Student Loan Justice Exposed

Here is an excerpt from a blog by Americandust. I hope he doesn’t mind me reposting this. Since this site is about exposing those at Student Loan Justice, it seems appropriate to start from the top and work our way down. I find this interaction incredibly interesting because it does two things in my opinion. It shows that Alan Collinge has no real excuse to have not made payment on his loans and it shows that while he is quick to call other people names and point out their shortcomings, he becomes extremely defensive when anyone disagrees with choices that he has made which have ultimately led him to where he is today. I’ll let all of you decide for yourself. As is the case with all my posts, I am merely trying to show the other side to the Student Loan Justice story. Enjoy.

So due to a recent discussion on something political, I was informed about a Political Action Committee (you know, the evil special interest we’re always hearing about) called “student loan justice.” So I researched it’s founder, Alan Collinge. I read his story online somewhere and basically, well, Mr. Collinge, you’re an idiot.

Collinge borrowed $38,000 for school at USC (the first warning sign is that he went to USC). Anyway, he gets out of college and immediately falls for the old “consolidate your debt” thinking this will improve his student loan debt situation. Hello… paying back smaller amounts over longer times will only cost you more in the long run (slight exception where the loan’s interest rate is drastically smaller– IF they don’t charge an arm and a leg for the consolidation). So he’s already cost himself significantly more in interest payments. Next, the genius goes on to say he didn’t understand Sallie Mae was in this business to make money! I guess he thought it was ran by the government to help people… so basically it’s his fault again for not knowing something a quick Google or turning on his radio to any of the financial programs would have solved. But his story continues… He misses a payment one month and doesn’t really worry about what kind of punishment he would have (didn’t he read the contract he signed? Nope… I’m sure he didn’t). Then it takes 6 months (six!) of bills before he notices he’s being charge a late fee for that month! Six times a bill comes in higher then usual and he doesn’t notice (okay, we can add truthfulness to the list of things Mr. Collinge isn’t so good with). Then he tells us he left his then current job to find a higher paying job. He left his job just assuming he’d get hired somewhere else and make more money? Once again, I’m not sure we’re getting the truth… maybe he was fired. I hope he was fired, because if you’re dumb enough to leave you job just thinking you’ll find a better paying one without having a new job lined up, well, I hope you’re not doing any work that involves reasoning. He then bounces around from state to state… once again you have to wonder how his finances took that. He claims he applied for a deferment and didn’t get it (most people do not so he had to know that was a longshot). So of course all this time the back-interest, fees, and any other missed payments are adding up…. quick. All according to the contract he never bother reading. Then he can’t understand why the company won’t release him from the extra debt he negligently took on while trying to weasel out of his commitment. Better yet, he then tries to enter the world of defense contractor businesses, but isn’t aware that he’ll get nowhere (just like military clearance, if you’re in huge debt you are considered a threat to be easily bribed and thus a risk they will not take). Then of course he tries to turn to the classic escape plan of those foolish or evil with their money… bankruptcy. The plan B (actually, who are we kidding, plan A) of deadbeats. “Why can’t I get what I want and screw everyone else out of what they’re entitled to?” This is where it gets good… he apparently didn’t know that you can’t lose student loan debt through Bankruptcy!!! Then he blames that fact on Sallie Mae’s lobbying efforts. It’s been like that for a long time, if you didn’t know. It’s that way for a reason, if they let you default and get away with sticking it to the loaner, then everyone would do that and there would be no student loans at all. Then of course, rather than face up to his own horrible and dishonest (yes, it is dishonest to try to weasel out of a contract or escape fulfillment of your financial duties) efforts, he blames the system, starts a PAC and tries to blame it all on the high salaries of the executives that run the program he tried to screw. Seriously… you’re an idiot. Or worse, you’re a con-man. The difference between you and a thief who breaks in at night to steal is that the thief doesn’t try to get others to feel sorry for him.

Here is the response from Alan Collinge:

First of all, who the fuck are you?

Second of all, your knee jerk bullshit doesn’t fly. If what happened to me (and what is happening to millions of americans) happened to you, you’d be flying your freak flag like a fucking hippy.

