Loans digger

As the cost of college soars, loaning money for an education has become an $85 billion-a-year business.
Competition among lenders is fierce.
Oversight of the industry is lax.
If you’re confused by the unfolding scandal involving some of the nation’s biggest lenders and institutions of higher learning, that’s the story in a nut shell.
The […]

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As college graduation season comes to a close, the newly anointed degree holders will finally have to face a new reality — life with hefty education debt.
By the time they graduate, about two-thirds of students at four-year colleges and universities have accumulated student loans, according to the Project on Student Debt. That debt load averages […]

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Blacks have been charged higher auto loan rates than other auto buyers, federal research says. But the gap in loan rates could narrow, and possibly disappear, as the result of recently concluded lawsuits.
Blacks paid a typical auto loan rate of 7 percent for new cars, compared with a rate of 5 percent for whites […]

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With a second child on the way, Chris Shields and his wife, Michelle, wanted to move from their two-bedroom apartment in Southern California to a house with more space.
But because their timing coincided with this year’s shakeout in the mortgage market, their credit now isn’t good enough to get a loan to purchase the house […]

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Black people have been charged higher auto loan rates than other auto buyers, federal research says. But the gap in loan rates could narrow, and possibly disappear, as the result of recently concluded lawsuits.
Blacks paid a typical auto loan rate of 7 percent for new cars, compared with a rate of 5 percent for whites […]

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You’ve probably heard of the interest only loan for homeowners trying to stretch their dollar. Now, in California, the 50-year home mortgage is putting people in traditionally amortized loans for approximately the same monthly payment.
Some industry experts think the 50-year mortgage is reaction to the rising interest rates and the extremely high level of property […]

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If you plan to graduate from college this spring, your mailbox may soon be filled with congratulatory cards from family friends, checks from distant relatives and reminders from your alma mater that your diploma will be rescinded unless you pay your overdue parking tickets. But if you borrowed to pay for college, much of your […]

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Steven C. Preston, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that low-interest disaster loans will be made to Massachusetts residents affected by severe storms and flooding that occurred on April 15 - 19, 2007.
Administrator Preston took this action following a May 2, 2007 letter from Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick requesting a disaster […]

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In Florida, as around the country, financial aid offices offer the lenders they prefer.
It seemed like a fine idea at the time.
But at college financial aid offices across the nation, officials are discovering there’s a downside to directing students toward particular banks, earning money on student loans, or allowing lenders to fly them to sometimes-lavish […]

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Proposed limits on payday loans have been eased by a Senate panel. The amended bill was advanced to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
This is the bill’s second time through the committee process. As initially introduced in February, the bill would have made payday lending illegal.
Compared with the initial compromise, the approved changes upped the […]

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