Filed under: Borrowing, Debt
President Obama made good on a campaign pledge for credit-card reform on Thursday when he sat down with execs from issuers to demand a halt to an epidemic of increasing fees, interest rates, and red tape.
The New York Times (among other publications) reports that Obama envisions a compromise preserving both the credit-card market and consumer sanity. A bill protecting consumers passed the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, designed to limit steep fees and penalties and prohibit the marketing of cards to minors. The bill may go to the House next week.
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Filed under: College, Debt
A postcard from student loan matchmaker MyRichUncle.com recently showed up in my mailbox, addressed to my brother — who graduated in the spring of 2008.
MyRichUncle.com announced that it had stopped making loans late last year, making the postcard even more curious. Or perhaps less curious. Is it really shocking that a student lender company who sent marketing material to people who had already graduated after it stopped making loans ended up going out of business?
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Filed under: Debt, Relationships
It’s hard not to notice a disturbing trend in the news headlines today: the motive for murder is increasingly fueled by bad debt.
In Middletown, Maryland, there was the heartbreaking story last week of, Christopher Wood, a 34-year-old husband and father, who snapped and then killed his wife and their three kids, and then took his own life. He was $460,000 in debt.
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Filed under: College, Debt
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that “According to new numbers from the U.S. Department of Education, default rates for federally guaranteed student loans are expected to reach 6.9% for fiscal year 2007. That’s up from 4.6% two years earlier and would be the highest rate since 1998.”
Here’s the bad news: Those numbers are going to get worse, even if the economy improves. College costs and the resulting student debt loads are growing far, far faster than incomes. Not surprisingly, all the data shows that larger student debt loads are correlated with higher default rates. As the average debt load skyrockets, so will the default rate.
(Continue the story…)
Filed under: College, Debt
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that “According to new numbers from the U.S. Department of Education, default rates for federally guaranteed student loans are expected to reach 6.9% for fiscal year 2007. That’s up from 4.6% two years earlier and would be the highest rate since 1998.”
Here’s the bad news: Those numbers are going to get worse, even if the economy improves. College costs and the resulting student debt loads are growing far, far faster than incomes. Not surprisingly, all the data shows that larger student debt loads are correlated with higher default rates. As the average debt load skyrockets, so will the default rate.
(Continue the story…)
Filed under: College, Debt
The New York Times reported on the double whammy many recent college graduates are facing: Difficulty in finding a job and tens of thousands of dollars in student loan obligations just waiting — or demanding — to be paid back. Here’s a quick clip from it:
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FastWeb.com and FinAid.org, recommends that students follow a simple rule of thumb. “Do not borrow more than your expected starting salary for your entire undergraduate education,” he said. “If your starting salary is going to be $40,000, then you should borrow no more than $10,000 a year for a four-year degree.”
What exactly is the significance of that 1:1 ratio? (Continue the story…)
Filed under: Banks, Borrowing, Technology
How confident would you feel in your finances if you could click one button and see what your bank statement would look like for the next month taking into account all of your bills paychecks and credit card payments? It sounds pretty good, almost too good; but that’s exactly what you can do with Rudder.com.
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Filed under: College, Debt
The New York Times reported on the double whammy many recent college graduates are facing: Difficulty in finding a job and tens of thousands of dollars in student loan obligations just waiting — or demanding — to be paid back. Here’s a quick clip from it:
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FastWeb.com and FinAid.org, recommends that students follow a simple rule of thumb. “Do not borrow more than your expected starting salary for your entire undergraduate education,” he said. “If your starting salary is going to be $40,000, then you should borrow no more than $10,000 a year for a four-year degree.”
What exactly is the significance of that 1:1 ratio? (Continue the story…)
Filed under: College, Career
The recession has more high school seniors looking at community colleges as an affordable alternative to four-year programs, but as older Americans face a changing job market, they’re also looking to these under-appreciated institutions as an opportunity to improve their skills.’
Even the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) — a beacon of elitism and Ivy League arrogance — is getting in on the act. The weekend edition reports that “The humble community college is turning out to be one of the best resources for older adults seeking new directions — and new jobs — in later life. From coast to coast, two-year public institutions are streamlining existing training programs and designing new ones to help people approaching retirement or facing midlife layoffs. Among the programs created so far: vocational counseling, accelerated certification in health and education specialties, and help with small-business start-ups.”
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Filed under: Debt, Relationships, Recession, Consumer Complaints
eThere are probably people out there who lie awake at night, thinking about credit cards. They toss, imagining their tenacious debt entangling them like ivy slowly choking a brick house. They turn, fantasizing about the C.I.A.-approved techniques they’d like to see performed on the leaders of the credit-card companies. For people like that, next Thursday, April 23, is a day they’re going to want to circle on their calendar. And it’s not because it’s the day their minimum payment is due.
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