Award-winning musician Reggie Harris found himself singing the blues after agreeing to co-sign a university loan for his nephew.
“I'm struggling with this loan that's not mine, so that as a musician I've other debts which i have to pay,” Harris said.
Harris says after nearly 2 decades of payments, he still owes $14,000. He is one of the roughly 44 million individuals who make up the trillion dollars in US student debt.
Michael Camoin, Harris's close friend and filmmaker, is focusing on a docu-series called “Scared to Debt” which raises awareness of student loan financing issues.
“I think the entire college money loan thing is really a wild ride,” Camoin said.
One example is student loan manager Navient, that has recently come under fire for its predatory lending practices. Following a multistate settlement, they'd to forgive $1.7 billion in education loan debt and are paying one more $95 million in restitution to borrowers.
While working on the “Scared to Debt” documentary, Camoin met one of the whistleblowers tasked with taking Navient to court.
“Without Jon Oberg, we wouldn't have heard of these settlements by now,” Camoin said.
“It was the loan that was given to them-this addiction to student loans, the simple money,” Oberg said.
State lawsuit says Navient, formerly known as Sallie Mae, partnered with for-profit colleges to approve high-interest student loans, boosting college enrollment .
“They tricked people saying 'you'll get a huge salary with our education' and you may repay credit immediately,” Oberg said.
Camoin also discovered that credit giants like Navient cut ties using the US government. This enables them to transfer millions from federally guaranteed accounts while continuing to collect billions using their existing private loans.
“The only guarantee is perfect for banks. – There isn't any someone to protect borrowers,” Camoin said.
“I hope this documentary will empower them and others enough to reform this lending system making it fair.”