Student Lending Analytics Blog

This Week in Financial Literacy

• National Foundation for Credit Counseling releases video focused on credit issues facing college students:  ""College Credit for Life," a nine-minute video that introduces students to lessons surrounding the temptations and responsible use of credit cards. Much of the video features young people talking about the mistakes they themselves made in college. The video also features other voices, in the form of an apartment rental agent, a car salesman, and a human resources executive, all discussing the implications that both responsible or irresponsible use of credit can have as students prepare to move on from college and into the real world."

SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey Finds 49% Of Colleges Offer Financial Literacy Program; Budgeting, Credit Cards, Loan Repayment Are Top Subject Areas

Full results for the SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey are available here (view 2009 results here). 

Here are the highlights:

• Prevalence of programs:  48% of the 230 respondents indicated that their school is currently offering a financial literacy program.  For those schools that don't currently offer a program, 51% expect to start one over the next 12-18 months.
  • 66% of schools with a financial program did not have any budget monies set aside for this purpose; 16% had a budget less than $5,000.

Just When You Thought The News Could Not Get Any Worse...

GAO investigations, lawsuits, regulatory scrutiny, well, add disgruntled investors to the list now.  Investors are taking most companies in the for-profit education sector to the woodshed again today.  I thought it might be useful to see how we got here by focusing on events over the past three weeks, which included a slew of earnings announcements, new Dept. of Education rules and new investigations/reviews from state, Dept. of Education and the SEC. 

Before taking apart the events of the few weeks, I thought it was instructive to see how the stock prices of the leading companies in the industry had performed over the past three months (hint:  it ain't pretty):

Which Financial Literacy Programs Are Aid Administrators Recommending?

The results come from the SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey (full results to follow in the next day or two).  Thank you to the over 220 respondents to the survey.  Sixty-three programs were named by the sixty-nine respondents to this specific question indicating the multiplicity of literacy programs available from a variety of providers.  For the second year in a row, NEFE's CashCourse is the top program mentioned by financial aid administrators (click here for last year's results).  Their website now indicates that their product is being offered at over 502 campuses making them the closest to a market standard at this point.  Please note however, that it is difficult to gauge the usage patterns of their product.  I didn't come across such statistics (if anyone has them, please feel free to pass along). 

Here are the programs mentioned, with the frequency that they were named in response to this open-ended question on the survey:  What source(s) would you recommend for a financial aid administrator interested in developing a financial literacy program for his/her institution?

U.S. Bank Lowers Rates On Private Student Loans

U.S. Bank has lowered the interest rate ranges on their private student loans effective as of November 1, 2010.  The new range of interest rates offered by U.S. Bank now stands at 3.45% to 10.95%, compared to their previous range of 4.20% to 12.20%.  As a result of this change, SLA has upgraded the rating on the U.S. Bank product to 3 1/2 stars.  U.S. Bank's last pricing change occured in April when they lowered their minimum rate from 5.20% to 4.20% while leaving their maximum rate unchanged. 

Here are the details provided in a recent email: