FAP768: Determining which college is cheapest, YouTube Scholarship

March 31, 2008

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: According to a new nationwide survey conducted through The Chronicle/Gallup Panel, 42 percent of Americans think that controlling college costs is “extremely important” for the next president to address, ahead of higher-education issues such as quality, college access for low-income students, and the extreme concentration of wealth among elite institutions.
+ While Americans are clearly worried about college costs, one finding in the survey captures how conflicted they are about the issue. When asked if the federal government should have a role in controlling tuition at public and private colleges, the results were almost evenly split: 51 percent said yes, 49 percent no.
+ Boston Globe: Earlier this month, New Hampshire’s largest provider of student loans said it will no longer offer certain loans for its neediest applicants because rising interest rates have made them too expensive. A Massachusetts student loan agency expects it will have to charge borrowers higher rates on loans later this year, in order to be able to resell them to investors.
+ The problems emerged because the bond insurers were investing in instruments tied to subprime mortgages. Those holdings have spooked investors, who are worried that the questionable investments would lead to the insurers’ credit ratings being downgraded. That, in turn, would increase the risk of the nonprofit bonds they backed.
+ As a result, many investors stopped buying variable bonds or those sold at auction. Without buyers, interest rates on the nonprofits’ loans spiked - from around 3 percent last year to as high as 20 percent recently.

Scholarship Update
+ Vancouver Film School and YouTube are currently offering a one-of-a-kind scholarship competition. Visit youtube.com/vancouverfilmschool for all the details. Artists, filmmakers and designers from 19 countries are invited to submit videos on the theme “What Matters To You”. The YouTube community will vote for the 3 winners, who will receive a full-tuition scholarship to the VFS program of their choice.
+ Up to $150,000
+ Deadline May 9
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

News You Can Use
+ Determining which college is cheapest
+ Three measurements
+ Total price tag
+ Out of pocket expense
+ Dollar amount of loans in the financial aid package
+ The school with the lowest out of pocket expense may not be cheapest
+ Loans are money that is deferred out of pocket plus interest
+ Reading the financial aid award letter
+ Scholarship Search Secrets eBook
+ Stafford federal student loans
+ Parent PLUS loans
+ Private student loans

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+ Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch

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Reminders
+
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog!
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

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Lehman Loses $300 Millon on Stated Loans.

March 31, 2008

Lehman brothers has anounced today that they have lost $300 million from one borrower on their super stated income loan business.

UPDATE: Lehman Wants Repayment For Alleged Loan Scam: Reports
March 31, 2008: 12:44 AM EST

HONG KONG (Dow Jones) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is expected to file a lawsuit in a Tokyo court Monday seeking repayment from Marubeni Corp. of $350 million in funds its says were misappropriated in a loan fraud carried out by two former employees of the Japanese trading house, according to news reports.
Lehman last year granted loans to a fund run by a medical consulting firm owned by LTT Bio-Pharma Co. in Tokyo, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The funds were to be used for the purchase of medical equipment and were secured with certificates bearing Marubeni letterhead and a seal of a Marubeni board member, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The New York-based investment bank later found the board member's seal was forged, the report said.
Marubeni said it is a victim of identify fraud and that the documents involved in the transaction were forged. Marubeni said in a weekend statement an internal investigation showed it had no involvement in the forgery of documents used to secure the loans and had no obligation to compensate Lehman's for its losses.
Reports said a minimum of two meetings to finalize the deal were conducted at Marubeni's Tokyo headquarters.
Lehman entered into the transaction with two Marubeni employees who were at the time senior staff with the Japanese firm's life care business. The two employees have since been sacked, although Marubeni has not said why they were terminated.
Shares of Marubeni (MARUY) were down 7% at the midday recess in Tokyo trading Monday.
A Lehman statement cited in The Journal report said the investment bank "was closely working with authorities to seek full recovery of funds it believes to have been frequently misappropriated."
The funds weren't repaid at the end of February, prompting concern at Lehman. The unit of LTT Bio-Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection on March 19.
Lehman said that it has investigated the situation and filed a criminal complaint with Japanese police.
Both companies are cooperating with Japanese authorities, the Journal reported.
Lehman Bros. (LEH) shares fell 2.2% Friday to close at $37.87.

So these are the banks that we need to bail out? Did they "lend" $300 million to a couple of Modern Day Ocean's 11 style financial heist crew? They realized there was a problem when they didn't get the payment?! Maybe they should have examined a little more than two executives and some letterhead. Mr.Mortgage's opinion regarding your tax dollars is NO BAILOUT!

Mortgage Insider dishes it straight on housing and the mortgage market.

Lehman Loses $300 Millon on Stated Loans.

