Alice Cortes had no idea a student loan was issued under her name, and she's never heard of the man listed as a co-signer. So who is Jorge Torres, and how can Cortes resolve her $25,000 debt to Sallie Mae?
Families are implementing more cost-saving strategies to cut college spending, choosing less expensive schools and finding more economical ways for students to attend, according to a study from Sallie Mae, the country's largest student lender.
College tuition just keeps rising, and student loan debt is at an all-time high, leading to hefty loan payments that can overwhelm earners early in their careers. But a group called FixUC has a radical proposal to re-think tuition that could make everyone happy.
With student loan default rates rising due to persistently high unemployment rates, it's easy to vilify the seemingly endless monthly payments that follow graduation. But take a closer look, and you'll find that the news about student loans is more good than bad.
When you graduate college, you've got six months before you have to start repaying your student loans. For members of the class of 2011, that grace period ends soon, but all too many of them haven't found jobs and can't afford to start making those payments. We asked John Ulzheimer of SmartCredit.com to discuss their options.
In one of the most complex and convoluted deal done on Wall Street in quiet a while, Student Loan Corporation, which originates and services student loans and is a subsidiary of Citibank, will be sold.
Michael Feder of Radar Logic thinks it does. And he adds that the federal government, which has underwritten or guaranteed almost every new mortgage since the financial crisis began, is in a precarious position itself. But Feder offers one possible solution.
It's a sad truth: Debt forces people into choices they'd rather not make. A survey conducted by Sallie Mae subsidiary Nellie Mae found that 21% of student borrowers had delayed having children because of their loans, and 14% delayed getting married because of their student debt loads.
Looking for a way to ease the burden of student loans? IBR, Income-Based Repayment, caps monthly payments at 15% of discretionary income and allows stretching payments out for 25 years instead of 10, but that doesn't make it a good deal for borrowers.
