Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for the ‘Private Student Loans’ Category

Student Loan Borrowers Get Some Coronavirus-induced Respite

Some 42 million Americans are getting an interest-rate breather on their student loans right now, thanks to a Trump administration action that eliminated federal loan interest charges during the COVID-19 crisis. President Donald Trump announced the decision back on March 13 when he declared a national emergency. “To help our students and their families, I’ve […]

The Student Loan Programs That Backfired

Student loan debt continues to stack up even though there are fewer and fewer people applying for those loans. Student loan applications have plunged 20% over the past six years, while total student debt has skyrocketed by $500 billion in that time to an all-time high of $1.5 trillion. What is going on? Two government […]

Utah Lowest in Nation for Student Debt Per Graduate

College graduate debt levels vary greatly from state to state, according to a new study from The Student Loan Report, with students from the Northeast accumulating the most debt and those in the Southwest borrowing the least. Utah graduates took the prize for the very lowest student debt levels last year. Using data from the […]

CFPB Saves 2,000 Borrowers from Illegal Student Loan Lawsuits

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has halted proceedings on illegal lawsuits filed by National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, giving financial relief to roughly 2,000 student loan borrowers. The trusts pursued about 94,000 lawsuits against borrowers who defaulted between 2012 and 2016. The lawsuits were on student loans that were either too old to be collected (past […]

Women Hold 64% of U.S. Student Loan Debt

While women make up just over half (56 percent) of total U.S. college enrollment today, according to a new study, they carry almost two-thirds of the country’s student debt load. In the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) recent report, several major gender discrepancies were found in student loan data. Currently, women owe $833 billion, […]

Number of Senior Citizens with Student Debt Quadrupled in Last 10 Years

The past decade has conjured up a Mortgage Meltdown, a colossal Financial Crisis and the Great Recession. As a result more and more Americans in their golden years have taken on student loan debt for their children or grandchildren. According to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the number of people aged 60 […]

Deferred Student Loans May Keep Buyers from Getting Mortgages

New federal regulations are likely to stop many potential American home buyers from qualifying for an FHA mortgage. Lenders will now have to take into account any student loans in deferment, a situation which many keep many younger borrowers from making a home purchase. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has included a new rule in […]

New York Offers 2 Years of Student Loan Forgiveness

The state of New York has instituted a new program to help struggling college graduates meet their student loan obligations. New York is the first state to offer an income-based loan-forgiveness program in an attempt to reduce the mounting student loan debt load on its citizens. Called the “Get on Your Feet” program, the Andrew […]

Education Department Extends Loan Forgiveness to Corinthian Students

The U.S. Department of Education has decided to expand its loan forgiveness program to more former students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges system in the wake of an investigation of how the colleges defrauded students about job placement rates. Earlier this year students who had attended Heald Colleges, one of the Corinthian College brands, were allowed […]

Student Loan Delinquencies Reach Dangerously High Levels

Many Americans with student loans are struggling to keep up with their payments, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with delinquency rates at a startling level and the trend could continue in coming months. In its  Report on Household Debt and Credit Developments, the New York Fed reported that during […]