“Student loans are not like other forms of consumer debts-they are a direct result of public policy…For the borrower, we acknowledge the different nature of the debt by making it nondischargeable in bankruptcy, meaning that he or she has a higher “moral” obligtation to repay the debt over other consumer debts.”—Paul Combe, President of American [...]

On Thursday, November 5, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Al Franken (D-MN) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced new legislation (S. 2733) to create a private student loan ombudsman program. This is a promising first step in improving assistance for financially distressed private loan borrowers.  As we wrote in a 2007 report, informal assistance programs, [...]

Shakespeare aside, figuring out if student loan consolidation is right for you can be a tricky question. It largely depends on your income and loan interest rates, and isn’t always the right choice for every student. Currently, both federal and private loans can be consolidated by their separate types. The point of it all is kind [...]

How does an extra $1,100 per year sound? It can happen with consolidation. Here's how.

Nine times out of ten, you should consolidate your student loans. But for that potential tenth time, you should consider other avenues. Here are three instances where you should NOT consolidate your student loans.

The consolidation section of our Financial Aid forum is consistently littered with questions about how to consolidate certain types of loans. One useful, but tricky loan type is the Parent PLUS.

One of the major benefits of student loan consolidation is that in most cases, it can lower your monthly payments and make repaying your loans much more affordable. In some cases, you can see reductions of up to half your monthly payment (estimated on the consolidation of $100,000 in federal loans.) So, assuming you go out [...]