
The US Government Predicts an Impending Student Debt Crisis, but Some Banks Aren’t Worried
Two banks predict baby boomers’ deaths will enrich indebted millennials.
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Two banks predict baby boomers’ deaths will enrich indebted millennials.
Colleges are like buying real estate property, some will pay out more than others over time.
Is there a silver lining to borrowing money for college?
And the salary you could be earning as soon as you get it.
Broke people can pay off debt, it’s just a little trickier.
Did your state make the list?
They have the highest employment rates and are expected to grow.
I talk to Jack Phan, CEO of one of the nation’s best and oldest personal finance websites.
They give the higher education system a D letter grade.
Students are sacrificing food to afford course materials.
Younger people are doing really well at saving for long-term goals.
Experts say there’s a definite relationship between debt and depression. But we don’t like talking about either one.
It’s hard to spend $13.2 trillion. Here are a few ways you can do it.
They’re paying despite finding college costs more stressful than their mortgage payments.
Forget sex, drugs, and cash. Songs mentioning student loan debt are on the rise.
Year after year students graduate unprepared to earn a living.
Student loan debt is crippling, but some states have it worse than others.
Superheroes have mortgages and student loans, too.
They also earn less money after graduation.
The costs stress people out, and most are relying on loans to pay for school.
They’re most willing to work in poverty-stricken areas.
A missed payment is the No. 1 way to lose points on your credit score.
More are living with their parents than in the past decade.
They’re saving 10 percent more for their kids education than two years ago.
How to create a hard-hitting plan to get rid of those student loans for good.
The Lone Star State likes shopping more than learning.
Washington, D.C. is the nation’s capital of student loan debt.
The total amount of consumer debt is now a trillion dollars higher than during the Great Recession.
The only catch is you have to intern or volunteer at a job you’re passionate about.
But it wouldn’t go away until she turned and faced the truth with help from a friend.
And yes, student debt is at the top of the list.
She had no job lined up, and owed a bunch of student loan debt — but that didn’t stop her.
The student debt burden to call yourself doctor outweighs its average income.
Hiring managers list the 8 biggest mistakes they see from the Class of 2018
I don’t know when the next recession will hit, but I know exactly what will happen when it does.
Students borrow money without questioning the interest rates.
Now his goal is to build his own financial kingdom.
Money crises aren’t rare. So why do we pretend they are?
It took tough love, but he paid off his debt and prospered.
Everyone knows you can slash payments on public student loans. Here are the secrets for private loans.
Despite earning more than women and having higher homeownership benefits, men are failing to launch at a higher rate.
But before he earned that title, he made many “idiotic” mistakes.
Student loan forgiveness programs allow you to eliminate all or part of your student loan debt without penalties. These programs are often tied to public service. Learn how student loan forgiveness works and see if you qualify.
Students say they need the degree to get ahead even if that means starting off behind financially.
It’s cheaper to pitch a tent outside the admin building than pay for a dorm.
It took hard work, sacrifice and a lot of sweat.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Make money instead.
More than half of undergraduate students believe college is more expensive than they originally planned.
Parents are underestimating the cost of college for their children by tens of thousands (and sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars.
That’s why she applies for 10 scholarships a week.
Not all student loans can use the same repayment strategies. That means you should really break your repayment strategy into two categories; you have one strategy for federal student loan debt and another for private.
This allows you to use federal repayment plans and loan forgiveness programs if you qualify. Those don’t apply to private student loans and you can’t include private debts in federal programs. Although you can use private loan consolidation on both types of debt, don’t do it! This converts federal debt to private, meaning you have fewer options available for relief.
If you have both types of loans, keep them separate and figure out the right repayment strategy for each.
With many types of debt reduction – credit cards, private student loans and even tax debt – reducing the interest rate applied to your debt is a big part of seeking debt relief. The more you can reduce interest charges, the easier it is to repay your debt quickly. So, a higher credit score means lower interest rates and faster repayment.
But that really doesn’t work with federal student loans. Interest rates are not dependent on your credit score. Instead, rates are set based on which academic year you took out your loans. The Department of Education announces new rates each year; in the current system, rates are based on the 10-year Treasury Note Index.
When you consolidate your debt or enroll in a federal repayment plan, the new rate is set by taking a weighted average of the loans you include in the program. Unless you convert your federal loans to private (which we advise against above), rate reduction should not be your goal. Instead, you should aim for:
As with any federal relief program, student loan repayment plans and forgiveness programs are subject to change. Both Congress and the executive branch through the Department of Education can change or cancel these programs.
Congressional changes tend to be more drastic, but they take longer. Meanwhile the DOE can make small changes at their discretion, meaning adjustments happen much faster. But even those small changes can have a significant impact on how you repay your debt. For example, the DOE under Betsy DeVos have “tweaked” the eligibility requirements for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. This led to people who had previously certified their eligibility receiving notices that they were no longer eligible.
The moral of the story is that you can’t wait around or procrastinate when it comes to student loan repayment. In most cases, if you enroll in a program that gets changed or cancelled, you stay in under the rules that were there when you signed up. But if you sign up the day after a rule change, things may be different. With that in mind, never wait on solving your student loan debt. If a program fits, get in before they have time to change it.
No matter whether you hold private student loans or federal, it doesn’t matter -neither can be discharged through bankruptcy. The federal government changed bankruptcy filing regulations to prohibit student loan discharge except in cases of extreme hardship. This is extremely rare.
Once those rules were in place, private lenders made sure that limitation would extend to private student loans as well. As a result, even private student loans taken out through a traditional lender can’t be easily discharged. You must prove that repayment of your loans will cause extreme financial distress – and given that you’re already sitting in bankruptcy court, you can imagine how hard that would be. Essentially, you have to show your loans would put you right back into bankruptcy and keep putting you there. And that no amount of payment restructuring or settlement is possible.
For what it’s worth, Rep. John K. Delaney (D-Maryland) proposed an amendment this year that would change this rule. It’s called the Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy Act of 2017. Unfortunately, we checked with our Senior Policy Editor Brandon Ballenger; after some checking, he says that the bill has a less than 1% chance of passing.
On a normal debt, when you default it leads to a negative item in your credit report; this occurs once the creditor moves your debt to “charge off” status. You also incur negative items for each payment you missed leading up to the charge off. These negative marks decrease your credit score, and they stick around for seven years from the date you incur them.
Federal student loans are different (again). But here the difference works in your favor. If you fall behind on a federal student loan, simply make payments on time for six consecutive months. This moves your loan back to a “current” status and erases any missed payments as if they never happened. You can eliminate the credit damage so it’s easier to borrow and get approved for new credit.
This only works on federal student loans. It’s also important to note that you lose that ability to erase credit damage by using a debt consolidation loan. You can use Federal Direct Consolidation Loan to consolidate student loan debt; it brings defaulted debt current automatically. However, it does not erase the credit damage caused by missed payments.
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