Do you have high-interest student loans? Ready for some relief? Salish Sea Cooperative Finance is offering low-interest 5% personal loans for residents of Washington State with student debt.
Become a member-owner of a cooperative business working to keep profits from our member’s loans within the community. Benefits of working with Salish Sea Cooperative Finance include:
- Lower your interest rate.
- Reduce your monthly payment.
- Combine multiple student loans with different interest rates into one easy payment.
- Keep your money (and interest payments!) circulating in Washington communities.
- Support a local, member-owned cooperative—not a big bank.
- Help build community wealth instead of shareholder profits.
- Receive personalized, community-focused service.
Keep in mind: Refinancing federal student loans with Salish Sea Cooperative Finance transitions your student loan into a personal loan and means giving up federal benefits options, such as income-based repayment and loan forgiveness programs. Reach out to talk about whether joining Salish Sea Cooperative Finance could be a good fit for you.
BACKGROUND:
From its beginning in 2013, Salish Sea Cooperative Finance was meant to be different. While most groups that specialize in debt refinancing treat their customers primarily as debtors, we make you member-owners of the business. We raise money from local community members, and then we lend that money to our borrowers with built in support systems.
Most importantly, our borrowers and investors are shared owners of our cooperative, and they have the chance to meet and get to know each other. We also offer our borrowers mentorship and financial education to help them improve their personal finances and prosper in their careers.
Have questions? Reach out to Doug Indrick at [email protected].
Student Debt Is a Gatekeeper for Social Change
Having an entire generation shackled with trillions of dollars of student debt means that millions of young adults’ energy and liquid capital is sunk into repaying high-interest loans. On the individual level, this burden curtails efforts to explore personal life goals that are not primarily about making money. On the systemic level, it pushes young generations into profit-seeking and away from public-benefit professions such as social and non-profit work, education, poverty alleviation, and environmental law.
Furthermore, the interest paid on these loans goes to prop up megabanking institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. These banks finance both the fossil fuel industry and institutions that perpetuate systemic inequality, such as the private prison system.
As we face the grave global challenges of climate change and systemic economic and racial inequality, we need to create resilient communities accountable to the needs of the most vulnerable. We can no longer accept the status quo that says graduates must spend years or decades of their lives paying off their debts rather than building the sustainable, equitable, resilient communities that we so desperately need.
Salish Sea Cooperative Finance has opened a new round of Member Investment to continue our work of refinancing student’s debt, and bringing the profits from these loans back into our community. If you know someone with student debt who may be interested in refinancing, feel free to connect us!