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Latest in Loans & Lending
The average new-car payment hit a record $777 a month as loans stretch past seven years
American car buyers are now spending a record $777 a month on new-vehicle loans, and nearly one in four of those loans will take at...
Restarted student-loan collections can garnish wages, tax refunds, and part of your Social Security check
Borrowers who defaulted on federal student loans now face the return of the government’s most aggressive collection tools: wage garnishment, tax-refund seizures, and reductions to...
The SAVE student-loan plan is ending, and 7.5 million borrowers get 90 days to switch
Roughly 7.5 million federal student-loan borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan now face a hard deadline to pick a new path or be pushed...
Enroll in automatic student-loan payments by September 30 and the government trims your interest rate by 1%
Federal student-loan borrowers who sign up for automatic payments by September 30, 2026, will receive a 1 percent interest-rate reduction on eligible Direct Loans, a...
$50 a month toward your loan principal is the new match when a student payment barely dents the balance
Federal student loan borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans are watching their balances grow even as they make every required payment on time. The math...
46,000 borrowers rushed into the new student-loan plan on day one, and new borrowers get no other choice
Tens of thousands of federal student-loan borrowers moved quickly when the U.S. Department of Education opened enrollment in its new Repayment Assistance Plan, with reports...
A new federal student-loan plan sets your payment at 1% to 10% of income, or $10 a month
Federal student-loan borrowers earning less than $30,000 a year will soon face a sharply different repayment structure. Public Law 119-21, enacted on July 4, 2025,...
2.6 million more borrowers were pushed into student-loan default collection early this year
About 2.5 million borrowers fell into default on federal student loans between September and December 2025, pushing the total number of defaulted borrowers to roughly...
Parents who take a new PLUS loan after July 1 lose any path to public-service forgiveness
Families counting on Public Service Loan Forgiveness to offset the cost of borrowing for a child’s education face a hard deadline. Starting July 1, 2026,...
The Grad PLUS loan program ends July 1, capping what graduate and parent borrowers can get
Graduate students and parents who rely on federal loans to cover tuition face a hard borrowing ceiling starting July 1, 2026, when the Grad PLUS...
Federal student-loan defaults could hit a record 13 million by the end of 2026, up from 8.8 million now
Roughly nine million borrowers now hold $220 billion in defaulted federal student loans, a figure that climbed by about 1.3 million borrowers in the most...
36,000 borrowers cheated by their colleges are getting their federal student loans erased
Tens of thousands of former students who were misled by their colleges are having their federal student loan balances wiped clean. The U.S. Department of...
New Parent PLUS borrowers lose access to Public Service Loan Forgiveness on July 1.
Parents who borrow federal loans to help cover their children’s college costs after July 1, 2026, will no longer qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness....
The SAVE student-loan plan is ending, and 7 million borrowers have 90 days to pick a new plan or be moved automatically.
Roughly 7.5 million federal student-loan borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan will soon receive notices from their loan servicers telling them the plan is...
A new federal student-loan plan starting July 1 wipes out unpaid interest for borrowers who pay on time
Federal student-loan borrowers who make their monthly payments on time will no longer watch unpaid interest pile onto their balances under a new repayment structure...
About 12 million federal student-loan borrowers, more than 1 in 4, are now behind or in default
Roughly 12 million people with federal student loans are now behind on payments or sitting in default, a figure that amounts to more than one...
A buyer can assume a seller’s FHA or VA loan and inherit its lower interest rate
Homebuyers locked into mortgage rates above 6 percent have a federal workaround that most never hear about: taking over a seller’s existing FHA or VA...
About 2.6 million more federal student-loan borrowers slid into default and were sent to collections in just the first quarter of this year
Roughly 2.6 million federal student-loan borrowers fell into default and were referred to collections during the first quarter of the current fiscal cycle, pushing the...
A new federal student-loan plan called RAP launches July 1, replacing the income-driven options millions of borrowers use now
Millions of federal student-loan borrowers will lose access to every existing income-driven repayment plan when a new option called the Repayment Assistance Plan takes effect...
A 401(k) loan lets you borrow from your own balance and pay the interest back to yourself instead of a bank
Workers who need short-term cash but want to avoid bank interest payments have a built-in option sitting inside their retirement accounts. A 401(k) loan allows...