CNN —
The Department of Education announced it will use “secret shoppers” to help monitor the student loan repayment process, as payments for millions of borrowers restarted last month following a pause during the Covid-19 pandemic that lasted more than three years.
Not much has changed since I had a student loan in 1989 for one year of college. When I graduated in '90 my interest rate was 12% and by the time I could pay it off it was 2.5 x what I’d borrowed.
edit – btw this was in Canada.
I know nothing about the Canadian system but for the American system we really need to, at the very least, work on bringing the cost of college down and limiting interest rates. 12% is crazy! The us national mortgage rate for a 30 year loan was 10% that year so who knows maybe it was the going rate in Canada. Ugh. Education should not be financially crushing.
Canada’s post-secondary education is cheaper for citizens, but the powers-that-be have decided to bring in thousands of foreign students - who pay through the nose - to help fund educational institutions who’ve been starved of gov’t funding for decades. And the rules for student loans have become more stringent than ever, leaving many unable to access them.
It’s just a never-ending cycle of bullshit that helps no one except the rich.