Submitted by BeamStop23 t3_11a1bgs in newjersey
The 21st Century American Employee needs a college education to obtain any white collar job and have a basic life. Even if studying high income fields, except a small few, most require post graduate schooling. No matter what route you take, most people, especially minorities do not have the money to seek a higher education and must take out loans if they want to educate themselves.
In the case of NJCLASS these loans are predatory. For those that don't know. The state has combined a private entity with a public service and is beholden to wall street investors. In a conflict of interest the state takes the personal information of students as young as 17 to determine eligibility of grants. Most of the time these grants are nowhere close to paying for the cost of higher education in New Jersey. This information provided to HESAA gets passed off to NJ CLASS. It's not stressed enough by school counselors or NJCLASS that this is not a federal like loan with the goal of educating students, it is a for profit private loan that has the recovery mechanisms of a federal loan because it is backed by the NJ government. In other words they put the grants under the same roof of a predatory lending scheme.
If anyone sees this take it as a warning. The federal student loan forgiveness rate is about 5-10% of all loans dispersed, and there are talks about full or partial forgiveness. In addition there are several forms of payment plans to avoid default. For actual private loans from banks presumably the forgiveness/settlement rate is significantly higher (hence the higher rates you get charged). For NJCLASS not only do you they get the higher rates but they have a forgiveness rate of 1% of all debt and that's after allowing discharge when you die. It is a business such to the point they resorted to gaming online reviews through bribery. When you take a loan through them it actually gets packaged with other loans and sold as a private bond investment to private investors. Returns are marketed as guaranteed to these private investors. On their behalf the state will, if needed, garnish, seize assets, and revoke licenses. The student receivedms the WORST of both worlds. Do not take that loan!
The state should not be profiting from those trying to better themselves and do better in informing and the entire system needs to be changed. Rant over
ferocious_coug t1_j9q51c8 wrote
I went to Boston University then RVCC then Rutgers for undergrad and graduate school. I finished with $110k in student loan debt. Nearly all of it was HESAA NJCLASS loans at astronomical interest rates.
I was paying over $1k a month and eventually refinanced through SOFI to get my monthly payments down. In 2016 I had to put them in forbearance after losing my job. I decided to start my own business but it took me awhile to get back on my feet and after a year of forbearance they were about to continue payments, which I could not pay. I basically told them if we don't settle I'd file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and you'd have to deal with chasing me for the next 10+ years to recoup it all.
They agreed to settle for $60k on a $100k balance and I took out a different type of loan with a much lower interest rate. Still pay $500+ a month but not to them! Small W. Fuck NJCLASS.