all student loans as a way to help needy students.

Daniel Lin, a Professor of Economics at American University, argues that this would just be a temporary solution that wouldn’t help break the cycle of student debt. Instead of debt forgiveness, Professor Lin suggests making student loans like other types of loans: dischargeable in bankruptcy.

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