There are countless sources of financial aid outside of federal and state student loans. There are grants and scholarships from local, state, and federal sources, as well as private bank loans. If you’ve already reached your student loan limit, that means you’ve probably already applied for the FAFSA and may have received federal aid like… Read More

For high school seniors, the start of college is far away. To pay for that college bill, however, they’ve got to start moving now. College-bound students who haven’t submitted the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as FAFSA, as soon as they can after Jan. 1 should do it sooner instead of later,… Read More

My sixth grade daughter already has her eyes set on college at Mount Holyoke College because of its excellent equestrian program. It’s an expensive school, and saving for college is tough when I am simultaneously shelling out money for her riding lessons now. So when Lynn O’Shaughnessy joined me on my radio show, Talk Credit… Read More

Need to save money on campus? There’s more than one app for that.

A year and a half after the scandal broke that student loan companies were giving kickbacks to college and university financial aid officers, Congress has finally passed a law clamping down on the $85-billion student loan industry.

Drain your checking account and savings – A thief can also use your personal data to withdraw money from your bank account, transfer your savings or steal your investments. Open new accounts – Usually, this involves opening credit cards and maxing them out. In some cases, thieves have opened bank accounts, utility accounts, insurance accounts, loans, and more using stolen identities. Obtain government documents – An identity thief may apply for a driver’s license or Social Security card using your information. They could do this just for the purpose of obtaining the document or they could use these documents for more complex fraud. For example, a thief could obtain a driver’s license with your name and their photo on it and then use this identification to access your loan and bank accounts.