WASHINGTON — With student loan debt at a record $1.3 trillion and delinquency rates rising, Americans saddled with student loans, especially young adults, would be willing to do some drastic things to get out from under the weight of their debt burden.
Credible.com, a sort of Kayak for comparing student loan refinancing options, polled young adults with student loan debt to see just how far they would go to lose that student loan burden.
“It was a pretty interesting study,” said Credible.com founder and CEO Stephen Dash. “Half of them said they would give up the right to vote in the next two presidential elections. That was a little surprising to us.”
“Just under 44 percent said they’d be willing to give up a ride-sharing service like Uber or Lyft forever. And 27 percent said they would be willing to move in with their parents for five years,” he said.
As silly as it may sound, it shows how consumed by the weight of student debt many college graduates are.
The average American who financed their education with student loans now graduates with an average of $30,000 in debt. It’s even higher in the D.C. region. Maryland has the highest average student loan debt in the nation.
A small, but growing number of companies are starting to offer help in repaying student loans to the list of benefits they offer employees. The programs are generally similar to 401(k) perks, with employers matching some of an employee’s student loan repayments.
It is not only a generous perk, it is something job candidates are seeking out and is becoming a powerful recruiting tool for companies, especially among millennials.
“There was a study (done by nonprofit American Student Assistance) that found the top perks people now care about are health insurance, 401(k) match and student loan repayment being third. It was 82 percent, 74 percent, and 51 percent of people were interested in those three perks,” Dash said.
Credible.com also partners with companies who want to set up loan repayment programs and leverage better terms for their employees’ loans.
The Department of Education reports that 42.3 million Americans are currently paying back federal student loan debt and lenders are collecting payments on $64 billion in private student loans.
Two things worth noting about Credible.com’s survey:
- While half said they would give up the right to vote in the next two presidential elections, less than half of millennial voters (49.4 percent) turned out for the 2016 presidential election.
- Some things 18- to 34-year-olds aren’t willing to give up. When asked if they would be willing to give up text-messaging for a year, only 13 percent said yes.
