One of the worst ironies of the nagging economic recession is that consumers with the fewest financial resources have lost the most. Now, a new report finds that payday loans not only strip much-needed income from low-income families, but harms the economic viability of the communities where they operate, draining nearly $1 billion a year. Written by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development (In ...

By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist According to a new report, since 2009, 36 million Americans have attended college without earning a degree. Consequently, 850,000 individual private loans valued at more than $8 billion are now in default. With high and variable interest rates, these loans can cost students more in repayment than the actual cost of tuition. From 2005 to 2011 alone, private student loan deb ...

By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist As many as 1.6 million responsible student loan borrowers could benefit from a new order that ties loan repayment to income and family size. Beginning September 30, an expanded option called Income Based Repayment (IBR) can reduce monthly loan payments. Coordinated with the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and the Secretary of Education, an online application e ...

By Akeya Dickson Washington Correspondent NNPA News Service WASHINGTON (NNPA) – When she graduated from the University of Iowa two years ago with a major in elementary education, Amber Newman envisioned standing in front of a class of bright, energetic youngsters and providing them with the solid educational base that would help them become successful in the upper grades as well as later in life. . But when ...