Great Power, Great Debt: Student Loan Collection Resumes, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spidey's Got Thoughts!

My Spidey Sense is Tingling... with Dread!

Alright web heads your friendly neighborhood Spider Man here! So I just got wind that the U.S. Department of Education is hitting the 'restart' button on collecting defaulted student loans this Monday. Yep you heard right. Millions of folks are about to feel the pinch and let me tell you even dodging Doc Ock’s tentacles is less stressful than navigating student loan bureaucracy. Seriously could they have picked a worse time? I'm swinging through the city dodging Green Goblin bombs and now I gotta worry about defaulting students?! It's like Aunt May always says "With great power comes great responsibility... and a whole lotta paperwork!"

Uncle Sam's Got Superpowers (and They're Not Friendly)

Apparently the feds have some serious collection superpowers when it comes to student loans. They can snatch your tax refunds grab your paychecks and even tap into your Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Talk about a sticky situation! More than 42 million Americans are carrying student loans totaling over $1.6 TRILLION! That's more than the Daily Bugle's made in its entire existence… and that's saying something. Five million are already in default and some predict that number could double in just a few months! Double! That's like two Sandmen merging – a real disaster!

Trump vs. Biden: The Student Loan Showdown

The previous administration seems pretty critical of current efforts to ease the student loan burden arguing that taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for degrees. “American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” said U.S. Secretary of Education. It’s a complicated web folks and I’m just trying to swing through it without getting tangled.

A Five Year Freeze and a Whole Lotta Chaos

Collection activity on federal student loans has been mostly paused for the last half decade. But during that time the lending system has gone through some major changes and disruptions. Remember the SAVE plan? It was supposed to help borrowers but legal challenges threw a wrench into the works. Many borrowers are now stuck switching repayment plans which could mean higher monthly bills. Talk about a Parker luck!

Layoffs and Hold Music: A Borrower's Worst Nightmare

To add insult to injury the previous administration apparently cut staff at the Education Department including the folks who helped borrowers. Now people are reporting waiting hours on the phone just to talk to someone about their debt. Hours! I could stop a bank robbery rescue a cat from a tree and write a witty one liner in that time! Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz says he's heard from people stuck on hold for up to eight hours! Eight hours! That's longer than it takes to watch all the Star Wars movies and trust me that's saying something. "The timing of the layoffs is unfortunate given the need for borrowers to get help,” Kantrowitz said. No kidding!

Credit Score Carnage and Economic Mayhem

If you’re already behind on payments your credit score could plummet by as much as 129 points! And according to the Federal Reserve some folks could see their scores drop by a whopping 171 points. That’s worse than when Venom stole my suit! Lower credit scores mean higher interest rates on things like mortgages car loans and credit cards. It's like being caught in a web of financial doom! As Mike Pierce executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center put it restarting collections amid all this uncertainty “will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country.” Tell me about it! Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go swing by the Daily Bugle and see if J. Jonah Jameson will give me an advance on my photos… maybe I can help someone out!