Student Loans

College was cool and all, but the crushing debt I racked up made me wonder if it was all worth it. I graduated after six years of college with around $90,000 of debt, which forced me to move back home with my parents and work several jobs (one full-time IT job and an ever growing number of tutoring jobs).

A short time ago, I got a call from one of my banks I got funding from telling me that my first payment is coming up, to which I informed them that I was still without a job and could not pay and need to use a forbearance. The loan shark representative reminded me that my loan is still very young and that it was not the wisest option for me to use one of my forbearances so early. I told that I had no other choice since I was not able to make the payment. Now this is where it get good. She responded by offering me some very helpful options: 1.) she suggested that I may want to "look around and see what I can live without" - translation: I needed to sell some of my shit (I just graduated from college, am I supposed to have superfluous items that I can sell at the first suggestion? I must have missed that memo); 2.) If I didn't have any items that have resale values, I may want to "make it a point to visit a plasma center" - translation: sell my body parts... How about this, why don't I have a kidney cut out, because I'm sure that's worth way more than my blood that I am not eligible to sell (see my previous post). I held my tongue and was able to get out of that phone call with minimal rage build-up. 

Fast-forward to ONE week later, when my cell phone rings again (cell phone is part of the family plan), this time it rings at 8:00 am on a Sunday - I don't answer... A few moments later my mom comes into my room with someone on the phone for me, it's the money-grubbing fuckwad bank rep. My mom is well aware of the story from the above paragraph, and asks me "[bank name] is on the phone, are they the ones that told you to sell your blood?" when I say yes, she gets a look on her face like she has to fart, but doesn't want to make noise, she closes my door and for tears into the rep about their poor practices. She must have scared the shit out of him, because he slipped up and revealed that suggesting options 1 and 2 above is standard practice when someone can't make a payment. I'm going to say that again, suggesting that clients sell their blood to make a payment is STANDARD PRACTICE at this bank. With that bit of tasty information, my parents contact a couple of their lawyer friends who were flabbergasted and very willing to draft a letter and send it off to said bank. I have not since heard from them. I am still appalled at this practice and am currently considering contact a few news stations, as seems to be the philosophy of many people now-a-days any publicity is good publicity.