The College Planning Blog

Pictured from the left: Jeff Farmer, Jeremy Farmer, and Brannon Lloyd

Hey Guys,

Join us for our incredible new college planning radio show every Sunday at 5PM on 1070AM. You can also listen live on their website: www.KNTH.com.

College insiders to start new radio show, give parents priceless advice to help them save thousands.While they’ve saved thousands of families too much money to count, local college planning experts say that’s not going nearly far enough. After speaking in front of tens of thousands of parents over the last five years local college planning experts will begin broadcasting their message using 10,000 watts of power since, as Jeff Farmer says, “One man can only shout so loudly, we need to get the word out that people can save more on college.”"We have the perfect storm brewing right now, skyrocketing gas prices, a tanking stock market, and an economy in a recession. However, for millions of families the need to send a student to college is not going away. It’s shocking that so many parents won’t even be able to afford for their kids to go to school in the next few years, so many good students won’t be able to go, and many students will have to drop out, unless they know the inside information that the colleges don’t want given out,” says Jeremy Farmer. He then adds, “It’s not even a matter of affording the best school….it’s being able to have ANY money left at all these days. Brannon Lloyd was astonished when he first started talking to parents and realized how much bad information was floating around-some of it in the media, “It’s amazing how many parents are desperate for this kind of information. I really don’t know what to say, except that I’m totally blown away.”

The College Planning Power Hour will be broadcast Live on KNTH AM 1070 Sundays from 5-6pm beginning August 17th, 2008.

Well it actually nice when you see what you’ve known to be true ‘discovered’ in the media.

Your Credit Matters and Being Smart Can (and will) Cost you

If you are considering using loans to finance your childs’ college education, you better check your own credit first because if your credit has any little ‘irregularities’ the loans you will be living with for the next 10-15 years will haunt you the whole time. What? You say you’ve never had a late payment in your life? Even if you fall into that category you better pull your credit report because other peoples’ financial mismanagement may be hurting you and as I learned recently it can take MONTHS to get it straightened out. You can go to annualcreditreport.com and get copies of your credit report for free once a year (in most states) and make sure you’re not being punished for a late you never had or someone else’s foreclosure.

Which leads me to my SECOND point.

The New York Times has an interesting article that tells how shopping for a new home loan or even a BMW will not hurt your credit score-actually it does a little but all credit pulls in a short period count as ONE. However if you shop around for the best rate on student loans, and it’s not always the ones the school offers you, you get penalized for each and every time a loan provider runs your credit!

Now if you have stellar credit, why do you care? Well each pull lowers your score and if anything erronous is there AND with creditors tightening up standards by raising the credit scores needed to get the best rates you might not even qualify, or not get the best rates.

The article can be found here.

In the past few months, largely in response to the credit crunch precipitated by the subprime mortgage crisis, some homeowners have been receiving letters from their lenders indicating that their home equity lines of credit have been frozen. In some cases, these freezes may be the result of missed payments (even missed payments on other debts) or declining home values in the area, but that’s not always the case. Many freezes are happening to homeowners with homes that have not declined in value, and who have impeccable payment histories and credit records. (more…)

According to this article at the Seattle Business Journal WaMu is shutting down or reducing customers lines’ of credit. Bad news if you were planning to use a HELOC to pay college expenses.

WaMu reduces home equity credit to homeowners

This is not completely unexpected, but for many may be unwelcome.

Hi everyone, Brannon here.

Some interesting changes are coming to Federal Aid due to the current student loan Crisis. The federal government is trying to open things up for families. But keep in mind their answer is offering more debt.

To accomplish this, the Act grants the Secretary of Education temporary authority to purchase loans from lenders in the federally guaranteed loan program (officially called the Federal Family Education Loan Program) if the Secretary determines that lenders can’t meet the demand for student loans. The Act also authorizes the Secretary of Education to advance federal funds to guarantee agencies that are operating as “lenders of last resort” in the event they don’t have sufficient capital to originate new loans. The Act also dispenses with the requirement that students demonstrate an inability to borrow from other sources before turning to a lender of last resort.
(more…)

Sallie boss warns of student loan ‘train wreck’

House OKs measure to get more money to struggling lender

The Associated Press

updated 6:14 p.m. CT, Thurs., April. 17, 2008

WASHINGTON - Sallie Mae says it cannot write money-losing student loans indefinitely.

Top executives are holding “daily deliberations” about just how long the nation’s largest student lender can afford to sacrifice its bottom line for the sake of college-bound Americans, Sallie Mae CEO Albert J. Lord said Thursday.

Lord told analysts on an earlier conference call: “We’ve been predicting something of a train wreck” in mid-2008 without prompt changes in a market hit by fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis and cuts last year in federal subsidies to student lenders.

Experts said that, unless the government intervenes or market conditions rapidly improve, Sallie Mae could have no choice but to stop writing new federally backed loans. (more…)

Hey Guys,

I ran across this article on CNN regarding the Student Loan Meltdown.

Loan Crisis Goes to College

Paying for college could get even tougher this year as smaller lenders tighten standards and raise rates. But big banks are holding the line.

By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer

February 15 2008: 12:12 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The credit crunch is hitting the college classroom.

When parents and students try to line up college funding this spring, they will likely be in for a nasty shock. They may still get a loan, but it will come at a price. Borrowers will have a more limited choice of lenders and find discounts for on-time payments or direct debit scarce. On top of that, they’ll see higher rates and fees.

The credit crisis, which started last year with mortgages and has bled into many other areas, is now affecting student loans. Many lenders, particularly smaller companies not affiliated with banks, are finding their main source of funding for private student loans cut off as investors balk at buying securities backed by these loans. This will force some to boost interest rates on private loans by up to 1 percentage point, raise minimum credit scores to 650 and require parents to co-sign the loans, experts said. (more…)