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Amazon To Issue Student Loans To New "Prime" Shoppers
Zero Hedge ^ | 21 July 2016 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 07/23/2016 10:08:07 AM PDT by Lorianne

On the off chance the US didn't already have a big enough problem thanks to a staggering $1.3 trillion in student loans which contrary to White House' claims, are crushing an entire generation under their interest expense weight, earlier today none other than billionaire Jeff Bezos announced he was entering the student loan business, when Amazon unveiled a partnership with Wells Fargo in which the bank’s student-lending arm would offer interest-rate discounts to select Amazon shoppers.

In Amazon's latest attempt to entice shoppers into its premium Prime program, Wells Fargo will cut half a percentage point from its interest rate on student loans to Amazon customers who pay for a "Prime Student" subscription, which provides the traditional Prime benefits such as free two-day shipping and access to movies, television shows and photo storage. The subscription-based service will cost $49 a year, half the regular Amazon Prime fee.

Wells Fargo, Buffet's favorite US bank, will benefit by expanding the size of its student loan portfolio.

WSJ adds that Wells Fargo and Amazon have been in discussions for more than a year about the partnership, which is set to be announced and made available Thursday. As the WSJ muses, "the discount could be used to encourage more students to sign up for the Prime service." Incidentally, this is precisely what the offer is all about: to get a sticky annuity in the form of student borrowers who have to pay not only the student loan interest, but also an annual fee to Amazon.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: amazon; amazonprime; bank; billionaire; business; college; jeffbezos; loan; student; studentloans; university; wellsfargo; wsj
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To: Yaelle

These kids are borrowing money anyhow - the difference offered here is a break on the interest rate. That’s a GOOD thing...


21 posted on 07/23/2016 10:58:03 AM PDT by GOPJ ("Diversity" was never THE goal. Diversity was a byproduct of people coming 'yearning to be free'.)
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To: Yaelle

These students have a choice, they always have a choice. They could be going to low cost colleges or learn a trade and travel the world using their skills, but they prefer to go to a high price university and take four years to learn something that shouldn’t even take two years (journalism). No one forces a student to apply to a posh university when a state school would do just as well.


22 posted on 07/23/2016 11:02:48 AM PDT by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: Lorianne

If you got a 6 figure salary from a degree ... it wouldn’t be a scam.

The people getting the six figures are the professors. The “gender studies” STUDENTS are getting the shaft.


23 posted on 07/23/2016 11:04:59 AM PDT by Fido969
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To: Persevero

I’d like there to be a limit as to how much can be borrowed until the student is required to pay at least half of it back before being enabled to get additional loans.


24 posted on 07/23/2016 11:06:31 AM PDT by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: Lorianne
Student loans can be worthwhile if used to get a Bachelor's degree in a high-paying field like engineering. Ideally, the student will put in two years in a community college and then use student loans to finish their two years of upper-division work at a university.

Financing four or five years of college to study something useless like humanities or literature is a great way to destroy one's future. The only ones profiting by the college-lending swindle are the universities and the hordes of new administrative personnel they've brought in - there are a lot of university bureaucrats making six-figure salaries on the backs of student debt.
25 posted on 07/23/2016 11:11:56 AM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Lorianne

all the mass media hype about ‘crushing student debt’ is BS
designed to soften us up so we few remaining workers will agree to paying off the deadbeats’ loans

I had several student loans. I paid them all off and I was glad to have received them, too. Damned glad!

and yes, it delayed my purchasing some other stuff. so what? that’s both natural and unavoidable when you sign up for loans. there is no rule in life that says you can expect to just shuck your debts onto the backs of others to repay! and there is no rule saying you are entitled to renounce your promises to repay monies others entrusted to you....and just run out and buy yourself a new Corvette or even a new house.....instead. You pay your debts as promised and you buy more stuff you want in life as soon as you can afford those things ... not until.


26 posted on 07/23/2016 11:37:09 AM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: Lorianne

Obviously he expects to get money when the government pays off those loans for the students.


27 posted on 07/23/2016 11:48:45 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Lying Media: willing and eager allies of the hate-America left.)
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To: Lorianne

The problem is that the federal government is putting the students and parents on the hook for student debt.

Lend to the college, not the students.

The government should put colleges on the hook for the debt and then take a percentage of the graduates’ income (as per graduate/college contract) to apply against the colleges’ debt to the federal government (5% for a two-year degree, 5% more (10%) for a four-year degree, 3% more (13% for a masters degree), 7% more for a doctoral degree (20%) for six years plus the total number of college years normally needed to earn the degree, with crediting done with the first college attended getting its percentage paid first and only for the period its degree calls for repayment.

On average college is a good investment, but individually investment in college is very risky. Spread the risk as is done with health insurance.


28 posted on 07/23/2016 12:06:13 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

“Student loans can be worthwhile if used to get a Bachelor’s degree in a high-paying field like engineering.”

US employers generally prefer foreign engineers under H-1B visas.

Engineers generally have to live in high-priced areas.

The only degrees worth paying much for are those required by government - say for nurses, doctors, public school teachers, lawyers, etc.

Only for those occupations is debt above $5,000/year justified.


29 posted on 07/23/2016 12:15:56 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: CorporateStepsister

Well, if it’s private, must there be a limit? It seems to me the lender can take the risks he wants, and the borrower as well.

I doubt too many fluffy degrees would be underwritten.


30 posted on 07/23/2016 2:55:04 PM PDT by Persevero (NUTS)
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To: faithhopecharity

Bullcrap. I worked my way through college (the first time) as a skip tracer for a state student loan agency in the 90s. Yes, there were those looking for a free ride and trying to scam us, but there were many more who were working and still having a hard time of things, with a medium-to-high-five-figures worth of debt, interest and payments hanging over their heads. And we were just starting to see the six-figure debtors becoming a reality.

I’m not for student loan forgiveness (as I reminded my classmates and profs, that simply translates into lump-sum taxable income to the IRS)...I say remove most if not all of the government loan guarantees, and make it dischargeable in bankruptcy with specified and tight conditions. It’ll shrink the pool of available money (due to the elimination of “moral hazard” via loan guarantees) but it will drag tuition costs down as well over time.


31 posted on 07/23/2016 8:36:25 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy... and call it progress")
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To: M1903A1

Yes. Understood. I worked several jobs to help pay my way thru college but did still need to borrow ( expensive school and well worth it - unlike many of them now). I’ve never regretted the student debt and I was glad they lent me the money and I paid it all back


32 posted on 07/23/2016 8:48:28 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: Lorianne

Hillary is “promising” to forgive student loans, so the timing of this might not fly.


33 posted on 07/24/2016 1:09:00 AM PDT by gattaca (Republicans believe every day is July 4, democrats believe every day is April 15. Ronald Reagan)
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