Main Facts: The Return of the Taxable Forgiveness Era For millions of Americans striving to achieve freedom from mounting student debt, the light at the end of the tunnel may come with a surprisingly hefty price tag. While securing student loan forgiveness can erase a massive financial burden, it can simultaneously trigger an unexpected and…
Author: Sarah Brady, National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) Updated: August 12, 2026 As federal student loan payments resume, escalate, or weigh heavily on household budgets, millions of Americans find themselves grappling with difficult financial choices. The anxiety surrounding upcoming or rising bills is a shared reality for a massive segment of the population. Unfortunately,…
WASHINGTON — The daily average interest rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped below the critical 7% threshold on Tuesday morning, settling at 6.97% APR, according to data provided to financial analysts by Zillow. While a sub-7% average may catch the eye of prospective homebuyers and those eyeing a refinance, financial experts emphasize that…
By Financial News Desk Published: September 2026 For the roughly 7.5 million federal student loan borrowers who parked their debt on the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, the safety net is officially dissolving. Following a series of federal court rulings that blocked the program in 2025, the U.S. Department of Education has spent…
By Travis Hornsby, CFA®, CFP® Founder and CEO, Student Loan Planner Main Facts: What Borrowers Need to Know About the Repayment Assistance Plan The official application window for the newly introduced Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) is officially open, allowing federal student loan borrowers to submit their applications online. Designed to reshape how millions of Americans…
Main Facts The U.S. Department of Education has officially updated its online regulatory guidance to reflect sweeping legislative and systemic changes to federal student loan programs that went into effect on July 1, 2026. While these transformations impact millions of borrowers across diverse demographics, they hit Parent PLUS Loan borrowers hardest. Parent PLUS Loans are…
Author: Sarah Brady, National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) Updated: July 10, 2026 Introduction and Main Facts For millions of Americans holding federal student loan debt, the landscape of higher education financing has felt like a moving target over the past several years. A flurry of policy shifts, court battles, administrative overhauls, and shifting eligibility…
Author: Sarah Brady, NFCC Updated: August 12, 2026 Main Facts: The Current Student Loan Landscape As millions of Americans face rising bills or the resumption of paused debt obligations, student loan stress has reached a critical juncture. For cash-strapped consumers, fitting these monthly obligations back into a household budget often requires painful trade-offs. Borrowers frequently…
The landscape of federal student loan repayment has shifted dramatically. With the effective dismantling of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan due to ongoing legal challenges, millions of borrowers—particularly those pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)—are facing a period of uncertainty. As the U.S. Department of Education pivots to alternative Income-Driven Repayment (IDR)…
For millions of Americans, the Biden-era "Saving on a Valuable Education" (SAVE) plan represented a beacon of financial relief. Designed to lower monthly payments and accelerate the path to forgiveness, the plan was the centerpiece of a broader federal effort to address the ballooning student debt crisis. However, following two years of intense legal scrutiny…
