Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for August, 2011

Consumers Make Progress With Timely Credit Card Payments

In the latest quarter, consumers stayed current on their credit card payments at an impressive rate, according to data from credit reporting bureau TransUnion. Of all credit card accounts during the second quarter of 2011, only 0.6 percent were delinquent by 90 days or more, representing the lowest rate in 17 years. This number is […]

Consumers Continue to Keep Up With Car Loans

Here’s a little good news in a dour financial market: Americans are doing better and better at making their car payments on time. A new survey from credit reporting agency TransUnion says that the percentage of borrowers who were 60 days late or more on their auto loans fell during the second quarter of this […]

Lenders Struggle with Mortgage Refinancing Boom

Mortgage rates have reached historically low levels, with the average 30 year fixed loan interest rate coming in at 4.15% – and has resulted in large volumes of homeowners looking to refinance their mortgages to secure a lower interest rate. Lenders are struggling to keep up with the number of refinance applications coming in. The […]

Lending Standards Eased Slightly Again in Latest Quarter

Banks loosened their lending standards on several types of loans during the past three months, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey of senior loan officers . Those finding the easiest access to loan capital are large and medium-sized businesses, as well as car buyers. In the survey, which polled 55 domestic and 22 foreign banks, […]

Business Lending Standards Ease In Second Quarter

A recent Federal Reserve survey shows that lending for some businesses throughout the country got easier during the second quarter. In a time when lending has been difficult to come by for many businesses seeking credit this is good news. The survey which was conducted by the Federal Reserve received responses from 55 domestic banks […]

Refinances Fuel Spike in Mortgage Activity

Even as more bad news on the economy came pouring in, mortgage loan applications continued to grow in number. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, its market composite index, its measure of total loan application volume, increased 21.7 percent during the week ended August 10, from the previous week. Broken down into parts, a 30.4 […]

What S&P’s Downgrade of America’s Credit Means for College Students

The news these days are mired with stories about the debt ceiling and politics, but these events may mean very little to the average college student. But the consequences of the political and economic atmosphere will have very dire effects, and it will hit college students close to campus.   It starts with Standard and […]

Debt Deal Cuts Student Savings

If the current debt ceiling deal is passed by Congress on Monday as scheduled, graduate students around the country will soon be faced with pricier college loans. In an attempt to safeguard Pell grants for low-income undergraduate students, the proposed legislation would eliminate a popular interest-subsidy loan for graduate and professional students. At the present, […]