Life
President Obama student loan plan ends Saturday
Obama promoted the student loan plan as an economic stimulus measure when he unveiled it in October, using his “We Can’t Wait” slogan to argue that his administration would sidestep Congress when necessary to bring relief to struggling Americans.
“Our economy needs it right now and your future could use a boost right now,” Obama said.
About 2 in 3 college graduates borrow to pay for undergraduate education, and the average borrower graduates with about US$26,300 in debt, the White House says.
Borrowers can simplify the repayment process by consolidating multiple loans into one monthly payment. But the process isn’t seamless.
To consolidate, borrowers must sort out every individual loan they took out for their education — as many as 20 for some borrowers, who may have moved several times since leaving school and may not have their original documents. Some loans can be consolidated, others cannot. And loans may have been bought and resold by various servicers, making it hard to keep track of which loan is which.
Among those who felt overwhelmed by the process was James Thompson, who finished a graduate degree last year at Stanford University and is in between jobs as a product designer. Thompson got an email from the Education Department alerting him to his eligibility for the special consolidation, but said he couldn’t muster all the information needed to apply.
“It’s like this odd thing that just exists in my life. I really have no idea how it works or what I owe to whom or how I even pay for the loan. It’s all just a mess,” Thompson said in an interview. “I feel very disempowered to actually get in there and just pay the thing.”
