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Loans & Lending

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Latest in Loans & Lending

Loans & Lending

A new rule taking effect July 1 lets the Education Department strip some employers of public-service loan forgiveness eligibility

Borrowers counting on Public Service Loan Forgiveness to erase their federal student debt face a new threat: a final rule that, starting July 1, gives...

Loans & Lending

VA home loans require no down payment and no mortgage insurance for eligible veterans

Nearly 90 percent of VA-backed home loans close with no down payment, and the program charges no monthly mortgage insurance, giving eligible veterans and service...

Loans & Lending

Parent PLUS borrowers have until June 30 to consolidate and keep access to income-driven repayment

Parents who borrowed federal PLUS loans to help pay for a child’s college education face a hard deadline: they must consolidate those loans into a...

Loans & Lending

Defaulted student-loan borrowers could see 15% of their paychecks garnished again as collections restart

Millions of borrowers who fell behind on federal student loans face the return of a collection tool that can strip up to 15% from every...

Loans & Lending

Two older student-loan plans, PAYE and ICR, stop taking new borrowers on July 1

Federal student-loan borrowers who want to enroll in Pay As You Earn or Income-Contingent Repayment are running out of time. The Department of Education set...

Loans & Lending

2.6 million more borrowers fell back into student-loan default in a single quarter

Roughly 2.6 million federal student-loan borrowers crossed into default between September and December 2025, a single-quarter surge that pushed the total number of defaulted borrowers...

Loans & Lending

Borrowers in student-loan default can still get out through rehabilitation or consolidation

Federal student loan borrowers stuck in default have two formal exit routes available to them: rehabilitation and consolidation. The U.S. Department of Education and the...

Loans & Lending

The Education Department paused wage garnishment for defaulted student-loan borrowers

Millions of federal student-loan borrowers who have fallen into default will not see their paychecks or tax refunds seized for the time being. The U.S....

Loans & Lending

A new federal student-loan plan called RAP starts July 1, setting payments by income and family size

Federal student-loan borrowers who take out new loans on or after July 1, 2026, will face a different repayment system. The Repayment Assistance Plan, known...

Loans & Lending

Twelve million Americans — one in four federal borrowers — are now behind or in default on student loans

Roughly 12 million federal student-loan borrowers are now behind on payments or in outright default, a figure that represents nearly one in four people carrying...

Loans & Lending

A new student-loan plan launching July 1 waives the unpaid interest that builds when your payment falls short

Federal student-loan borrowers who watch their balances grow each month, even while making on-time payments, are about to get a new option. The Repayment Assistance...

Loans & Lending

The Education Department is again pausing wage garnishment for borrowers in default on their federal student loans

For the roughly 5 million Americans whose federal student loans are in default, the money that was about to disappear from their paychecks and tax...

Loans & Lending

Government and nonprofit workers can have their federal student loans erased after 120 payments

Millions of teachers, firefighters, social workers, and federal employees carry student loan debt while earning less than their private-sector counterparts. For those borrowers, the Public...

Loans & Lending

Graduate student loans will cost 8.07% for anyone borrowing after July 1, the highest rate in three years

Graduate students who borrow federal Direct Loans after July 1, 2026, will pay a fixed interest rate of 8.07 percent, the steepest borrowing cost for...

Loans & Lending

Companies charging hundreds to “lower” your student loans are selling what the government does free — real help lives at studentaid.gov

A borrower gets a call, a text, or a social-media ad promising lower monthly payments on their federal student loans. The pitch sounds official. The...

Loans & Lending

Student loan wage garnishment restarts this fall — 5 million defaulters face an automatic 15% paycheck cut, and no court order is required

Sometime this fall, millions of Americans could open a pay stub and find a chunk of their income missing. The federal government is preparing to...

Loans & Lending

The Education Department quietly paused student loan wage garnishment through July — 5.3 million defaulted borrowers won’t have paychecks touched yet, despite January’s warnings

A federal employee earning $45,000 a year and in default on student loans could lose roughly $260 per paycheck to Administrative Wage Garnishment, the government’s...

Loans & Lending

Federal student loan rates jump to 6.52% on July 1 — a $20,000 undergrad loan now costs $233 a month for ten years, up from $210 last year

A college freshman borrowing the maximum federal loan this fall will pay more for that money than any undergraduate has since at least 2013. New...

Loans & Lending

The new student loan repayment plan launches July 1 — it caps payments at 10% of income, takes 30 years to forgive, and replaces every IDR plan

Starting July 1, 2026, the federal government will begin replacing every income-driven student loan repayment plan with a single new option. It is called the...

Loans & Lending

Parent PLUS loan rates climb to 9.07% on July 1 — borrowing $40,000 for college now costs $507 a month for 10 years

A parent who borrows $40,000 through the federal PLUS program for the 2026-27 school year will owe roughly $507 every month for the next decade,...

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