Student Loans Literally The Worst

A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling.

“They would say, ‘We don’t care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,’” recalled Reynoso, a gardener from Palmdale, Calif.

— This is totally horrific. The kid was the first in the family to go to college and died on the way home from a job interview. “Reynoso and his lawyer don’t even know exactly how much he now owes, but it appears to be well into the six figures” (the reason this is possible is because the loans have been repackaged and resold a zillion times because that is how things work now).

The dad co-signed on the loans because otherwise the kid couldn’t get them; he makes $21,000 a year. Bankruptcy doesn’t get rid of school loans. The only good thing that’s happened: “One of Freddy’s student loans was cancelled after his death without a problem: his federal loan. That’s because the government cancels student loans if a student dies.”

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.