Student Loan Debt Leads to Unexpected Immortality

Here is the good news about student loans: they can apparently lead to your eventual immortality. The bad news: they lead to your eventual immortality by haunting your loved ones even after your death.

A California couple is speaking out after they say their finances have been devastated over their daughter’s student loan debt, which they are being forced to repay after the woman died unexpectedly four years ago. [...]

Lisa Mason had taken out close to $100,000 in student loans in order to pay for nursing school, and was making payments on the debt when she died. Steve Mason said he and his wife, who had co-signed the loans, were contacted immediately after his daughter’s death and were told they must start making payments

Is this an anomaly, perhaps? Did they fall through the cracks into some bureaucratic, Kafka-esque hell-hole reserved specially for them? No, they did not! This is apparently standard operating procedure for private student loans. From MSN:  

With private student loans... generally lenders will not forgive loans after death. It's common for private student loans to require a co-signer, often the student's parent. In most cases, banks expect co-signers to assume responsibility for the loan after a death. There are exceptions: Sallie Mae's "Smart Option Student Loan," launched in 2009, forgives loans when students die. But generally, banks will attempt to collect payment from the deceased's estate, and then turn to co-signers.

This prompts important questions, such as: why doesn't Congress change the law so this can't happen to nice families like the Masons? (Answer: HA!) Also: why doesn't the bank just write off the loss and stop bothering this nice family? (Answer: you do not get rich by failing to harass grieving parents for money, duh.)

Mason said his daughter’s debt has ballooned to $200,000 and the payments exceed $2,000 a month... The debt has still been “financially devastating” and wrecked their once-solid credit.

Mason said he believes private student loans should be regulated the same as federal student loans, and should be able to be forgiven if the borrower dies. He also said he believes student loans should be able to be discharged in bankruptcy, like other types of debt.

*Cough* pinko! *cough*, that might lead to a Holocaust , handouts for Poors , or people taking on more education than they can afford. And what if Poors get it in their heads that they should get more education than they can afford in pursuit of the American dream and upward socioeconomic mobility?

And, most importantly, we have a billion dollar student loan bubble , and well, that bubble isn't going to pop itself!

 [Fox News]