Beware of Parent Plus Loans

cptofthehouse
Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:26:27 +0000

I agree with you, Lerkin. By eliminating these loans or putting income requirements on them, you might as well say that they are for the well to do only. The terms of the loans can make them doable for low income families, especially if the student does also help pay them. We have a cousin who has just the one son and due to a number of issues including low income, have not saved much for college but are wiling to scrimp and what they can now. They are on time with their payments and with the kid gone for most of the year, they can be particularly frugal and are looking for a less expensive place to live. The PLUS allows them to stretch out 4 years of payments into 10 or more, which makes it doable for them. I think all of us here agree and they do as well, that would have been a lot better and probably better had they saved up front and done the stinting then, but … that’s a done deal.