Successful Internet entrepreneur reveals all about his very personal student loan debt horror story and becomes a student loan consolidation evangelist.

May 27, 2005 (PRLEAP.COM) Education News
Current and former college students searching the Internet for information about student loan consolidation may come across the http://www.StudentLoanConsolidation.ws/ website, a site where the author tells of a rather disturbing student loan debt story. When asked why he created the http://www.StudentLoanConsolidation.ws/ website, creator Steve Brown replied, “Catharsis, pure and simple. I went through hell with my student loan debt and I really needed to communicate my story just so I could get it off my chest. Now, I can tell you that I’m very happy that I did because I’ve already received emails from people thanking me for sharing my experience; quite a few of them communicated to me that they would have made the same mistakes I made.”

Steve Brown is a successful Internet entrepreneur with over 380 functioning websites on the World Wide Web. He is well known throughout the Internet webmaster community for his http://www.DomainBlog.net/ website, which hosts the Internet's original free domain name giveaway.

Offering a brief summary of his student loan debt story, Brown continued, “You can read the full story by stopping by the website at http://www.StudentLoanConsolidation.ws/, but to sum it up for you: I was ignoring my student loan debt for years and eventually it caught up with me. The government was able to secure a “judgment” against me in court, and using the power of that judgment they were able to get access to my business bank account and take every penny that I had in it, money that I was going to use to build my nascent Internet business. It was horrible. It was shocking, and I can tell you without exaggeration that it almost ruined all my dreams.”

Brown admits that he had been miserably irresponsible about his student loan debt and that in hindsight he knows that he should not have ignored all those debt collection letters and phone calls he was receiving at his home and place of work.

“I don’t think that most people out there are as irresponsible as I was,” Mr. Brown went on, “I don’t think that people are disregarding their student loan debt obligations simply because they don’t want to give up their money. I think the problem is a lot more serious than that. You see, we are now living in a virtual debt-slavery society. Many Americans are overwhelmed by debt: credit cards, first and second mortgages, car loans—it’s all too much for the average American to handle, and they feel that they simply can’t meet their student loan debt obligations without giving up the fight and going into bankruptcy. It’s a sad state of affairs but it's the reality of middle-class life in America today.

“The student loan debt horror story that I have decided to share with the world at http://www.StudentLoanConsolidation.ws/ is 100% true, and you only have to read the latest headlines for stories that will make you a true believer! It seems like everyday I’m reading new student loan debt horror stories, horror stories that are even worse than mine! I just read one story of a sixty year old man’s social security benefits being garnished because he ignored his student loan debt for decades, and yet another where a couple of unlucky parents had to pay $30,000 in fees because of problems with the $40,000 of student loan debt that their son had incurred. These stories get to me, especially because most of these student loan debt problems are so preventable. In some of these cases, student loan consolidation would not have helped, but in many others, student loan consolidation could have saved people from some major financial headaches.

“Folks out there need to understand the seriousness of their student loan debt. Most people don’t know about the change in federal law that happened back in the late 90’s that has basically put an end to the once common practice of declaring bankruptcy in order to get out of student loan debt. Folks who consolidate their student loans now will have a much lower monthly payment than they would otherwise have if they choose not to consolidate, and the lower monthly payment is locked in for the life of the repayment period. Interest rates are at record lows and they are on the verge of going up. Soon this opportunity to save thousands in interest charges will be gone and I think lots of people are going to regret snubbing the whole student loan consolidation thing.”

When asked if there was one last piece of advice that he can offer to anyone with student loan debt, Mr. Brown replied, “Absolutely: if you haven’t consolidated your student loans already, do it now while interests rates are still low. Congress is currently debating whether they should terminate the whole student loan consolidation option because some in Congress think that government subsidization of the program is costing American taxpayers too much money. That means that soon—and I mean in the very near future—student loan consolidation may not be available to anyone, and that would translate to a much more oppressive student loan debt burden for borrowers.”

Mr. Brown invites the world to stop by his website which is located at http://www.StudentLoanConsolidation.ws/ where visitors can read his student loan horror story, get information about the pros and cons of student loan consolidation and browse the latest entries in the site’s student loan consolidation blog.