This is one of those head-scratching moments where you wonder how some corporations can become so large that they lose all their humanity.
I just read the story of Brittani Norris, who tragically died in a car accident only a few weeks before graduating from college. Like most students she had accumulated student loan debt. But you would think that for the rare occasions when students die Citibank could just forgive the debt.
Instead they hounded Brittany’s parents for 3 years for repayment of the debt.
According to a note from her parents, “Our family is lucky. After more than three years of pleading with Citibank, we started an online petition - With the help of friends, SignOn.org, and so many others, our petition spread fast. And once Citibank started to feel public pressure, they called us and agreed to forgive Brittani’s student debt.
But what about all the other families in this situation? No one should have to go through this kind of ordeal. And we know we’re not the only ones who have had this experience with Citibank and other big banks.
Citibank received a taxpayer bailout, while most families get no help when they need it most. Citibank should institute a policy of student loan forgiveness when a student dies and stop going after family members.”
Fight Back
The Norris family is collecting signatures and asking that Citibank institute a policy of loan forgiveness when a student dies, rather than going after family members.
If you would like to sign the petition you can do so by clicking here.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I would just never go to that bank. That would be the end of that. People should think about customer service and the future. The few dollars they get now will be gone, but so will the customer in the future. Banks can’t exist without us. It is the customers money they are using not their own.
This is a tragic situation and I can’t imagine how hard her death was on her family. While I don’t agree with Citi being able to hound her parents for 3 years, did they co-sign? If so, they owe the debt. If they didn’t, I wonder if there’s some type of insurance that could protect people- much like mortgage life insurance does if the mortgage holder dies. Lots of people die before they pay off college debt and with Citi and many others needing a bail out, remember that debt not paid comes out of our taxpayer pockets essentially. I think some type of life insurance on student loans could be a better answer than the heart-strings, the-debt-should-be-forgiven-because-it’s-the-right-thing-to-do approach.
Your approach to this situation in which the student dies and parents are expected to pay the debt is a bit strange to me. I understand it is a big loss and my heart goes out the to family. However, when they co-signed, it meant that they would pay the bill if the student was unable to.
The bank had a choice in if they wanted to collect from the parents but public pressure, especially from a ‘christian’ web site seems a bit contradictory. Doesn’t the Bible teach us to pay our debts – in fact, it says that only the wicked borrow and do not repay. The parents in essence, borrowed the money for the school loan when they co-signed.
I share their grief but the bank is not the ‘bad guy’ here. There are no ‘bad guys’ and you just added to the victim list with your public pressure.
Bob – I’m curious. Were the parents hounded because they cosigned for the loan?
this is definitely a tragic situation for the family to go through…and i in no may mean to minimize this tragedy.
however, the student incurred the debt. while she ultimately didn’t have the opportunity to reap the benefits of incurring that debt (college degree, career) – she incurred it. personally, i don’t think Citibank (or any other bank for that matter) should be obligated to forgive student loan debt when a student passes away. should a credit card company to forgive consumer debt if a card holder passes away? i don’t think so. so why should Citibank forgive student loan debt?
I have student loan debt. It is crazy to think I will be paying it back for another ten years. It is basically a mortgage payment. Reading this article, I am not sure I know enough information to comment. However if her parents cosigned on the loan; they have a moral obligation to fulfill it. Just because the person dies does not render the cosigners free of the debt. I do feel bad for the family but it doesn’t change the legalities nor the moral obligations. Please let me know if my understand of cosigning is wrong.
Thank you very much for bringing this absurdity to my attention, for getting involved to resolve the issue, and bringing some peace to grieving families. I will definitely sign the petition and forward this informative article to all my friends encouraging them to sign, then forward the article on to their friends. Together, with prayer and action, we will make a difference. God bless you!
