<p>Let me start this off with: my mother is not the most financially responsible.
She still owes me $4.5k that she borrowed my freshman year of college, after she advised me to take out "everything I possibly could" money wise. But I digress.</p>
<p>All that money included two Parent PLUS loans, that are in her name because of their nature. I wasn't under the impression I was getting free money, I knew I would have to pay her back. I just didn't know she was going to let it sit there for 4 years accumulating 5k in interest, which I just found out today.</p>
<p>I was always in control of my other student loans, which I have been making monthly payments towards to keep the interest down. I would have been making payments to the other one the entire time if I knew...</p>
<p>I guess I need some legal advice. What do I do? She withheld this information from me, I feel like I shouldn't have to be punished for that. I still have another year of school so I can't make a big payment towards it. I worked all summer to make enough money to get me through this next year.</p>
<p>Any advice?
Sorry for the bitterness - I'm still really angry.</p>
<p>Wait, did she take the $4.5 as a parent plus loan and keep it? If so, let her pay it off.</p>
<p>If the Parent Plus was extra, and you actually got that money given to you or paid on your behalf, AND you agreed to pay her back for taking that loan, you may morally, not legally, owe it to her (or to pay the lender).</p>
<p>You need to talk to her, determine what amount you benefited from, and pay that. Legally, you owe what you signed for and she owes what she signed for.</p>
<p>I just went through all my financial statements for the past few years and the Parent PLUS loans were about $15k. I only took out that first set and I’ve been riding on that money ever since.</p>
<p>After I got all my student loans she just took out a random $4.5k without asking, so just my money in general.</p>
<p>Legally - the Parent Plus loan is her responsibility - not yours. You don’t have to do anything. If you want to start paying on it, great. But if you do not have the money to so, there’s not much you can do about it right now. I’d say it’s more her problem.</p>
<p>The Parent Plus Loan is in your MOTHER’s name, not yours. It is her responsibility to pay it back, not yours. You, the student can NOT take out Parent Plus loans. Only a parent can take out Parent Plus loans. </p>
<p>It sounds like she took out Parent Plus loans, and you got most of that money for college (and spent it). It also sounds like she took out another Parent Plus loans unbeknownst to you, and that was $4.5K, and you most certainly did NOT get that money.</p>
<p>So we are talking about a loan taken out under false pretenses. She took that $4.5K from you, which had to be used on your college, correct?</p>
<p>Or is the issue that you verbally told her to please take out Parent Plus loans <em>but</em> you would pay them back when you could? In that case, why would you think she would have been paying them back if you promised to pay them back?</p>
<p>I see a few choices:
Suck it up, start paying off all the loans including those she “hid” from you. If you start paying them off, the interest will stop being accrued. It sounds like you knew she was a bad risk already.
Wash your hands of it. Let her never pay the $4.5K back to you, but also you won’t pay anything else back. Her credit will be ruined and things might get worse than that. You have no legal responsibility to pay off your parent’s loans.
The most extreme thing to do would be to call the lender of the Parent Plus loan for the $4.5K she took from you, and let them arrest her. She stole your money. Period.</p>
<p>What would I do? I’d kiss the $4.5K goodbye and let her deal with owing interest. I’d also perhaps get my siblings involved to intervene. Or if no siblings, ask a family lawyer or accountant to talk to her. Owing money is not a cool way to live.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are trying to do the right thing. She sounds like she needs serious help to treat you this way.</p>
<p>I know that legally these are the responsibility of the parent, but OP, did you tell her you would pay her back? Didn’t you know they were accumulating interest?</p>
<p>Wait, this is confusing with two threads going. Are you saying she took out a Parent Plus loan but never gave you the money?</p>
<p>Folks…the Parent Plus is a PARENT loan, not a STUDENT loan. The parent took out this loan, not the student. The PARENT is responsible for repayment of this loan. </p>
<p>If the parent didn’t give the student the Parent Plus money…all the more reason why the student should NOT feel any obligation to repay the PARENT loan.</p>
<p>So there are 2 parent plus loans for me that equate to $15k that are now up to $20k with interest.
Of that money, she took $4.5k out of my bank account, so its not a separate loan, but it came out of the loan.</p>
<p>I do take partial responsibility, I should have been more vigilant with my finances and I shouldn’t have assumed she would be responsible.</p>
<p>I want to start making payments but I’m afraid I won’t make it through the year with what I have left. I made $10k this summer, about a third goes to rent, a third to tuition. </p>
<p>Did you and she have an agreement that YOU would pay HER Parent Plus Loan? If not, why are you concerned (other than being a nice responsible kid)?</p>
<p>frankly I didn’t know this loan existed until my sisters parent plus started paying itself off from my bank account a week ago. I thought it had consolidated with my other loans with another provider.</p>
<p>This is all a confusing mess. I was supposed to pay for all of my college, though.</p>
<p>@katelynicole – these loans are your mom’s, not yours.</p>
<p>If you want to pay her back for the loans that were for your benefit, then the solution is simple: create a spreadsheet and enter the amount of money that YOU received. When you are ready to start paying your mom back, make payments to your mom in that amount. Keep track on your own and figure out the interest in whatever way you feel is fair. </p>
<p>At some point you will have paid your mom back the total that you owe her, and you will have your own records documenting what you have paid. So you will have done your part. </p>
<p>If your mom prefers, you can make payments directly on the loan – but don’t promise to make her payments for her. Instead simply send the payment directly to the lender – they will apply payments they receive from whatever source. (I know, because I’ve helped my daughter paying off her student loans, and I just got the loan number from her and sent the payment). By making the payments directly to the lender, you will be paying down the loan and reducing the interest burden – but if you aren’t going to pay the full amount, then let your mom know. </p>
<p>I don’t think you have to make it into a big fight. You can just say that you received $X and you are going to pay back $X + interest. You can cross the bridge of debating about the unpaid accumulated interest when you come to it. That will be sometime in the future, and your view of the scope of the problem may differ depending on your financial situation at the time. </p>
<p>Did she AGREE to pay the interest the last 4 years? Did you guys discuss the interest, how much and who was paying for it in advance? Was it part of the agreement that she would pay the interest or did you both simply not know that the money would accrue interest.</p>
<p>Above posts are accurate in that it is under her name… it’s legally hers and I don’t think there is any way for her to get around that. I guess it all depends on the relationship you want to have with her and your own conscience. If you KNOW you promised to pay the balance and KNOW she agreed to pay the interest, I suppose you could just pay your part and let her squirm. If you just ASSUMED she would pay the interest well, then that was a bad assumption. If you don’t want this to wreck your relationship, perhaps some compromise can be made. Maybe you can split the interest. That said, if she doesn’t have the money, she doesn’t have the money. I don’t know what else to tell you.</p>
<p>Did you immediately contact your bank to stop the amounts going out of your account to pay down the Parent Plus loan your mom took out for your sister?</p>
<p>Maybe you should close your account and move the money to a new account, making sure it only has your name on it (and keep the account number away from your mom).</p>