Loan Resource

House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Wednesday to boost aid to college students, a deal that calls for slashing roughly $20 billion in government subsidies to banks that issue student loans. Under an agreement reconciling differences between House and Senate bills, the maximum Pell grant, which goes to the poorest students, would increase from $4,310 to $5,400 by 2012. The legislation also would cut interest rates on federally backed student loans to poor and middle-class stud

It's a good thing you got that college education. You can put it to good use navigating the complex maze that is the student loan industry as you consider whether to consolidate your federal student loans. For those who have never done it, it's a question that comes up every year in anticipation of the rate change on July 1 of the variable federal student loans. But this year, there's a twist. News of student lenders offering perks and kickbacks to colleges and alumni associations to incl

Student loan company Nelnet reached a $2 million settlement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stemming from investigations into the company's student loan practices. Nelnet also agreed to stop paying alumni associations to refer students to their consolidated loans. Under the settlement, Nelnet agreed to follow a code of conduct outlined by the Attorney General and will contribute $2 million to a fund to help educate college-bound students and parents about their loan options.

Mortgage rates climbed this week after trending lower recently, Freddie Mac said Thursday, after Federal Reserve said it continues to worry about the threat of inflation. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate loans was 6.21 percent for the week ending May 16, up from 6.15 the previous week, the mortgage finance firm said. Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.60 percent. "Mortgage rates inched up this week following the Federal Open Market Committee statement reiterat

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday cracking down on conflicts of interest in the $85 billion student loan market amid a widening scandal. Adopted by a 414-3 vote, the bill would require colleges and lenders to abide by new codes of conduct; ban gifts from lenders to college aid officers; require disclosure of college-lender relationships; and protect students from aggressive marketing practices. Investigations by Congress and New York Attorney Genera

Home prices are expected to finish down for the year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Tuesday, which would mark the first drop since the group started tracking values in 1968. NAR projects a 1 percent decline in the median price of an existing single-family home, to $219,800. The group, in a forecast made a month ago, had previously been expecting a 0.7 percent decline. Prior to that, it had expected a gain of 1.2 percent. The number of home sales is also expected to dip

Washington Mutual Inc. has begun offering a new mortgage and home equity line of credit bundled into a single loan that allows customers to reset interest rates or switch between fixed and adjustable rates up to twice a year without having to refinance. The Seattle-based thrift said WaMu Mortgage Plus is designed to help consumers take advantage of changes in their financial needs or market conditions without having to bother with mounds of refinancing paperwork or steep fees. “We constru

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Problems in subprime mortgages caused a sharp drop in home sellers being able to find buyers for their homes in March, according to a trade group report Tuesday that showed the battered real estate market was much weaker than expected. The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index fell 4.9 percent in March, following a 1.1 percent increase in February. The index was down 10.5 percent from the March 2006 reading. Economists surveyed by Briefing.co

Amid all the criticism of private equity, none perhaps has been as scathing as this: Buyout firms above all want to enrich themselves and their investors - and often cut thousands of jobs in the process. The Service Employees International Union, which represents about 1.8 million workers in the U.S. and Canada, published a report last week that criticized the private equity industry for not doing more to measure the impact buyouts have on jobs and communities. United Auto Workers union Pr

Interest rates on bank deposits seem to have peaked for the time being. With Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deciding to maintain status quo on key interest rates and keeping the inflation target at 4-4.5% in the medium-term, there is apparently no pressure on the banking industry to raise deposit rates further from current levels. According to a cross-section of bankers, chances of deposit rates rising any further is lot less than them actually dropping from current levels. Bankers, therefore,