Tens of thousands of ex-students over in America are no doubt absolutely chuffed this week after $5 billion USD of student loans look to have been effectively wiped out because a lender fucked up the paperwork.
TFW yr student debt gets deleted.
One of the largest owners of private student loans in the US, The National Collegiate Student Loan Trust is currently at the centre of legal disputes where it’s looking very likely that nearly half of their 800,000 loans, dating back up to a decade ago, will not have to be repaid.
The official explanation uses a lot of long words and phrases like “securitisation”, “loan-discharge” and something called “banks” but the gist of it is that it all stems from some shitty book-keeping resulting in the Trust not being able to prove it has the paperwork stating they own the loans if/when they go into default and are challenged in court.
Tl;dr, a fuck load of US students can simply let their debt go into default, ask for non-existent proof they owe the Trust money and then never pay it back.
Tertiary education in the States is known for being insanely spenno, with both federal and private student loan offerings riddled with high-interest repayments and clauses, all helping the student debt industry reach up to $1.3 trillion in worth. That, my friends, is a spicy, spicy meatball.
Fingers-crossed something similar happens locally, like maybe Education Minister Simon Birmingham accidentally deleting the folder named HECS DEBTS instead of BIRMO’S NAUGHTY PICS from his computer or some shit. I’d really like to not pay back $20k for that Creative Arts degree I’m yet to even slightly utilise, thanks.
Source: Business Insider.
Picture: Legally Blonde.
Picture: Legally Blonde.
