Consumer complaint received 2017-04-26
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Company: IOWA STUDENT LOAN LIQUIDITY CORPORATION (NJ)

My private student loan lender, Aspire Servicing Cen ter (   XXXX   ) i s an immoral company, and I am sending my complaint here so that hopefully their policy will change regarding accrued interest.     In summary, I am drowning in student loan debt ( around {$60000.00} in loans, and {$35000.00} in interest across all private & public lenders - and yes, I have already consolidated as many loans as possible ). I am not asking anyone to pay back my loans on my behalf, or pay back the accrued interest on my behalf ( although that would be amazing ). What I am asking, is that I am offered a re-payment plan that treats me like a human being. That is all.     Specifically, I have been making regular student loan payments for years. Initially after I graduated college, I was forced to put my loans through deferment since I was still trying to find work in a slow economy. I eventually found a minimum wage job and was able to get out of deferment and start paying my loans back. I was then given a couple options from my loan providers to repay my loans. Option  # 1 was to have high monthly payments and start to pay down the accrued interest ( 9 %, variable rate for my Private loans through Aspire, 5.5 % for my government consolidate loans ), and eventually the principle balance. Option # 2 was to have small monthly payments that I could actually afford to make, without being forced out on the street no being able to pay rent. Obviously I could not afford Option # 1 because I was n't making enough mon ey, so I was forced to go with  Option # 2 rather than continue to accrue interest within a deferment schedule. Fast forward a couple years later and I have made great strides in my career, however my student loan re-payments are still not big enough to pay back the interest. I unfortunately can not afford the high priced repayments that it takes to pay off the interest completely. Instead, all I do every month is pay the interest that has accrued in the past 30 days. The result, is that I have paid back 4 thousand dollars in the last two years to Aspire, but my account balance has n't changed one cent. I ' m still  XXXX   XXXX  dollars in debt despite my best efforts and  XXXX   XXXX  dollars paid to this private loan corporation. I then called them and made an impassioned plea for them to stop accruing interest on my account. All I want is to take my lumps with the $  XXXX  in interest I 've already accrued through them and begin to pay that back. My heated exchange with thei r loan specialist ended up bringing me into a conversation with middle management where I simply asked, " At what point to you as a company, Aspire, say to yourself, we 've already squeeze d out $  XXXX  in interest of of this kid, let 's let this human being actually start to pay off his loan. '' The managers response : " We do n't provide settlement options because then we 'd  have to do it for everybody. '' This is also the case for my public loans, but I can only fight one battle at a time, so its Aspire that i want to come to an agreeme nt with first.     Therefore, I 'm asking you here,  XXXX   XXXX  and this  one compet ent government agency, can you please pass a law that puts a cap on how much interest these loan providers can accrue? I 'm making my best effort to pay them back but not even seeing my account balance go down is the most demoralising feeling in the world. At what point can I actually pay my debt? That 's all I want to do! This demoralising feeling has lead to  XXXX  for me personally and I have, in all honestly, had thoughts about how my only way out of this situation was to kill myself. I know I should n't say that, but I 'm really trying to express   the defeating feeling this has on me, and people like me.
I 've been on my own since I was 17. I had no cosign  ers on my loans, but decided to go to college anyways because I was told it would be the best way for me to make money in the long run. However, I feel like I have been conned into a lifelong re-payment scheme that I can never get out from under. Please please please, I just need someones help. I do n't know what else to do.       Sincerely, Someone Truly Hurting -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - Aspire Loan Details : Original Loan Amounts = $  XXXX  Interest Accrued = $  XXXX  Interest Rate = 9 % Minimum, Variable Rate Public Loans : Original Loan Amounts = $  XXXX  Accrued Interest = $  XXXX  Interest Rate = 5.5 % ( Consolidated by  XXXX   XXXX  )