Finally, Here is My story (see below) as I posted it before you took the liberty of spinning it beyond all comprehension.

Feel free to email me directly at justice@studentloanjustice.org if you would like to continue this conversation. I see you have conveniently hid all of your contact info. Whats the matter? Are you scared to stand behind your words? YOu fucking pussy.

Alan

I originally borrowed about $38,000 for both undergraduate, and graduate school, and earned 3 degrees in aerospace Engineering, plus 2 minors in Industrial Systems Engineering, and Philosophy from USC. After graduation, I consolidated with Sallie Mae. I got a fairly low paying job as associate Scientist at Caltech, and faithfully began repaying my loans. As an aside: I was slightly short one month. I called Sallie Mae, and was told over the phone that as long as I continued to pay in a timely matter, that the underpayment wouldn’t affect me. It was over 6 months later when I realized that Sallie Mae had charged me large penalties EVERY month after that for the original underpayment. I talked to them again, and they refused to take off the fees. I realized at that point that Sallie Mae was not part of the government, but rather a for-profit corporation.

My wage at Caltech wasn’t huge, and I found that after about a year or so, It was getting harder and harder to maintain the payment schedule, despite my taking a night job as a cook. In Summer, 2001, I left my job at Caltech with the belief that I would find a higher paying job. Unfortunately, the events of September 11th put an immediate chill on the economy, particularly aerospace . I proceeded to liquidate all of my assets, which included a small retirement package, and a vehicle. I left the state, and began searching for work. There was none. I applied for a hardship deferment with Sallie Mae on December 12th, 2001. They denied it, and instead place my account into default on December 13th. It would be about 2 years before I again found any type of full time employment. During this time, I worked as a cook on a remote island in Alaska (7 days per week, 92 hours per week, at a wage of about $5 per hour), did odd jobs, and cooked in 4 different restaurants in Tacoma, WA.

In April, 2003, I received a bill for nearly $80,000 from General Revenue Corporation (which is owned by Sallie Mae) on behalf of the guarantor, Edfund. I thought there must be a mistake, given that I had originally borrowed $38,000, and paid off approximately $4,000 of this. It turns out there was no-mistake- the federal law gave these people the right to add huge penalties and fees to my loan. Moreover, Sallie Mae - who had already profited at least $25,000 on my $38,000 loans (this doesn’t include interest subsidies paid to them by the federal government while I was in school), was demanding more than double what I originally borrowed to be paid in full! Sallie Mae would have profited an additional $20,000 on my $38,000 in loans had I been able to find a way to comply with their demand.

I called Edfund and repeatedly offered to begin repayment on the original debt (what I borrowed, plus interest). I even offered to repay at a higher interest rate! They refused. I couldn’t understand why a “non-profit, public benefit” corporation needed to charge so much more than the original debt.

Then, I got curious, and researched the executive salaries of Edfund. They were exploding! I dug a little deeper, and saw that there were dozens of “Edfunds” out there, all paying themselves massive increases in salaries. Then it began to make sense. I was blown away when I saw the stock bonuses that Sallie Mae executives had given themselves.

Anyhow, the loan has since been transferred to the Department of Education, who now claim that I owe about $109,000, which may as well be a million. My life has been paralyzed. My pitiful tax returns have been taken, The job I could find, helping disadvantaged businesses at a local non-profit, utilizes none of my engineering skills, pays a fraction of what I though I would be making, and is about to be garnished by yet another collection agency holding my account. I recently got another job as a tech writer at a defense company, but with my defaulted loans, my initial security clearance application was denied. I received notice two weeks ago that I am being laid off.

There is no reason for the collection agencies to accept a fair amount (i.e. what was borrowed, plus interest), and so they don’t. I have thought seriously about bankruptcy, and believe me- this is the last thing I would ever want to do- but even this option is not longer available to student borrowers thanks to the lobbying efforts of Sallie Mae.

Its really funny how people who are well connected can find ways to extract more and more money from the public without actually creating anything useful for society. I’ll never understand how anyone could live with themselves for doing that. This system is rigged, and a whole bunch of already rich people are intent on getting a LOT richer from my misfortune.