Thursday, October 17, 2013

Stumbling Blocks in Reducing Balance on a Student Loan

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/your-money/stumbling-blocks-in-reducing-balance-on-a-student-loan.html?ref=education

Category: Education / Financial

Level: National

This article concerns policies that affect individuals and families.

This article discusses the problems Americans face when trying to pay down the principle of their student loans.

My views:

In today’s news of the absurd, we find that one must send written instructions to the institutions that carry your student loan if you want to your payment to apply to a higher interest loan or if you want a larger-than-required payment to be applied to the current billing cycle instead of next month’s payment (which ensures that additional interest will accrue). I think it is ridiculous and a clear example of financial institutions making as much money as possible off of student loans. This practice penalizes people for actively trying to pay down their debt as much as possible. It is wrong.

There needs to be more oversight over financial institutions. Their policies and practices should be clear and straight-forward and not be designed in order to make as much money as possible off of debt. Financial institutions are already well-compensated for the loan services they provide and should stop nickel and diming their customers in order to squeeze as much money as possible out of them.

Improving oversight, imposing more restrictions, and demanded that consumers be treated fairly will help Americans with their debt and financial well-being. In the meantime, it is a lesson to us all that we need to be diligent and eagle-eyed when dealing with financial institutions. Even though I believe that regulation and policy would even out the financial playing field, we must all take it upon ourselves to review our debts carefully and to pay attention to every communication received and payment made.

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