Going to avoid too much detail, since it won't help me find a way out, and it is frustrating to recount, but a barebones description:
29/M/NYC/making just over 100k/year
My parents took out ~$56k in student loans for two years of my college education of 2007-2009. They initially said they would pay it off for multiple reasons which I will not get into.
Now, they've brought me the news that they never paid it off, and in fact didn't make any payments at all for two years. For reasons, they decided to consolidate this debt along with some other things at an interest rate of 8%, this was maybe 2010.
I've been asking about this debt for years, but since it was repackaged into this debt consolidation loan, they were always evasive on what exactly was still owed for my education.
Fast forward to this week, they've finally broken it down for me, largely out of an inability to pay it off.
My portion of the debt is approximately $90k, and I am in absolute shock and have no idea how to move forward, so here I am.
A few questions:
1) Given the student loan was repackaged, is there is no way for me to write off any of the interest accrued?
2) I cannot borrow money from friends or family, so I will need to apply for a personal loan. Where should I begin? What kind of interest rate can I expect with a good credit score? How do I present the reason for the loan?
3) What else can I do aside from cutting spending to bare essentials and paying this down as fast as possible?
I am a little bit at a loss here, as they never let on how serious this had become. I still haven't even told my wife, I thought I was literally two months away from being debt-free from my other student loans for the rest of my education. Now I feel angry and horrified at the reality of what they did for the past near decade with this debt.
Thank you in advance
EDIT:
Additional details
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no, I am not legally on the hook as they are not in my name
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One was parent PLUS, the others I don't even remember and cannot figure out b/c they repackaged into this consolidated debt
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I have to pay this off, they cannot and my dad is already nearing "retirement"
EDIT2:
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it was bundled with a sibling's student loans, they are in the same boat I am (though for a slightly higher amount due to price differences in school)
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Yes, I understand this is their foul-up, but the alternatives are just as horrifying. Do they declare bankruptcy? Neither of them has many working years left. If this doesn't get sorted, I'll still be on the hook when the problem is magnified by loss-of-work and their social security check just goes towards the interest on this insurmountable debt in a couple years.
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I'm equal parts sad and angry, which is why I have not had any further discussions with them on details. I am still quite emotional, and am trying to find the most dispassionate way forward
EDIT3:
Thank you all for your answers. A lot to chew on, and obviously didn't expect some silver bullet to come out of this, but the sanity check has been very helpful in establishing the next step rather than fretting over analysis paralysis.
Will continue to check back and drop updates if and when they happen
Thanks again
Submitted January 02, 2019 at 07:01PM by snzhzhs http://bit.ly/2CKgZkn
