HOBOKEN, N.J.–The enormous debt held by many recent college grads has been well-reported, but the amount owed isn’t all due to education—more than half of student borrowers say they will use the funds to help pay for a Spring Break trip.
A new survey released by LendEDU found many of those flocking to the shores of Florida, Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean and the Bahamas are using student loan money to cover the costs of a warm sun and cold drinks. According to the survey of 1,000 student loan borrowers currently enrolled in a four-year college, 56.78% of current college students who have taken out student loan debt and are going on spring break this year are using their loan money to help pay for their fun-filled excursions.
When including respondents who are not taking a spring break vacation in 2018, that still leaves 44.4% of college borrowers overall who are using student loan money to help pay for their weeklong trips, LendEDU reported.
“You might be wondering how this nifty maneuver is even possible. Well, when a student debtor is approved for financial aid, those funds are sent and administered by that student's college's financial aid office,” said LendEDU in releasing the survey results. “The financial aid office takes out the necessary money to pay the college for that student's course load. Whatever money remains is sent to the student loan borrower in the form of a refund check. The refund check is intended to be used on living expenses or other school-related expenses, but there is no way of keeping track of where that excess money is spent.”
LendEDU also asked those student loan borrowing college students who are going on spring break in 2018 if their parents were helping pay for the trip, with 50.5% saying their parents were chipping in.
For the full survey, go here.