Since it’s now been six months since May college graduates left school, it’s time for them to confront the reality of paying off their student debt. The end of the student loan grace period means that students will start receiving bills from their student loan servicers.
Here’s how to take control of your student debt once your grace period is over — and what you can do before to make it easier.
Student debt continues to be a major issue for college students and graduates in the U.S.
U.S. total student debt is now over $1.4 trillion, and the average debt for a college graduate in 2016 was $37,000. And 44 million Americans now have student debt to their name.
The video below gives tips on how student loan borrowers can avoid falling behind on their payments. It also explains why millennials should be saving for retirement even if they have student debt.
We’ve written before about how student loans, unlike other forms of debt, can’t be discharged in bankruptcy–which is why it’s so important to be careful about how much you borrow.
Bankruptcy law says that, without proving “undue hardship,” a borrower can’t discharge a loan made for an “educational benefit.”
Recently, however, bankruptcy courts have started ruling in favor of some student loan borrowers and have allowed them to discharge their debt, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Student loan debt isn’t just a problem for millennials. It’s following baby boomers into retirement as well.
The government has collected about $1.1 billion from Social Security recipients of all ages to go toward unpaid student loans since 2001, including $171 million in 2015, the Government Accountability Office said in December.
Getting into college is exciting–receiving the envelope and imagining your future. But not all colleges are created equal.
For-profit colleges, in particular, have been criticized for being dishonest about graduate employment statistics and leaving students with lots of student debt. Some have even gone bankrupt after being fined or sued for misleading students.
To help students better understand the risks, NerdWallet and USA Today College put together a list of 5 things to consider before choosing to attend a for-profit college.
While 401(K) contributions have traditionally been a benefit companies used to lure talented employees, innovative companies are beginning to offer a new benefit that their millennial employees need even more: help paying their student loans. A recent article in The Hechinger Report discussed the rise of employee benefit programs aimed at helping employees pay student debt. […]
Your student loan debt can affect your credit, which affects whether you’ll be able to buy a car, house or take out a loan in the future.
But a new study shows nearly half of all student loan borrowers don’t know that, according to CNBC.
Before taking out student loans, it’s important to educate yourself about the types of student loans and understand how interest and repayment work so that you can put yourself in a good position to repay them in the future.
We’ve written about the consequences of not paying your student loans, such as having your wages garnished and your credit damaged.
But it turns out the repercussions could be much higher. According to the NY Daily News, a man in Houston was recently arrested by seven U.S. Marshals armed with automatic weapons for not paying a $1,500 student loan from 1987.
Despite the many alternative repayment plans available, Americans are behind on their student loans more than any other kind of debt.
A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that borrowers are having a much harder time paying off their student loan debt than their credit cards, mortgages, and car loans.
What would you do if you could have all of your student loans paid off?
A lot, most students say, including taking a punch from boxer Mike Tyson.