Student Loans

President Biden is expected to announce Wednesday that he will cancel some federal student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans through a long-awaited executive action, which would provide unprecedented relief for borrowers but is certain to draw political and legal challenges.The action would be the culmination of more than a year of debate within the Biden administration on debt forgiveness. Mr. Biden is also expected to extend the pandemic pause on student loan payments, likely through the end of the year. Loan…

White House officials are planning for President Biden to make an announcement on Wednesday about his proposal for dealing with student-loan debt, according to people familiar with the matter.The president and his senior aides have for months been weighing whether to cancel some federal student loan debt. Mr. Biden’s top advisers have discussed several proposals, including eliminating $10,000 in federal student-loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, the people said. The president’s advisers have also…

WASHINGTON—The federal government’s student loan servicing contractors have been instructed to hold off on sending billing statements ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline for ending the pandemic freeze on loan payments, giving companies little time to start loan collection processes if payments resume.The future of the federal student loan portfolio is in limbo as President Biden considers whether to cancel a limited amount of debt for borrowers whose incomes fall under a certain threshold. The president and his advisers have…

When I created my money and lifestyle blog Making Sense of Cents in 2011, I had no idea what I was doing.I was a 22-year-old financial analyst making $40,000 a year and struggling to pay off my student loans. But my debt was actually a large part of why I started blogging — I wanted to track and share the progress of my financial goals.Eleven years later, Making Sense has grown beyond my wildest dreams. Over the last five years, I've grossed an average of $760,000 per year in passive income by providing advice on how to…

The Biden administration released a proposal that will make it easier for students who claim they were defrauded by for-profit colleges to get their federal student loans forgiven, moving to reverse Trump administration limits.The proposal would update the borrower defense to repayment regulation, a rule initiated by the Obama administration, that has allowed hundreds of thousands of students who attended for-profit colleges to obtain relief if the government determines that schools misled them about job prospects or…

The Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, the most aggressive hike since 1994. This rise puts the key benchmark federal funds rate at a range between 1.5 and 1.75%.The Fed's intention is to help combat inflation.Watch this video to find out what rising interest rates mean for you. The Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, the most aggressive hike since 1994. This rise puts the key benchmark federal funds rate at a range…

The Biden administration’s overhaul of a largely moribund student debt forgiveness program for public-service employees has led to $8.1 billion in approved relief for 145,000 borrowers since October.Last fall, the Education Department instituted a waiver for its Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created by Congress in 2007 to encourage students to enter professions like teaching, nursing and public-interest law. The waiver was intended to make it easier for more public-service workers to qualify for debt…

The Biden administration has reached a settlement with more than 200,000 students who said they were defrauded, mostly by for-profit colleges, paving the way for the immediate cancellation of around $6 billion in student loans. The proposed settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, was agreed to by a group of borrowers who sued the Education Department in 2019 during the Trump administration, because they believed their fraud claims were being ignored by the department. The…

WASHINGTON—President Biden is likely to decide later this summer whether to partially forgive student-loan debt for millions of borrowers, according to administration officials and others familiar with the matter, after the president said more than a month ago that he would weigh in on the issue in the next couple of weeks. The officials said Mr. Biden is likely to announce his plans in July or August, closer to when the pandemic-related pause in federal student loan payments is scheduled to lapse, as the president and…

Klaus Vedfelt | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesMonths of stock market volatility may deliver a costly surprise to parents sending children to school this fall: smaller-than-expected 529 college savings plan balances. The average 529 account size was $30,287 in 2021, according to the College Savings Plans Network, but families may now have lower balances, financial experts say.And it may be a "rude awakening" for parents scrambling to make their first payments in August, said certified financial planner Lisa Kirchenbauer,…