What I am about to say is not intended to be “cold” or heartless. Rather, it is a comment on “personal responsibility” – something that is lacking in today’s morality. When a person dies, so does the debt. But, if her parents co-signed for the loan, it is like any other loan that they would have co-signed…it is now their debt. If this a Christian site you shouldn’t be ashamed to quote your Bible regarding co-signing for loans. My son did not opt for going away to school. Instead, he worked a job and attended a Community College, and will soon complete his education at a four-year college, like his older sisters did. They all worked and didn’t take out student loans – just like I did 40 years ago. ~How’s that for a novel idea: personal responsibility.
This is a tragic story however I do not support the idea of a blanket policy of debt forgiveness. If the student is over 18 years old and if the parents are not co-signers on the student loan, then whatever assets that the deceased has at the time of death should go to paying off all of the individual’s debts. In most cases, the student would likely not have the assets to cover the student loan debt but not in all cases. If the parents co-sign the loan they are responsible regards. This should be a warning against debt, especially student loan debt, more than anything else.
Wow. I just thought that was sort of an assumed thing. Of course their debt would be cleared! I mean, it’s a kid, a college student, how many of them die a year? So few that for debt companies, they should definitely remove that debt. Jeez. And hey, they could even make commercials about it and make it a big PR thing … people would like them and take out even more loans with them. Win-win!
I agree with Debra. It is tragic and I am very sorry for the loss this family has suffered. But you did not go into any details regarding the entire situation – so to make a blanket statement about debt forgiveness is a little premature. I am sure in certain circumstances it is warranted.
For those asking about whether or not the parents co-signed, I get the impression from reading this that they did NOT cosign the loan…
http://www.signon.org/sign/student-dies-before-graduati
From what I understand CITI did not have any LEGAL right to go after them, but they did anyway…
I just read the article and it isn’t clear whether the parents cosigned or not. It does NOT specifically say that they didn’t cosign. I would guess that they did cosign. I am of course very sorry for them, such a tragic situation!
I doubt the student would have received the loan with a cosigner.
But let’s say the parents did not cosign. Then we must ask, did the parents claim the student as a dependent on their tax return, and take the education tax credits they were then entitled to?
Perhaps Citi should offer a life insurance policy on the student paid for by the cosigner.
We had a life insurance policy on our youngest when he was in college.
As for comparing to a credit card debt, the card issuer would have the right, and duty to the stock holders to go after a cosigner on the credit card.
Based on Bob’s last comment, I think the parents are warranted a payment from Citi for 3 years of harassment.
I am still trying to pay off my student loans. It is like never ending .. I think I would be better off not going to school.
This could have been easily resolved before it became a problem if life insurance had been purchased, either by the bank or by the family, when the student loans were made. This happens all to often. Life insurance is relatively cheap for young people. And should be a comfort point for any family who’s child amasses significant debt to acquire a college degree. i’m not an insurance agent, I’m a banker. I’ve “preached” this for years…. Seldom do students, parents, wives, or banks listen. But there are cases that have proven it works.
More information needs to be given in this story. It isn’t really spelling out if the parents co-signed for their daughter’s college loans or not. IF the parents signed for the loan, they are responsible for the loan. Always be careful what you sign up for because you never know when you might be called on to perform. Loans in particular are something to look at long and hard. I understand that this is a heart-retching case, but let this be a wake-up call to everyone who would tend to sort of blindly co-sign a loan for someone.
This is a sad and somewhat tragic situation. Having two (young) children myself I can only empathize and sympathize with what the parents must be feeling.
However …
This is actually quite a hard one … I’d like to say that the banks are in business to make money and they are just fulfilling their objectives. If they were to institute a blanket policy of automatically “writing off” the debt in situations like this – other examples would come to the fore (natural disasters etc…) where they would also be expected to simply give the money back. If that did happen, I would think we’d be in the unenviable situation of bailing out the banks more and more and we’d never fully recover!
Each case does need to be evaluated on its own merits with humanity and ethics at the forefront of any decision.
What a sad situation. It’s really too bad that the parents had no closure for three years because Citi decided to pursue the loan repayment. Really unfortunate situation.
