Student loan | <b>Student loans</b>: Osborne criticised for 'back door' repayments change <b>...</b> |
- <b>Student loans</b>: Osborne criticised for 'back door' repayments change <b>...</b>
- Some complaints filed in NH against <b>student loan</b> company | Special <b>...</b>
- How one grad cut her <b>student loan</b> debt by $20,000 | FOX2now.com
- <b>Student Loan</b> Forgiveness for Teachers | Refinance and <b>...</b>
- How To Tackle <b>Student Loan</b> Debt | Above the Law
- Earnest, Fueled by Growth in <b>Student Loans</b>, Raises $275 Million - Bits
| <b>Student loans</b>: Osborne criticised for 'back door' repayments change <b>...</b> Posted: 25 Nov 2015 09:55 AM PST Students during a protest calling for the abolition of tuition fees and an end to student debt in Whitehall, London. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA Students and graduates who have taken out student loans since 2012 will face higher repayments after the £21,000 income threshold at which borrowings must be paid back was frozen for five years. The controversial change – omitted from the chancellor's spending review speech in the Commons on Wednesday – means that on average a former student will pay £306 a year more in 2020-21 compared with 2016-17. When the 2012 student loan system was launched, the government pledged that from April 2017, the £21,000 figure would be raised each year in line with average earnings. It now intends to freeze this threshold at £21,000 until April 2021 at the earliest, despite strong opposition in a recent consultation. Related: Spending review 2015: things you may have missed in the small print "This increases the financial commitment of borrowers to repaying their loans," the post-consultation report from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said, announcing the freeze. "In 2020-21 borrowers will be paying £6 per week, or £306 in the year, more than they will be in 2016-17. "What this means is that graduates would end up paying more each month than the loan scheme previously promised and publicised when students took out the loan," Sorana Vieru, NUS vice-president for higher education, said. "This is yet another betrayal by the government and part of a long list of political measures that shows complete disdain to students and their futures." Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert who chaired the independent taskforce on student finance information, accused the chancellor of not "having the balls to talk about this in the speech and I'm absolutely spitting teeth over this right now". "This is a retrospective change to student loans, millions of people across the country will have to pay more each month," he told LBC. "This is a change going backwards, it's a change from what they said they would have done when people started going to university. "It's an absolute disgrace that breaks the fundamental bond of politics that you do not impose retrospective changes. Commercial companies would not have been allowed to do this. This was snuck in the back door, even though he mentioned student loans in the speech." The business department said it hoped the freeze would increase repayments by £3.2bn over the lifetime of the loans of existing borrowers. Related: What does the spending review mean for science and innovation? Labour MP Wes Streeting, the former NUS president who worked with Lewis on the taskforce, said the move "completely changed the financial conditions, retrospectively, that students signed up to in good faith". "How can students now trust anything the government says about student loans they sign up to? If banks did this to customers, there would be an enormous outcry. This change will hit hardest those graduates on low and middle incomes close to the earnings threshold." A spokesman for the department said the change has been made to reflect the reality of graduate earnings, which he said hadn't risen as high as they were expected to. "When the £21,000 threshold was set in 2010, assumptions had to be made about earnings growth between 2010 and 2016," the spokesman said. "While the economic recovery is underway, it is not yet fully reflected in earnings, so the threshold is higher in real terms than originally intended. "Making this change helps contribute to the current government's debt reduction targets."  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Some complaints filed in NH against <b>student loan</b> company | Special <b>...</b> Posted: 10 Dec 2015 08:03 PM PST When students graduate college, they often face years of debt, and adding to the stress for some, the country's biggest student loan company has come under fire for how it's charging customers. Click to watch News 9's coverage Over the past two years, four complaints have been filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office by customers of Navient, the nation's largest student loan company and a spinoff of Sallie Mae. "We're not people's advocates, but we enforce the Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices, and some of those complaints lead to us taking some enforcement action against businesses that are doing things that they shouldn't be doing," Senior Assistant Attorney General James Boffetti said. One complaint said: "Over the years, the company changed the terms of agreement. For example, the interest rate and fees increased." Navient said in its response that the terms and conditions of the loan had not changed and that the interest rates on private loans are variable. Nationally, Navient is facing government investigations from other attorneys general and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But Boffetti said no action was necessary with the four New Hampshire complaints. "In some cases, the business will just resolve the complaint directly with the consumer, and then we don't get involved any further," Boffetti said. Student debt is increasing locally and nationally. According to a study by