What Every College Student and Grad Should Know About the Debt Ceiling Agreement
At long last, the folks in Washington have made a deal and student financial aid is hanging in there. The agreement reached yesterday between the White House and Congress avoids some of the cuts that would have hurt students the most. Yesterday’s agreement shores up the Pell Grant program by providing $17-billion in funding, and the White House indicates there will be sufficient funding to keep Pell Grants at their current level of $5,500. If Pell Grants had been cut, students may well have had to increase their reliance…
10 Ways Student Loan Lenders and Collections Agencies Violate the Law by Adam Minsky
Adam S. Minsky, Esq. is a Boston lawyer who concentrates his practice in student loan law. Thanks for this Guest Post, Adam! When student borrowers fail to pay their student loan bills for any reason, lenders will try to get them to pay. The longer the borrower doesn’t pay, the harder the lender will try. Sometimes, the lender will hire a collections agency to pursue a student borrower who is in delinquency or default, and often these agencies will use aggressive, intimidating, deceptive, or irritating tactics. The federal Fair Debt…
Parents Beware of PLUS Sized Student Loans
Parents can borrow Parent PLUS loans to pay for the education of their dependent children. My husband and I will borrow Parent PLUS loans next year for our daughter's college (unless she runs off to Uruguay, which is distinctly possible). Direct Parent PLUS loans are technically eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, but not really. Because Parent PLUS loans cannot be repaid under either Income-Based Repayment or Income-Contingent Repayment, you can’t actually make payments on a Parent PLUS loan that count towards…
Congressmen Caught Helping Student Loan Borrowers
What are they feeding these congressmen lately? Private Student Lenders Should Play by the Same Rules as Other Private Lenders Restricting bankruptcy protection for borrowers of private student loans doesn’t protect taxpayer investment; instead it gives special treatment to private student loan companies that other private lenders don’t enjoy. The argument goes like this--in order to safeguard taxpayer investments in higher education, federal student loans ought to be difficult to discharge in bankruptcy. But private student loans…
Need a Senator to Love? Try Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio
United States Senator Sherrod Brown cares about making higher education available to all, and that makes me love him. Brown just announced new legislation aimed at helping student loan borrowers and saving money for the government--at the same time. Senator Brown said, “It’s a win-win for borrowers and taxpayers—by ensuring that students can access higher education and by helping already-strained borrowers reduce their personal debt load.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would lead to…
