Debt-Management Perspectives

Beyond Loan Counseling: Help Your Students Become Financially Fit Borrowers
Eileen Muhlig, a USA Funds^® debt-management consultant, offers financial-aid administrators suggestions for helping borrowers stay on the path to successfully managing their debt. Read more.

Operations Bulletin

Department Issues Two Sets of Proposed Student-Aid Regulations
The U.S. Department of Education has issued two sets of proposed new regulations governing federal student-aid programs. Read more.

Education Secretary Urges Compliance With Principles of Proposed Student-Loan Rules
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has written a letter to schools that participate in the Federal Family Education Loan program, as well as to lenders and guarantors, urging that they adopt key principles of proposed new student-loan-program regulations, even though the new rules will not be final until July 1, 2008. Read Spellings’ letter.

Borrower-Choice Policy Clarified
USA Funds advises customers of the policy when the lender listed on a borrower’s Master Promissory Note differs from the lender listed in the school’s certification of the borrower’s loan request. Read more.

Revised Economic Hardship Deferment Forms Posted to USA Funds Web Site
USA Funds has posted the revised economic-hardship-deferment forms to its Web site. The forms reflect the new federal minimum wage of $5.85 per hour and are available in both English and Spanish. You will need Adobe Reader to view and print the forms.

USA Funds Update

USA Funds Scholarship Recipients Selected by Independent Administrator
USA Funds notes the process by which recipients of the recently announced USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships are selected. Read more.