My Comments on Bloomberg Businessweek (03-28-12)


Re: Federal and Bank Collusion regarding shell-game with student loans, making it impossible to pay off, radically pump up the debt to astronomical sums, & making student borrowers financial slaves.


Let’s address Federal and bank collusion in this matter. The Fed eradicated Pell grants, pushing loans. In my case (in the 80’s) I took a $2,400. loan out for a field tech course, from a bank I’d done business with before. But in the process of paying off this loan (I’d gotten the balance down to $350.), the bank went under and Chase bought the loan. Chase denied having the loan and reincorporated 4 times within the space of 2 yrs., changing their name slightly each time, and shifting the loan around. They continued playing this shell game with the loan, as I mailed them payments (per my former bank’s instructions by letter), and they kept returning the payments, denying they had the loan. They made it impossible for me to pay it off.


Then they had somebody who wouldn’t give a phone number or address curse at me at the top of her lungs from somewhere in California (I’m in NYC; and we had constant TV warnings in those years not to send money out on any shakedown telephone calls, because of scams), threatening to litigate from California and triple the now enormous debt. This happened, all without benefit of a letter to me.


In this way, they pumped up my remaining balance from $350. to over $10K and climbing. I tried to stem the damage by mailing the inflated balance remaining (in the late ’80’s) to the NYS Board of Education (forgetting it was the NYS Higher Board of Educatio (n), and they first denied receiving any money, but later admitted on the phone that they accepted & cashed it as a voluntary contribution, although the letter and accompanying paperwork was about the loan repayment. They conveniently lost all that.


And thus it has remained to this day. They’ve been intractable, unreachable, unaccountable, and greedy. I suffered a series of very bad health problems, and continued working until I no longer could, but the little I earned had to continue supporting my children, aging husband, and mother. Now they take over $100./mo. out of my disability check (which is less than half of what the man in the above article receives) and anything else they can lay their hands on. I can’t open a bank account because they’ll freeze the account and seize the entire check on the bank’s end, leaving me penniless and homeless. And next year, the President says all the checks will go digital (no more paper), so they’ll be able to give a little with the right hand, and steal everything with the left hand.


By the way, the course I passed with an A- average resulted in ABSOLUTELY NO JOB OFFERS OR WORK. The Federal law mandated that in such a scenario, the entire debt must be absolved and erased after 20 years, so as to prevent the crisis that’s coming upon me.


While we were all struggling to try to hold down two jobs, to make enough money to buy food, they changed that law and stripped away ANY and ALL consumer protections for student loans and borrowers.


And they keep on shifting around the location of the Federal Dept. that handles these matters. This is to prevent continuity, make sure personnel who know of case particulars are no longer present on staff, and in general, do everything possible to sabotage any help a student borrower may hope to receive to untie the knotty problems of bank fraud.


And why is this? Because students are alone, unprotected, easy to intimidate and shake down, and easy to cut off (just like those on social security or disability). Banks make a great deal of money for the Federal government by running these fraudulent shell games, driving the debts up to astronomical sums. That’s why the Federal government constantly gives the banks tax waivers on their yearly taxes, and bails the banks out when they have problems. The banks are “Pinkertons” for the Federal government. They aren’t doing anything that the Fed hasn’t HIRED THEM TO DO. The Federal government itself is behind this fraud.


AND I DARE THE FED TO PROVE OTHERWISE, BY GRANTING IMMEDIATE STUDENT LOAN AMNESTY TO ALL OUTSTANDING STUDENT LOANS, W/O QUALIFICATION OR RESERVATION. The system they’ve instituted is so riddled with Federal/bank FRAUD, that all debts should be immediately wiped clean in forgiveness. This would prove their integrity … and the Fed should return monies fraudulently taken under these shell-game tactics to ALL STUDENTS THEY’VE DEFRAUDED.

Education is a right!

Pay for books, not bombs.