The financial news that actually matters
Covers personal loans, auto loans, student loans, and credit lending systems. It explains interest rates, approval processes, repayment terms, and how borrowing affects long-term financial health.
A new federal student-loan repayment plan opened for enrollment this month, and its headline feature is not the size of the monthly payment but the length of the road to forgiveness. Under the Repayment Assistance Plan, a remaining balance is not wiped out until a borrower has made payments for a full 30 years. That…
A growing share of the households carrying credit-card balances are not financing vacations or big-ticket splurges. They are borrowing to keep the lights on and the pantry stocked. In new survey data, most cardholders with debt say the balances they carry now go toward everyday necessities rather than anything discretionary — a shift that says…
The price of a car grabs the headlines, but the interest rate on the loan quietly decides how much that car really costs. Right now those rates are high enough to add thousands of dollars to a purchase, and they fall hardest on the buyers who can least afford it. New-car borrowers are paying around…
Federal student-loan borrowers who take out new loans starting this month face a longer road to debt relief than any previous income-driven repayment option offered. The Repayment Assistance Plan, or RAP, requires 360 monthly payments spread over at least 30 years before any remaining balance is forgiven. That timeline is five to ten years longer…
Amazon customers are financing a growing portion of their Prime Day purchases through buy-now-pay-later plans, a shift that tracks with a broader surge in short-term installment lending across U.S. e-commerce. More than one-fifth of consumers with a credit record used BNPL in 2022, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and usage was concentrated among…
Anyone taking out a new federal student loan on or after July 1, 2026, will face a sharply different repayment system. The Repayment Assistance Plan, known as RAP, replaces every prior income-driven repayment option for those borrowers, while a separate Tiered Standard plan becomes the only other choice. At the same time, federal law now…
Millions of Americans who financed cars during and after the pandemic are now falling behind on payments at a pace not seen in decades. Federal Reserve researchers have tracked a sharp rise in auto loan delinquencies through 2025, with the steepest increases hitting borrowers in lower-income areas. At the same time, federal data shows that…
More than 5 million borrowers in default on federal student loans will keep their paychecks intact for now. The U.S. Department of Education has again delayed involuntary collections, including Administrative Wage Garnishment and the Treasury Offset Program, reversing a plan that had set both to restart on May 5, 2025. The decision gives temporary breathing…
Starting this month, roughly 7.5 million student-loan borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan will begin receiving notices from their loan servicers telling them they have 90 days to pick a different repayment option. The clock starts July 1, 2026, and anyone who does not act within that window faces automatic placement into another plan…
Federal student-loan borrowers in default gained breathing room after the U.S. Department of Education halted involuntary collections, including wage garnishment and Treasury offsets, that can strip up to 15 percent of a worker’s disposable pay. The decision reversed an earlier plan that had set a May 2025 restart for the Treasury Offset Program and wage…