Student-loan companies offering lower payments puts borrowers at risk

  • 📰 BusinessInsider
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 78 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 34%
  • Publisher: 51%

Business News News

Some student-loan companies are offering borrowers cheaper payments before the October restart. Making the switch could strip away a range of debt relief programs.

for federal borrowers at the end of June.

It's a time of confusion as both borrowers and the Education Department prepare to restart the massive student-loan system — and advertisements from some student-loan companies might be adding to that confusion. Companies that manage private loans have started reaching out to federal borrowers, encouraging them to refinance their federal debt to get a better deal on payments.

For example, SoFi — a student-loan refinancing company — sent letters to borrowers last month with a header reading,"Federal student loan forbearance is ending soon. Don't miss out on savings—start planning your refi today." The mailer did include a disclosure in its fine print stating that"if you are a qualifying federal student loan borrower you should still consider President Biden's plan to erase some or all of your student loan debt before refinancing; however, you should also take time now to prepare for your payments to restart, including the opportunity to refinance your student loan debt at a lower APR or to extend your term to achieve a lower monthly payment.

Even with those disclosures, borrowers who don't read the fine print or FAQs could risk refinancing with the hopes of lower payments or a better interest rate — and miss out on a range of federal benefits that aren't available for privately-held loans, like broad student-loan forgiveness, federal income-driven repayment plans, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and total and permanent disability discharge, among other things.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 729. in BUSİNESS

Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Broadcom Plans Huge Layoffs at VMware Around When Acquisition ClosesInsider tells the global tech, finance, markets, media, healthcare, and strategy stories you want to know.
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »