Posted February 02, 2019 16:11:06 A student who paid off her college loans by making her parents’ debt payments was able to graduate on time.
Catherine “Samantha” Thomas, a 23-year-old University of New South Wales (UNSW) student, said she was “shocked” to discover her parents owed nearly $200,000 in debts.
“I was really surprised to find out that they owed money,” she said.
“It was really hard to find the words to explain what happened, so I called the college and asked for help.”
The college student said she could not repay the debts by paying her parents back, but instead decided to pay her off her own way.
“My parents would not let me graduate because they were getting too close to their payments,” she told the ABC.
“They wanted to make sure I paid my own way through school, and they would have given me a loan but it wouldn’t have been enough to pay for my own education.”
So I said, ‘OK, I’ll pay my own debts and if they want to repay their debts, I will pay the debts back’.
“She said her parents could not understand why she was paying for their debt, but she was determined to make her parents repay their loans.”
The first thing I did was send them a note saying, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t repay my debt’,” she said.”
My parents said they would pay back the debts but they would still have to pay a little bit more money to get them into debt-free, so they thought, ‘You know what?
Let’s go and make them pay’.
“Ms Thomas has since completed her bachelor’s degree, while her parents still owe nearly $220,000.”
When my parents saw it, they were really shocked and said it was a big shock to them,” she added.”
But they are really proud of me for making their lives a little easier.
“Ms Thomas is planning to take a full-time course and has started to earn a living.
She said she would be doing “something” for the money she had paid off.”
There’s a big gap between the money I’m saving up and the money my parents will have to repay,” she explained.”
If I had done my own thing I wouldn’t be making any money, so it’s really important to be doing something for my parents.
“That’s the big difference between me and my parents.”
Ms Williams said she hoped her parents would understand.
“People do it for a reason, but sometimes they don’t realise that it’s their own responsibility,” she remarked.
“Even though I know it’s hard, I feel like I’ve got to do it to show them that it was worth it.”
Topics:education,college-and-further-education,schools,debts-and_credit,student-loan,australiaContact Stephanie Martin at [email protected]
