WASHINGTON — Virginians struggling with student loan debt have a new place to turn for help.
Scott Kemp is the state’s first student loan advocate.
He works within the Office of the Qualified Education Loan Ombudsman, which was established by The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) at the direction of a law passed last year in the General Assembly.
A new credit assessment program could help millions of Americans instantly improve their credit scores, simply by adding data from their checking account.
Consumers who choose to use Experian Boost (an online platform set to launch early this year) give the company permission to access their online banking accounts to look at utility, cable TV and phone payments for the past 24 months. The entire process should take about five minutes and the updated FICO score is delivered to the potential lender instantly.
College students from rural areas are moving to big cities for higher wages to help pay off their student loans, according to new research from the Federal Reserve.
Why it matters: A "rural brain drain" has been pulling college-educated people out of rural America and into urban areas, deepening an educational and political divide that is increasingly coming to define the country.
Some student loan borrowers will get another chance to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Congress has set aside $350 million to help fix what lawmakers have called a "glitch" in the enrollment process.
Teachers, social workers, public defenders and others who work for the government or non-profits can qualify for student loan forgiveness after making 10 years of payments. But many who thought they were on track for forgiveness have since found out they were in a repayment plan that makes them ineligible for debt relief.
In October, I wrote a column about Jed Shafer, a teacher in Oregon who found himself on the wrong end of the student loan repayment bureaucracy.
Mr. Shafer thought he was following the rules to qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program, and spent years communicating carefully with the loan servicers who collected his payments on behalf of the federal government. But it turns out he hadn’t been doing it correctly after all.
Here's a secret to help your child grasp the real impact of student loan debt: Don't just think about the huge sum you've borrowed — focus on what you'll repay each month.
About 30 percent of college students said they feel confident with the financial terms associated with student loans, according to a survey by College Ave Student Loans. The lender recently polled 1,075 undergraduates.
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"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
– Marie Curie
“This would be a much better world if more married couples were as deeply in love as they are in debt.”
– Earl Wilson
The road to success is always under construction
– Lily Tomlin
"Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans."
– Robert Reich
"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going."
– Irwin "Professor" Corey
"There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt."
– P. T. Barnum
“What I would like to do... once I take care of all my kids' student loans, is buy a red 1965 Mustang and fully restore it.”
