Student loan debt in the United States is now climbing past $1.5 trillion.  Not only are there more borrowers, but on average they owe more.  Some in the media portray hitting this milestone as no big deal, or even a potentially good thing, while others proclaim doom and gloom.  For …

In January of 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aggressively went after federal student loan servicer Navient.  “At every stage of repayment, Navient chose to shortcut and deceive consumers to save on operating costs. Too many borrowers paid more for their loans because Navient illegally cheated them and today’s action seeks …

In November of 2017, student loan refinance company Earnest was purchased by Navient for $155 million.  To the corporate world, the deal was spun as the merger between a company with useful student loan refinance technology and systems (Earnest) and a student loan giant with the financial resources to fund …

Over 50 members of Congress owe a combined $1.8 million on student loans according to a Roll Call analysis.  The debt is split fairly evenly across party lines with slightly more Republicans holding student loans (28 to the Democrats 25) and Democrats owing slightly more ($1 million to the Republicans …

The spending bill currently before Congress contains a provision that would potentially provide $350 million in Public Service Loan Forgiveness to borrowers who had payments that were previously ruled not to be eligible.  The current draft of the legislation appears to help borrowers that were enrolled in the graduated or …

For the vast majority of student loan borrowers bankruptcy has been a non-existent option for dealing with student loan debt.  Starting in the late 70’s federal student loans were treated differently than most other consumer debts in bankruptcy proceedings.  As time passed, bankruptcy protections for student borrowers slowly eroded.  By …

New data from the Brookings Institute indicates a disturbing trend in student loans.  As expected, the number of borrowers with large student loan balances, defined as $50,000 or more has grown.  The big development is how unsuccessful borrowers have been paying down the debt. The Large Balance Problem According to …

This week the Washington Post ran a story about one woman’s struggles with student debt and her fears about the possibility that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program might one day be eliminated.  The article itself was rather unremarkable in that it told a fairly common student loan story faced …