San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) July 20, 2006 -- Now that this year's cap-tossing and graduation parties are in the memory banks, the reality of paying for that higher education is setting in -- but students still have options to choose the best way to handle college and graduate school debt.
"Most Americans with student loan debt saw a flood of news articles encouraging borrowers to consolidate their loans before government loans underwent their annual interest-rate increase on July 1," said Brad Stroh, chair of Bills.com, who noted that because of the rising U.S. interest rate environment and a government-mandated reset of rates on student loans, rates on federal student loan debt increased by a substantial 1.84 percent on July 1. "Now that student loan rates are no longer at the 3 percent interest rates they hit during the economy's slowest days, it pays even more to be savvy about borrowing for school or returning to school."
According to FinAid, two-thirds of college students borrow to pay for school, with an average loan debt of nearly $20,000.
College costs keep spiraling upward, and now the cost of borrowing to pay for higher education is about to spike, too.
Students and their parents have taken comfort in a half-decade of ultra-cheap college loans, loading up on debt to cover the bills.
About 8 million people borrowed $60 billion this year in education loans issued or guaranteed by the federal government. Now only those who act quickly will be able to keep a lid on the cost of that debt.
A combination of rising interest rates and legislative changes to the student-loan program will alter the student-loan landscape July 1.
Rates on existing Stafford loans — the bedrock government-guaranteed student loans that 44 percent of full-time undergraduates rely on to pay tuition bills — change annually and are pegged to 91-day Treasury bills.