By Dave Clarke
WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) – With many students eagerly
waiting to find out which college they will be attending in the
fall, the U.S. consumer watchdog is offering a sober reminder:
loans for tuition are expensive.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled on
Wednesday an online tool to compare tuition costs at various
colleges and determine how much monthly payments would be on
student loans.
The calculator assumes four-year and two-year degree
programs and a 10-year repayment period that would begin after
graduation.
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/payingforcollege/costcomparison/
“Student loan debt has crossed the $1 trillion mark and
tuition continues to climb,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said
in a statement. “Our Financial Aid Comparison Shopper helps
students make apples to apples comparisons of their offers and
pick the one that works best for their financial future.”
The database contains tuition details of more than 7,500
institutions, allowing people to calculate by school how much
they would have to borrow to cover annual tuition.
A “debt burden” section compares monthly loan payments to
the average salary for someone with a bachelors degree.
The CFPB was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial
oversight law to police markets for financial products such as
mortgages and credit cards.
The agency has waded into the debate over the high debt
students take on to pay for a college education. It oversees
private student lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells
Fargo & Co.
Student loans have surpassed credit cards as the largest
source of household debt after mortgages, according to the CFPB.
In October the agency released a sample form that colleges
could use to make tuition costs easier to understand.
(Reporting By Dave Clarke)
