Student loans are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy, with exception of undue hardship as most graduates who have fallen upon hard times have eventually discovered. But according to an article in Inside Higher Education, legislators are now moving to consider altering the bankruptcy code to change the way private student loans are treated during [...]
According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, Texans are defaulting on their student loan debt at an alarming rate. The article said: "In Texas, 9.3 percent of borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans last year - the highest rate in nearly a decade. Only Arizona had a higher rate, 9.8 percent. The [...]
According to an article in Reuters, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation last week that would cut major banks and student loan giant Sallie Mae out of a large slice of the $92 billion university student loan business if passed by the Senate. Under the bill H.R. 3221 --the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility [...]
There's an interesting article in the Star-Telegram about the increase in the number of peer-to-peer loans for college students. The author cites a contraction of student loan lending and restrictions on credit card lending to students as a major factor contributing to the uptick in the number of peer-to-peer loans amongst college students. The article [...]
In the bankruptcy case of Robison, Christopher D.; In re (Robison v. Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp., et al.), the bankruptcy court ruled that the debtor's student loan was nondischargeable and that the debtor's mental illness was not enough to qualify as a hardship. The details of the bankruptcy case: The Chapter 7 bankruptcy [...]
We've all heard the saying that the best offense is good defense. The same goes with student loan debt . The best offense is to be defensive in applying for student loans. Historically, students and parents borrowed money for a majority of college expenses. However, over the last two years, more parents and students are [...]
Reaffirmation is where you consent to paying back all or part of a debt even though you may not have had to. Before the 1978 Bankruptcy Code put an end to it, creditors used to trick debtors into reaffirming their debts. The process of tricking debtors isn't as complicated as you would think, because all [...]
Increasingly, down-on-their-luck Americans are turning to companies who offer payday loans to make ends meet one month in the hopes that the next will be better, allowing them to pay off the amount of money they borrowed along with the interest charged by the payday lender. There's just one problem with that scenario. The sky-high [...]
A divided 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed a decision allowing a Chapter 7 debtor to discharge his student loans because they found that he did not face an undue hardship despite the immense amount of the loans. In the case of Educational Credit Management Corp. v. Jesperson (In re Jesperson), No. 07-3888 [...]
As the economy worsens, many adults who have experienced a job loss are thinking about returning to school to learn a new skill and become more manageable in today's job market. Unfortunately, getting a second degree usually means more student loan debts, especially for the "mature" student. Things to consider before taking out student debts: [...]