My brother died at 35 years old and even though he was 35 and on his own the one particular credit card company came after family members to pay the debt. No one cosigned for him. If these banks and credit card companies make it so easy to get credit they almost deserve it when people default. I don’t think a person has to cosign to be harassed, sometimes I think the companies are just trying to frighten people into paying the money. I pay my own debts but I certainly could not afford to pay anyone else’s. Actually I tried to help my daughter when she took a student loan. The loan officer at the school would not even regard me except to say This is Her Responsibility.
Interesting, bankrate.com had a post about this today: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/debt/life-insurance-have-student-loans.aspx.
I knew the instant I happened upon this article, that the face in the photo was eerily familiar to me…however, the name threw me off at first. It took me a little while to confirm, via http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/brittanipanozzo/Subpage.aspx?mod=2, but this indeed is Brittani Panozzo. I went to school with her, and distinctly remember the tragedy…wow.
Citi’s treatment of this situation was about as tragic as well–I’m appalled. At least they finally forgave her debt, but how many other families have they harassed in similar situations? I don’t even want to know.
Last week, a woman came by to do some bloodwork on me so we can increase my life insurance amount. We have 8 kids and while I am not earning much outside the home, we decided I should have a large amount of life insurance because if I died, my husband would need to pay a lot of money to do what I do. Anyway, she mentioned that she does a lot of bloodwork on kids going to college for just this reason. I had never thought of doing such a thing, but it seems very wise! We don’t have insurance on our kids becuase if tragically one were to die, we could handle funeral expenses but if we couldn’t, it might even be wise to have a small policy on the children. And if a child does decide to take out substantial student loans, we may well buy life insurance.
I am at a loss as to why Citi was bugging the parents if indeed they didn’t cosign. That astonishes me. But I’m with many others that the bank isn’t in the business of being nice and if indeed the parents DID cosign than they have a responsibility to pay.
I agree with those that while this is horrible, all debts are not forgiven at the time of a death. Even if the parents did not cosign, the student had an estate that needed to be closed and whatever debts must be paid before the estate is closed.
Lesson is that everyone needs life insurance to not just protect their family from financial loses of future earnings but also to pay off what debts that person has.
Unfortunately, banks have access to many resources (such as a legal team) that the typical family does not. Just because they are demanding a debt to be paid by the parents, does not mean they are in the right.
Its amazing how many think the parents should live up to there obligations, but when Citibank charges outrageous interest, then suffers because of their bad debts and have the nerve to ask for public money I dont hear the same outcry. To pursue debts after this family just lost their son is heartless and I dont care what anyone says about it.
I do know a little bit about this situation. I was a good friend with Brittani.
Brittani’s step-father was a cosigner on the loans. Therefore, he was legally bound to pay back the debt.
While I empathize with Brittani’s parents, Citibank was well within its rights to go after her father for repayment.
The student loan market presents several challenging tradeoffs for young American families. I have two friends that are a couple and due to student loans they have delayed purchasing a home and having kids for over four years.
One of them just entered an advanced degree program which extends their time out even further.
Two articles from the NYT are worth taking a look at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/shedding-student-loans-in-bankruptcy-is-an-uphill-battle.html?_r=1
I wonder about encouraging kids to enter expertise/ trade schools with lower costs and tighter job security.
What do you guys think?
I was going to sign but see it is sponsored by Moveon.org. Its sad they will use a tragedy such as this for political purposes. They’ll do anything to get Email lists to spam their agenda. Anything else we can do to help this family?
It’s so unfortunate that Student loan debt is the most toxic type of debt a person can be burdened with. It can’t be erased by bankruptcy. Many of these loans have rather high interest rates. What are we doing to our younger generations? How can someone paying 500, 600, 700 dollars a month to in student loans ever buy a house or start a family? I know its a choice but many of these young men and women enter into the agreement thinking its the right choice.
Isn’t there a bible verse about how the wicked don’t repay their debts, but the righteous do? If her family co-signed, they should repay the debt. If not – that’s a different story.