Student loan | Senator Casey Pushes Legislation To Lower <b>Student</b>-<b>Loan</b> Interest <b>...</b> |
- Senator Casey Pushes Legislation To Lower <b>Student</b>-<b>Loan</b> Interest <b>...</b>
- Lots of people are still way behind paying back <b>student loans</b> - Vox
- 'I'm 57 and owe $152,000 in <b>student loans</b>' | WQAD.com
| Senator Casey Pushes Legislation To Lower <b>Student</b>-<b>Loan</b> Interest <b>...</b> Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:54 PM PDT By Pat Loeb PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Financial experts have warned that student debt is hurting economic growth, but a measure to relieve the burden failed in the U.S. Senate in June. Supporters of the measure plan to bring it up again in September. Pennsylvania's U.S. Senator Bob Casey supports the Student Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which would allow students to do what homeowners and businesses are doing — lower the interest rate on their debt. If just four of his colleagues changed their votes, it would pass and he tailored his message to his republican counterpart Pat Toomey — noting the bill would not only help Pennsylvanians, who have the third highest average student debt but would lower the deficit by $14 billion. "Those guys in Washington who are always talking about deficit reduction and always talking about families and always talking about values, I hope they would join us in supporting this legislation," Casey said. Senator Toomey's office says he still opposes the bill. You may also be interested in:  |
| Lots of people are still way behind paying back <b>student loans</b> - Vox Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:40 AM PDT The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is out with its quarterly charts on household debt and credit. Student loan balances are continuing to climb, which was expected; the total outstanding student loan balance has now hit $1.12 trillion. The percentage of the debt that's 90 days delinquent or in default has dropped slightly, but only slightly:
Most other forms of consumer credit, such as credit cards and car loans, saw delinquencies rise as the economy worsened. But those delinquencies are now on their way down to pre-recession levels or even lower. Credit card debt delinquency is at its lowest point since at least 2003; auto loans and mortgage delinquencies haven't fully recovered yet, but they're much less bad than they used to be. Student loan delinquencies, on the other hand, just kept climbing. The slight dip this quarter, to 10.9 percent from 11.8 percent in the third quarter of 2013, is a good sign, but the same thing happened last summer. It's too early to declare this good news. Update: A footnote in the Fed report points out that this probably understates the delinquency rate pretty drastically. That's because about half of the outstanding student loan balance is in various states where it doesn't need to be repaid. Either borrowers are still in college, they've gone back to college or grad school, they're in the six-month payment-free grace period, or their loans are in deferment or forbearance for other reasons. If you count only the balance on which borrowers are supposed to be making payments but aren't, rather than the total loan portfolio, the delinquency rate could be as high as 20 percent. |
| 'I'm 57 and owe $152,000 in <b>student loans</b>' | WQAD.com Posted: 13 Aug 2014 07:31 PM PDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Rosemary Anderson, 57, is on the hook for $152,000 in student loans she took out 20 years ago. The divorced mother of two grown daughters represents a growing number of older Americans with student debt. The 50-and-over crowd makes up 17% of $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt — a 30% increase since 2005. Anderson's loans financed her own education. However, one of the main reasons for the big increase is because more parents have taken out loans to finance their children's college education. "We're seeing a rise in the number of people with two generations of debt: People who are paying for their children's education, but also paying off their old student loans," said Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, which researches the rising costs of higher education. Older workers, who have lost jobs, have found it difficult to get re-hired, leading them to fall behind on repaying their loans. And their kids, who may have shouldered the burden of repaying their loans, also haven't been able to find well-paying jobs. Anderson, who lives in Watsonville, Ca., fears for her future, when there's the likelihood of her social security payments being garnished. Her fears aren't unfounded. American Student Assistance, a non profit that counsels people with student debt problems, said that over the past year it has worked with 1,000 Americans who have had their social security payments garnished to pay for old student debt. That's a sharp increase from just 200 people in the previous year. Anderson's loans are driven from a decision late in life to earn two degrees and paying for them with loans totaling $65,000 from the government and various financial firms. She earned her bachelor's degree at 37 and a master's degree at 44, both in human resources. While Anderson has never regretted the decision to get higher education, the costs have been severe. After graduation, Anderson was paying six checks a month to Sallie Mae, Wells Fargo and other financial firms. So she decided to consolidate all her loans into one big loan with the Department of Education at the prevailing 8.25% rate. The catch was that she could not refinance. Since then, interest rates on student loans have fallen below 3% and today can be had for 4.66%. "If I had taken out a loan with a loan shark I would have been better off," Anderson said. The issue caught the attention of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who introduced a bill earlier this year to allow millions of people like Anderson to refinance their student loans. However, the bill was blocked in June. Anderson was counting on the bill for a "last minute stay of execution" as she calls it. She stopped making payments on her student loans about six years ago after a bout of unemployment, a divorce and tending a brother who fought AIDS. Still she has avoided being technically in default by rolling her debt over several times and watching the interest compound and the amount of her loans balloon in size. Next April, Anderson won't be able to do that any more and will have to make payments of $699 a month until she is 81 years old. She worries about how she will make ends meet. Anderson brings home $3,400 a month from her job in business operations at the University of California in Santa Cruz. She has a $2,200 mortgage payment and has to live on what's left, and earning some extra income by finding odd jobs on Craig's List. "I will be working for as long as I'm employable. I will never be able to retire," said Anderson. |
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