the Institute for College Access and Success, New Hampshire ranked second in the country in 2014 for highest average debt per graduate, with more than $33,000 in debt per student. The study said 76 percent of the state's graduates had debt. "What I usually say to students is if the outcome is an education, there is an opportunity out there for everybody," said Angela Castonguay of the New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation. The New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation provides free guidance to help people financially plan for college. "I think the biggest problem is there's usually a disconnect between the student's goals and expectations of their parents' finances and the parents' expectations of their finances or understanding of their situation," Castonguay said. Castonguay said preparation is key to limiting student debt. She does loan calculations with students to figure out what they'll pay. "Am I going to be able to pay that back on a teacher's salary, a police officer's salary?" Castonguay said. "What am I going to be able to afford? You can make those smart decisions and not wind up in a debt that binds you for life." Castonguay advises prospective students to apply to a variety of schools so they'll have multiple options for financial aid packages. In the meantime, if people have concerns about overcharging or other issues with loans, Boffetti said it doesn't hurt to contact his office. "You'll be surprised how many of those complaints get resolved just by us sending a letter and the business responding and resolving it with consumers, so it's worth doing it," he said. Boffetti said the Attorney General's Office gets about 3,500 written complaints per year and 7,000 to 8,000 calls to its consumer hotline. Anyone who wants to file a complaint can call the hotline from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays at 888-468-4454 or 603-271-3641. The bureau can also be reached by email at DOJ-CPB@doj.nh.gov or by sending a letter to: Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau In a statement to News 9, a Navient spokesperson said the company is committed to helping its customers succeed and that borrowers serviced by Navient are 38 percent less likely to default. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How one grad cut her <b>student loan</b> debt by $20,000 | FOX2now.com Posted: 24 Nov 2015 12:10 PM PST  NEW YORK – Looking for an easy way to reduce your student loan debt? Lexie Mitchell, a 2011 Stanford grad, found one. By refinancing her student loans, she cut her monthly payments by $80 and will save a whopping $20,000 in total. "Stanford was amazing. I loved it, but it's also very expensive," Mitchell said. She went to school on a scholarship for track and field, but didn't compete all four years. She lost the scholarship and had to pick up the tab to finish school. Refinancing student loans hasn't always been an option. As recently as a few years ago, it was difficult for grads to find a bank that would offer them a better rate. But the tide has turned. About half of those with outstanding student debt could save money by refinancing, according to Citizens Bank, one of the biggest lenders in the space. Mitchell did her research and found that an online lender called SoFi offered her the best deal. She lowered her interest rate to 6.4% from 10% on a 20-year loan. Most lenders don't charge an origination or closing fee, so there's a little risk. "If you're confident you can afford the monthly payments, it is very hard to find a downside," said Douglas Boneparth, a CFP that specializes in advising Millennials. It may sound too good to be true, but here's why it works. The new rate is based on your credit score and your income. So if you've found a good-paying job, it makes sense that you can get a lower rate than when you were in college, said Brendan Coughlin, the president of consumer lending at Citizens. Mitchell waited until she got a bump in pay to refinance, which scored her an even lower rate than she might have otherwise gotten. "Refinancing isn't for everyone. But higher-income individuals can really take advantage for some pretty low interest rates," said Andy Tate, a CFP who's helped many doctors and lawyers refinance. The average person refinancing at Citizens is 33 years old, earns $75,000, and has about $45,000 in loan debt. If you don't fit that mold, it doesn't mean you're out of luck. You can find out if you're eligible with most lenders by inputting some information online, for free. It took Mitchell about an hour to get a quote from SoFi. It's worth looking into now. Rates are low, but could eventually creep higher after the Federal Reserve decides to implement a hike. "We're at a period of time when customers are likely to get the best deal they'll see in a while," Coughlin said. If figuring it out sounds like a terrible way to spend a Saturday afternoon, here are some tips to make the process less painful. Shop around. Check out Citizens, SoFi, Earnest, Darien Rowayton Bank, LendKey, and CommonBond. Those are the biggest players in the space and each may make you a different offer. Some require you to have completed your degree while others don't. Some require that you open a savings account in order to refinance. The lowest rate may not be your best option. Some offer different terms. A 5-year loan may come with a lower rate than a 15-year loan. But both could save you money over the long-run. You can refinance both federal and private loans. While private loans typically come with a higher interest rate to begin with, don't rule out your federal loans. If you borrowed from the government before 2008 for undergrad, or at all for graduate school, it's likely you're paying an interest rate at or above 6%. Federal Parent PLUS loans, which come with an even higher interest rate, are also eligible for refinancing. Is there a catch? If you refinance a federal loan, you'll be