Tuesday, September 6, 2016

ANgry about student loans

I just spent the last hour or so attempting to renew my income based repayment plan for my student loan, the web site you have to use is fast, filled with helpful tooltips, and a complete piece of shit to an extent that I can only assume is intentional.

Multiple passwords, redundant logins, bouncing between three separate sites, one of which is the IRS, all of which require their own login information, and then, once I get everything done and submit the final tax information, they tell me that my wife needs to do so as well.
She didn't have to do it last time I did this, so that is new and exciting, so she grinds through her process and it informs her that it will be one to three days until they are able to verify her account.

There is no reason for this, none at all, the only possible motivation I see is to have people get so frustrated that they give up and make the payments at the default, usually egregious, rate. Or they stop making payments at all and begin the process of wage garnishment or whatever.

Some of you may, at some point in your youths, have signed up for a service through a shady website or something and then found yourself unable to find any way to access the service or to change or cancel your billing, when it happens like that it is a scam and illegal, but it's a big business when the victims are students.

From start to finish, this whole system is a way to steal money from poor people, and I grow increasingly certain that my college education is not worth the lifetime of hassle this will cause me. I hate it and I hate those who support it, it is a new version of the company town pure and simple and no good will ever come of it. My only consolation is all of those who benefit from the systems creation and maintenance will be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

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