The dark side of student life: Easy debt, unpredictable consequences

The dark corners of student life such as debt, from quick credit to partying, bring lifelong lessons in financial management and life.

The dark side of student life: Easy debt, unpredictable consequences - Photo 1.

"Fast, secure and reputable" credit is everywhere and can easily become a trap for any student who does not know how to plan their spending properly - Photo: TR.VAN

Thu U., a social science student living in Binh Thanh District (HCMC), resentfully recounted the dark side of student life. Because she trusted her roommate, who had been her best friend for a long time, too much, her laptop was taken away.

The dark side of student life: "Pluggin" your laptop

Even though the incident happened more than three months ago and U. also moved to another room, every time she mentioned it, she still felt angry. They had known each other since high school, and were from the same hometown studying in Ho Chi Minh City, so they lived together, cooked together, and had a close relationship.

But after only a few months of living together, U. vaguely realized that something was unusual. She often went out early and came home late, used branded goods, had many affairs, and often came home drunk. Even though she had her guard up, U.'s laptop suddenly disappeared, leaving only a note where it was placed: "I'm sorry! Consider it a lifesaver."

As a farmer, her parents worked hard to save up to buy their daughter a computer for her studies. Too surprised and unable to accept this, U. immediately called her friend's family. "My friend's parents were also very pitiful, they didn't have any money so they had to run around everywhere, went to the pawn shop to redeem the computer for me and beg for forgiveness," U. said.

After that, the two lost contact. The best friend's parents said that after "plugging" U.'s laptop, she also dropped out of school. The reason for the debt was because she was used to playing around and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle. Before stealing U.'s computer, her family had helped her pay off her debt twice, nearly 80 million VND. U. was disappointed: "I didn't expect it and honestly, I don't dare to trust anyone anymore."

I regret it very much but I have no choice but to leave it to my family and creditors. I also cannot go to school at this time.

TH. (student, name changed)

In the debt spiral

Borrowing 15 million VND through an app, Tr.Đ. is struggling while being hunted for debt. Tr.Đ. has pawned everything he could, not to mention he owes a lot to his friends so he can't borrow more from anyone. Tr. is addicted to gambling. Almost all the money his parents sent him was "burned" on online gambling games from Sic Bo, cockfighting, shaking the gourd and crab, three cards to football betting.

Relatives knew too well, had saved him time and time again, so they had to leave him alone. Being pressured by creditors, D. tried to borrow money from online loan apps with quick and easy procedures, even though he knew the interest rates were exorbitant and debt collection was like terrorism. Having borrowed nearly 4 million VND, D. recklessly placed all the money on a soccer bet on the online gaming portal Betxx and lost it all, having to hide everywhere.

Not doing any better, Th., who claimed to be a student at a university in Thu Duc City (HCMC), went into debt again because of his addiction to investing in virtual currency and stocks. He "burned" all his savings, tuition, borrowed money from friends, relatives and even "gangsters" and was left with nothing. Trying to find a way, Th. met a credit specialist at a bank who said he was willing to provide free training for credit card applications.

The credit card limit for students is not high! "It's so difficult that we need a tip from the beginning," Th. frankly said. Th. and the credit specialist used the trick of transferring money back and forth many times to create an account balance, prove income... At the same time, Th. "played the role" of an information technology student working remotely for a multinational corporation, receiving a monthly salary in dollars.

It took a long time to get approved for a credit card with a limit of 10 million VND/month. The allowance and running back and forth took almost the first month. With the card, Th. withdrew money to pay off the debt and then had to find a place to borrow again to pay off the card debt. Currently, the card has been locked because the principal and interest debt is more than 18 million VND. But that's not all, debt collection groups from online loan apps have come to Th.'s house to find and humiliate him everywhere for hiding from debt.

Thousands of students expelled, academic warning

At the end of 2024, several schools in Ho Chi Minh City announced that they would expel or warn thousands of students due to poor academic performance. Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education has about 2,000 students in all courses who are on academic probation, warned, or expelled.

Of these, 88 students were forced to drop out of school for two consecutive semesters in the 2023-2024 school year with an average score below 1.0 and failing to achieve the required number of credits. Nearly 1,000 students are expected to receive academic warnings due to a second semester average score below 1.0, and more than 900 students are on probation due to poor academic performance and credit arrears.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Law has 41 students forced to drop out, 75 students warned because of poor academic performance. The warning is due to failing more than 50% of the credits registered for the semester. In addition, students who owe more than 24 credits from the beginning of the course are also warned.

(to be continued)