giving up some protections, like applying for forbearance, deferment, or income-based repayment. If your finances takes a hit in the future, you might not be offered these benefits. Refinancing is different than consolidating. Consolidating is a great when you have a ton of different loans and want to make just one payment. The new interest rate will be the average of your prior loan rates. But refinancing puts your loans together in one spot and saves you some money by reducing your rate. Now that Mitchell refinanced, she and her husband are more comfortable making big financial decisions, like their upcoming move to New York City. "For us, it's really nice to have that extra $80 a month in our back pocket. You never know when things will get tight," she said. By Katie Lobosco Trademark and Copyright 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| <b>Student Loan</b> Forgiveness for Teachers | Refinance and <b>...</b> Posted: 04 Dec 2014 10:30 PM PST Teaching is one of the most important professions but it's at risk of losing top talent due to low pay, among other reasons. The annual turnover rate for teachers is 15.7%, 3.8% higher than the average of other professions. For 2012-13, the national average starting teacher salary was $36,141. Education majors have lower salary potential when compared to other majors, according to PayScale.com. Meanwhile, the average student loan debt for the 2014 graduate (regardless of major or profession) was about $33,000. It's clear that these numbers aren't in favor of teachers ability to repay their student loans. Fortunately, teacher student loan forgiveness from the federal and some state governments provide some relief. We know it's not simple to sift through all the details of student loan forgiveness to figure out what you're qualified for. So we're breaking down the teacher student loan forgiveness options available that will help teachers dig themselves out of debt. Federal Teacher Cancellation for Perkins LoansHow much it's worth: Up to $27,500 Requirements: You must teach at least one year at a low-income school or teach in certain subject areas. How long it takes: Minimum one full year of teaching. 100% Perkins Loan debt cancellation after five years. The details: After just one year of teaching, you can have 15% of your outstanding Perkins Loans canceled. This continues in varying amounts until you can have all Perkins Loan debt canceled after five years. The Teacher Loan Cancellation Program is pretty specific about what position you need to hold. You must meet one of the below requirements: 1. Teach at a low-income school. (Click here for a list) To apply, contact the school that holds your Perkins Loans and to learn more about requirements, see the Federal Student Aid website. Teacher Loan ForgivenessHow much it's worth: Up to $17,500 towards Direct or Stafford Loans. Requirements: You must teach at a low-income school. You can't have student loans originating before Oct. 1, 1998, and you can't be in default on your loans. How long it takes: Five complete and consecutive academic years The details: This one's a little more complicated. The amount you can receive is based on your role. There are two tiers for Teacher Loan Forgiveness. You can receive up to $5,000 if you're a full-time elementary teacher or full-time secondary school teacher teaching in an area related to your academic major. You can receive up to $17,500 if you're a highly-qualfied full-time math or science teacher in a eligible secondary school. You can also receive this award if you're a highly-qualified special education teacher if you meet certain requirements. To be considered "highly-qualfied," you must have obtained a full state certification as a teacher or passed the state teacher licensing exam. You must also hold a state license (with a few exceptions). Certain exceptions are made if you're an elementary teacher who holds a bachelor's degree and can meet other requirements. Visit the Federal Student Aid website for more information. Public Service Loan ForgivenessHow much it's worth: 100% of your Direct Loan balance after 10 years. This amount varies depending on many factors. Requirements: 1. Must be in certain public sector jobs and employed full-time How long it takes: 120 qualified payments, which takes 10 years. The details: This program isn't just for teachers, although teachers can qualify. With this option relief is more long-term than the other programs we discuss above. This plan typically works best with other types of qualifying repayment plans. For example, you may be able to take advantage with payment plans like Income-Based Repayment (IBR). IBR will lower monthly payments and increase the amount of debt forgiven at the end of 10 years (if any). However, if you miss any of the requirements, you'll end up paying more in interest on your loans. To learn more about requirements, visit the Federal Student Aid website. State and City Loan Forgiveness ProgramsThese plans vary based on where you live and teach. It's worth investigating if your state or city offers teacher student loan forgiveness. Some state programs include: Maine How much it's worth: One to two year's worth of student loan payments for each year as a teacher. Click here to learn more about Educators For Maine (EFM) Loan Program. Iowa How much it's worth: Up to $6,658 or 20% of the recipient's total eligible federal student loan balance Click here to learn more about Iowa's Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. North Dakota How much it's worth: $1,000 per year for up to three years. Click here to learn more about North Dakota's Teacher Shortage Loan Forgiveness Program. Mississippi How much it's worth: $3,000 per year for up to four years. Click here to learn more about the Mississippi Teacher Loan Repayment Program. State programs come and go more often than federal programs, so don't delay if you're eligible to apply Here are the top 6 lenders of 2015!
