Local dentist says never-ending student loan threatening her retirement

The Biden administration says it’s forgiven $180 billion in student loan debt. That’s little comfort for a local woman who says she’s trapped with a never-ending student loan.

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The News 4 I-Team looked into her case, which reveals the complexity and confusion around student loan debt.

Back in 2001 the woman borrowed $124 thousand to go to dental school. Over the years she’s paid back more than $189 thousand

However, documents show she still owes more than $101 thousand on her student loan.

Local dentist Gilda Casas pays more than a thousand dollars a month toward her student loan. Even though she’s paid back far more than the amount she borrowed.

“I just turned 65. I have this never-ending student loan that I got back in 2001,” Casas said.

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Many people say their student loan debt prevents them from buying a home. In Casas’s case it’s preventing her from being able to retire.

The lender was San Antonio Credit Union, which changed its name to Credit Human. But all these years later the servicer of the loan is a company called Sloan Servicing.

Gilda says none of the companies have been able to tell her why she hasn’t made a bigger dent in her loan.

“Nobody has an answer, and I just want an answer because I can’t retire and still have all this debt,” Casas told News 4.

We took what documents Casas was able to get to attorney Bill Clanton, who helps people with student loans and other debt problems.

He says it appears she opted to make smaller, partial payments at the beginning of the loan, which dramatically increased the interest.

Of the 189 thousand she’s paid, only $41 thousand went to the principal. $148 thousand went toward interest and fees.

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“I think as a college student or a graduate student, you see that you can defer payments or make a smaller payment at the beginning, you don’t understand the consequences of that decision. And here we are twenty years later you’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest, but only tens of thousands of dollars in principal,” Clanton said.

We contacted both Credit Human and Sloan Servicing.

Credit Human said it’s researching Casas’s loan.

“We’ll follow up with her in a couple of days with additional information, as well as some additional resources. We care about our members and want to do everything we can to help her.”

We also contacted the U.S. Department of Education, which told us the Federal Student Aid Office is researching the loan.

“The numbers don’t add up, they just don’t add up,” Casas said.

Clanton says if you have a federal student loan your first step should be to go to studentaid.gov, which should have some specifics on your loan.

He also says to keep a close eye on your credit report to make sure it’s accurate, and contact the lender to see if you can work something out with them.