Predatory lending: Congress must stop ignoring

I recently met with two staff members of U.S. Rep. Denny Heck regarding HR2366, which would restore the right of bankruptcy for people hopelessly buried in student loan debt.

Heck’s office states that people don’t care about this issue because they aren’t calling about it. (People who do care can call Heck’s office at 202-225-9740 and 253-533-8332.)

My son has been trapped in this web of predatory lending. First the lenders refused to provide copies of loan and payment documents. Then we found out they were applying his payments only to the low-interest loans and letting the high-interest loans go into default with a $24,000 penalty.

While we were paying off $40,000 of his loans, they promised to allow us to negotiate the payoff of the rest. Instead they hid those loans from us for four months.

Afterward we got a notice that his loans were in default again, along with another $24,000 penalty.

These people are criminals but Congress treats them with impunity so they answer to no one.