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| How To Tackle <b>Student Loan</b> Debt | Above the Law Posted: 09 Dec 2015 10:04 AM PST
Adding to the challenge is that while student debt loads for law school graduates have been climbing sharply, salaries not only have failed to keep up, they've been heading in the opposite direction. Back in 2004, you could expect to graduate from law school with $88,634 in student debt, on average. According to the New America Foundation, that figure had climbed to $140,616 for the class of 2012. After peaking at $130,000 in 2009, median starting salaries for graduates who landed at law firms slid precipitously during the recession, bottoming out at $85,000 for the class of 2011. Although median starting law firm salaries for the class of 2013 rebounded to $95,000, they stayed there last year, according to the latest numbers from the National Association for Law Placement Inc. (NALP). According to NALP, the median starting salary for all jobs taken by law school graduates — including academic, business, government, private practice, and judicial clerkships — fell from $72,000 in 2009 to $63,000 for the class of 2014. There are a number of approaches to tackling bigger student loan payments on a smaller salary, including income-driven repayment plans, loan forgiveness, or refinancing student loan debt to take advantage of lower rates. Income-driven repayment plans Federal student loan borrowers are eligible to enroll in a number of income-driven repayment plans, which cap monthly student loan payments at as little as 10 percent of discretionary income. Stretching out payments over many years reduces the monthly payment, but may increase the total amount of interest paid over the life of the loan. The latest income-driven repayment plan, Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), also includes loan forgiveness — but for grad school loans, it doesn't kick in until you've been paying your loans down for 25 years. "While income-driven repayment may not be the best or most affordable choice for all borrowers, it is a critical option for borrowers who are struggling to manage their monthly payments," advises Oakland, California-based The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). Loan forgiveness Enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan isn't the only way to have student loan debt forgiven. There are many public service employment opportunities for lawyers, and those pursuing a career in the public sector may be eligible for loan forgiveness through programs offered by the federal government and some law schools. Federal loan forgiveness programs forgive the remaining balance of federal loans for full-time employee with qualifying public service positions who have made timely repayments for 10 years. Qualifying positions may include work for the government or a non-profit. There are also a number of federal repayment assistance programs offered on a state level to help bring public service lawyers to underserved populations across the United States. In addition to federal programs, many law schools offer loan repayment assistance programs, or LRAPs. LRAPs help graduates repay their loans when they take qualifying public interest or low paying service positions in the legal field. Each school has their own eligibility requirements and LRAP terms, but many legal public servants drastically reduce their debt obligation with the help of these programs. Refinancing The student loan refinancing market has exploded in recent years, and many private lenders are offering loans at rates that can beat the rates on government student loans. Interest rates are at historic lows and qualifying borrowers may save thousands over the life of their loan by refinancing. Most law school graduates finance at least part of their education with federal PLUS loans. Unfortunately for grad students, PLUS loans have a significantly higher interest rates than federal student loans for undergraduates. PLUS loans for 2015-2016 carry an interest rate of 6.84 percent, while subsidized undergraduate loans for the same period carry an interest rate of 4.29 percent. If you're earning a steady income and have good credit, you can lose your high interest PLUS loan by refinancing and securing a lower interest rate. An interest rate just 1.5 percentage points lower will save you thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. Many refinancing lenders offer benefits that can help keep you on top of repayment and provide assistance if you experience financial hardship. Keep in mind that private loans may lack some borrower protections provided by government loans, such as loan forgiveness for government employees and public-interest lawyers once they've made 10 years of payments. But it's not unusual for private