Savings for Back-to-College

Although the amount of money expected to be spent to furnish college dorm rooms and off-campus housing is up 3 percent to $618.12 per student, overall college spending is expected to decrease to nearly $30 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

This decrease actually means the college-bound shopper can get more for their money, as retailers slash prices and ramp up marketing to lure buyers.

TIP: Start your comparison shopping online. Retailers are maintaining dedicated websites that will make the comparisons that much simpler. Here are two of the biggest retailers with college subsites:

TARGET
Target has www.target.com/college. At this site you can shop by price category. “Under $20,” “Under $30,” etc., at the click of a button. There is also a color-coded, downloadable checklist that lets you mark off all the necessities, such as dental floss, can opener, night light, as you purchase them. You can even shop sections by gender. Don’t forget to click on “Daily Deals” to find sale items not otherwise available online or in the store.

WALMART
Walmart has www.walmart.com/college. At this discounter’s site is interactive. There is a Q & A section, a photo of the day of student shoppers, and even a tip of the day. (Today’s: If you can avoid it, don’t buy textbooks from the college bookstore. Check sites such as half.com and others that allow you to buy used books at half the cost.) Wal-Mart also has checklists, include a road trip safety check list, as well articles. For further savings, check out its “Value Bundles” on small appliances, desk sets, electronics, etc.

Back-to-School Season Sees Cautious Spenders

Americans are expected to spend $47.50 billion to send kids K-12 and college-bound back-to-school equipped with essentials, gadgets and clothing.

The Back-to-School shopping season is underway. Americans are expected to spend $47.50 billion to send kids K-12 and college-bound back-to-school equipped with essentials, gadgets and clothing.

The average family with students in grades Kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008, according to the National Retail Federation.

The economy is having a major impact on back-to-school spending. Four out of five Americans (85%) have made some changes to their back-to-school plans this year as a result, according to a consumer survey released by the National Retail Federation.

Some of those changes impact spending:

• 56.2 percent of back-to-school shoppers are hunting for sales more often
• 49.6 percent are planning to spend less overall
• 41.7 percent purchase more store brand/generic products
• 40.0 percent are planning to increase their use of coupons.

In looking for deals, Americans are heading mostly to discount stores and drug stores.

• 74.5% are shopping discount stores
• 54.4% are shopping drug stores
• 41.2% are shopping office supply stores
• 22.2% are shopping online
• 18.2% are shopping a thrift store

Although 18 percent is a fairly good number for those who are more budget-conscious, I do believe there are more deals to be had of quality merchandise at thrift stores than many people realize.

But whether it’s a thrift store deal or not, for the next two weeks I will post several articles about back-to-school shopping and saving. So check back next week for tips for the K-12 children or college bound.

What to Do if Your Student Loan Cancellation Application Is Denied

This post is the last of a week-long series of articles about how to qualify to get student loans canceled.

By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

I’ve already warned you about how difficult it can be to get a student loan discharged. Unfortunately, part of what makes it tough is that for most discharges, the ultimate authority on the matter is the holder of your loan.

The loan holder has the final power to say yes or no to your request for a discharge and you don’t have the right to appeal the decision to the Department of Education, except in two instances: with false certification and forged signature discharges on FFEL and direct student loans.

Ask for a Review
If your claim for a discharge for these types of loans is rejected, you can take your case to the department and ask officials there to review your denial.

Other than that, your best bet in handling a rejected application, if you truly feel you have a valid and worthy claim, is to be persistent in your pursuit of a discharge and to provide as much documentation to your lender as possible in support of your case. This may mean making multiple financial disclosures about your personal situation, explaining your argument time and time again to different people at your lender’s office, or writing letters to supervisors or an ombudsman within a bank or lending institution.

Since the ultimate decision rests with the lender, that’s the place you have to target your efforts.

Get Tips from Loanholders
You should also try to find people who’ve been successful in getting the type of discharge you’re seeking. Ask them for tips and tricks they learned along the way. That firsthand advice from someone who’s been through what you have—and received a hard-fought discharge—could be just the prescription you need to turn a rejection into an approval.

For more information on paying off your student loans, check out my book Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom. Get the book now at Amazon.com.

Student Loan Cancellations In Bankruptcy Are Rare – But Possible

This post is part of week-long a series of articles about how to qualify to get student loans canceled.

By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Under federal law, as of October 8, 1998, you can no longer discharge student loan debt in a bankruptcy proceeding. As with most laws, however, there are loopholes and exceptions to the rule.

In this case, it is technically legally possible to have your student loans discharged when you file for bankruptcy protection, but as a practical matter it is very, very difficult to get a judge to sign off on it.

To have your student loans cancelled via bankruptcy, you have to prove to a judge that repaying your educational debt would cause you a substantial and undue hardship as defined by case law in your jurisdiction.

Historically, most judges have been loathe to allow students to get rid of their student loans in bankruptcy court. Each claim is assessed on a case-by-case basis, and student loan discharges via bankruptcy are highly rare, even among those who’ve tried to demonstrate severe financial hardships.

This post is an excerpt from my book Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom. Get the book now at Amazon.com.

Tip #7: Seven Smart Ways to Pay Off Student Loans Fast: Consolidate Them

By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Anyone with student loans receives lots of offers in the mail from lenders seeking to consolidate your student loans. To learn more about this option, read below for my last tip in a series of “Seven Smart Ways to Pay Off Student Loans Fast.” Read also Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3, Tip #4, Tip #5 and Tip #6.

Tip #7: If you consolidate your loans, do so wisely.

Be careful which loans you roll into one bigger loan. For instance, let’s say you took out federal Perkins loans while you were in school. In most cases, you wouldn’t want to combine a Perkins loan with other types of loans. The reason: Perkins loans have better “loan forgiveness” benefits for people who go into teaching, and you can lose those benefits if you consolidate them.

Also, you’ll have to keep your private loans and federal loans separate; you can’t consolidate those two groups of loans.

The major advantage of consolidating student loans is that your monthly payment will be reduced, freeing up some of your cash flow each month. You can even put the extra cash saved each month toward a higher interest rate loan in order to pay it off faster.

The biggest drawback is that, because consolidated loans are stretched out over a longer repayment period – up to 30 years, you’ll wind up paying two to three times as much as you would’ve paid had you not consolidated your loans.

Bonus Tip: For more info on loan consolidation, visit: http://www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov. For more information on paying off your student loans, check out my book Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom. Download a PDF excerpt from the book about student loans or buy the book now at Amazon.com.