Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for May, 2011

Spending is On the Rise while Credit Card Defaults Continue to Fall

All but one major credit card issuer reported decreases in their customer default rates for April. This, coupled with a rise in credit card spending, indicates an improvement in overall financial health of the average consumer. Here’s the how the numbers fleshed out, according to the Associated Press: American Express had the lowest late payments […]

Auto Loan Delinquencies Fall To Record Levels

While some areas of the economy are still on shaky ground, it appears that the auto loan industry is looking good. According to a recent report by TransUnion, auto loan delinquencies have plummeted to the lowest levels seen since reporting began 12 years ago back in 1999. Loans 60 days or more delinquent dropped to […]

Will We See Higher Interest Rates This Year?

The minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee April 26 – 27 meeting were released today, revealing that Federal Reserve officials have started talking about an exit policy for its aggressive market support measures. That means interest rates are bound to rise, but how soon can we expect a jump in rates? “While the Fed […]

Sallie Mae Slashes Interest Rates

According to an article on businesswire.com Sallie Mae, the largest private student loan lender recently announced that they will be lowering their interest rates for next school year’s loans. The Smart Option Student loan will carry a lower interest rate and have a flexible pay back plan which will give students the option of paying […]

Big Banks Say $5 Billion Should Be Punishment Enough

After seven months of trying to work out a settlement for their “robo-signing” foreclosure scandals, the nation’s big banks are now offering $5 billion to the state attorneys general to close the matter. Last fall it was discovered that many banks were trying to fast-track the foreclosure process by skipping some of the necessary legal […]

Chrysler to Repay Government Loans in Full

Chrysler, the auto dealer many thought might not make it out of the recession, seems to finally be standing on near solid ground. During the first quarter of this year, Chrysler finally saw the first quarterly profit since 2006. Chrysler is the last of the three big auto makers to reach the profit margin. During […]

Big Banks are (Slowly) Opening the Lending Spigots

The latest survey from the Federal Reserve found that some banks are in fact starting to loosen their almost impossibly high lending standards as the economy starts to pick up. “The April survey indicated that, on net, bank lending standards and terms generally had eased somewhat further during the first quarter of this year,” the […]

Student Loans in Crisis

The federal government is being faced with an increasingly high numbers of student loan defaults. Just last year student loan debt passed credit card debt, and recent reports indicate student loan debt could hit a trillion dollars by year’s end. Students today are graduating with more debt than ever and just last year the average […]