lenders to provide benefits like a grace period for repayment and protections against loss of income. If you've decided that refinancing with a private lender could save you money, do shop around to find which lenders offer the best deal. Underwriting decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, and lenders offer products that vary in rates and terms. One place to compare competitive loan offers from private lenders is Credible.com. Credible is a multi-lender marketplace that lets borrowers fill out one form, receive and compare personalized offers from vetted lenders, and choose the offer that best suits them. You can get a good estimate of how much refinancing might save you in about 30 seconds at Credible.com. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Earnest, Fueled by Growth in <b>Student Loans</b>, Raises $275 Million - Bits Posted: 17 Nov 2015 04:30 AM PST Photo At the start of this year, Earnest was an intriguing but small entrant in an emerging field of start-ups using new tools of data and software to analyze credit risk and make consumer loans. Its loans were typically a few thousand dollars for things like relocation expenses and professional training. But today, the lender, based in San Francisco, is growing at a torrid pace, and on Tuesday it announced a $275 million round of debt and equity to fund further expansion. Already this year, Earnest has made 50 times as many loans as last year, and it is lending from $2 million to $5 million every day, said Louis Beryl, a co-founder and chief executive. That trajectory caught the attention of Earnest's new investors. "Rarely do you see a company go from zero to 60 this quickly," said Roger Lee, a general partner at Battery Ventures, which led the equity round of the new financing. Mr. Lee is joining the Earnest board. In this round, $75 million is equity investment, and $200 million is debt funding. The debt portion is led by New York Life. The new financing brings the total raised by Earnest, founded in 2013, to $325 million. Earnest now employees 165 people, up from 30 at the start of this year. Mr. Beryl says he plans to hire about 200 more employees over the next year, especially technical people like software engineers, data scientists and user-experience designers. The long-term goal, he said, is to "build a platform for the next generation of consumer financial services." The financial service that has carried Earnest so far is refinancing student loans, which it began at the end of January. It is by far the largest part of the company's business, and Earnest's success points to the opportunity in services to ease the burden on the nation's debt-laden students and recent graduates. Student loan debt is more than $1.2 trillion, growing by about 10 percent a year. Student loans are held by 40 million Americans. Earnest is focusing on the more indebted recent graduates. The size of its average refinancing loan is $70,000. The start-up says the average saving, on its refinanced loans, is $18,000, typically over 10 years. Other online lenders, like SoFi and CommonBond, have also done well in the market for refinancing student loans. But Earnest says its approach is particularly data-intensive, which it says allows it to tailor rates to individual circumstances. It asks its customers for digital links to their bank, credit card and retirement and investment accounts, and information on all their loans. "They are willing to share their data for a better consumer finance experience," Mr. Beryl said. Earnest says it has read-only access to the information. It pledges not to store personal data or sell it. Earnest has made individual loans of more than $250,000. Traditional credit scoring, Mr. Beryl said, tends to punish high student debt loads. But such Earnest borrowers, he said, are in fields like brain surgery and dental surgery, where education is lengthy and costly. "These are people with great jobs, great educations and great earning potential," he added. Earnest borrowers average a bit over 30-years-old â€" young people with slender credit histories and thus charged higher rates by traditional banks. Mr. Beryl said Earnest has had no delinquency problems on its student refinancing loans. And Mr. Beryl, 34, is one of those prompt-paying customers. Having attended Princeton, Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he had $100,000 in student loans at the start of the year. He has paid down some, but still holds student loan debt, he said. Loading... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If the first big hurdles coming out of law school are passing the bar exam and landing a job, the next one is how to tackle student loan debt that, for many graduates, can run well into the six-figure range.
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