March 31, 2008

Lehman brothers has anounced today that they have lost $300 million from one borrower on their super stated income loan business.

UPDATE: Lehman Wants Repayment For Alleged Loan Scam: Reports
March 31, 2008: 12:44 AM EST

HONG KONG (Dow Jones) — Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is expected to file a lawsuit in a Tokyo court Monday seeking repayment from Marubeni Corp. of $350 million in funds its says were misappropriated in a loan fraud carried out by two former employees of the Japanese trading house, according to news reports.
Lehman last year granted loans to a fund run by a medical consulting firm owned by LTT Bio-Pharma Co. in Tokyo, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The funds were to be used for the purchase of medical equipment and were secured with certificates bearing Marubeni letterhead and a seal of a Marubeni board member, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The New York-based investment bank later found the board member’s seal was forged, the report said.
Marubeni said it is a victim of identify fraud and that the documents involved in the transaction were forged. Marubeni said in a weekend statement an internal investigation showed it had no involvement in the forgery of documents used to secure the loans and had no obligation to compensate Lehman’s for its losses.
Reports said a minimum of two meetings to finalize the deal were conducted at Marubeni’s Tokyo headquarters.
Lehman entered into the transaction with two Marubeni employees who were at the time senior staff with the Japanese firm’s life care business. The two employees have since been sacked, although Marubeni has not said why they were terminated.
Shares of Marubeni (MARUY) were down 7% at the midday recess in Tokyo trading Monday.
A Lehman statement cited in The Journal report said the investment bank “was closely working with authorities to seek full recovery of funds it believes to have been frequently misappropriated.”
The funds weren’t repaid at the end of February, prompting concern at Lehman. The unit of LTT Bio-Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection on March 19.
Lehman said that it has investigated the situation and filed a criminal complaint with Japanese police.
Both companies are cooperating with Japanese authorities, the Journal reported.
Lehman Bros. (LEH) shares fell 2.2% Friday to close at $37.87.

So these are the banks that we need to bail out? Did they “lend” $300 million to a couple of Modern Day Ocean’s 11 style financial heist crew? They realized there was a problem when they didn’t get the payment?! Maybe they should have examined a little more than two executives and some letterhead. Mr.Mortgage’s opinion regarding your tax dollars is NO BAILOUT!

Mortgage Insider dishes it straight on housing and the mortgage market.

FAP767: Going green on Free Stuff Friday, Earth Day 2008

March 28, 2008

FAP767: Going green on Free Stuff Friday, Earth Day 2008

Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: “Banks are marketing aggressively through a variety of channels. They’re calling students on the phone, they’re mailing to students, and they’re using a combination of on-campus and off-campus tables where they give away products, ranging from offers for sandwiches, offers of food and pizza, all the way up to iPod shuffles,” said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG. The organization manages the “Truth About Credit” campaign.
+ The survey, of more than 1,500 students at 40 campuses in 14 states, found broad support among students for limiting credit card marketing on campuses. Eighty percent said they supported at least some limits. There was strong support for restricting access only to promotions for cards with fair terms and conditions, and opposition to colleges’ sharing or selling lists containing student contact information. “Many credit card companies encounter no difficulty in securing information of current students at colleges for marketing purposes,” the report notes. “It is also true that some state public records laws compel public universities and colleges to sell their lists of student information as public records, to anyone.”
+ I’d have to say that paying tuition with a credit card is a terrible idea, far worse than private student loans
+ Our student credit card education site
+ Chronicle: Guarantee agencies such as USA Funds, despite their concerns, are cooperating with the department to prepare for a possible emergency, James Manning said. Only three weeks after department officials said they were troubled by the state of preparations for a lender-of-last-resort declaration, “we’re much more comfortable with where we are now,” he said.
+ Mr. Manning also made it clear that the administration is not ready to be offering assistance directly to lenders. Even if large numbers of lenders withdraw from the bank-based system, the 20 largest lenders handle 85 percent of student loans, he said. The size of the lenders, along with the continued migration of some colleges to the direct-lending program, should prevent any large-scale disruptions, he said.
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Parent PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com

Scholarship Update
+ The Woodlands High School GREEN Scholarship
+ $1,000 scholarships - 3 of them
+ For students at Woodlands High School in Texas
+ Be sure to Google for your city, town, county, and state with the words Earth Day scholarship to see what local environmental scholarships are available
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ Let’s see what we can come up with for green and free
+ Last week we mentioned PhoneRaiser to recycle phones and earn cash
+ FreeCycle.org is a site for trading stuff
+ Check out your local Craigslist free stuff column
+ Also check out the barter/trade column as well
+ Free Photoshop Express
+ When buying software, opt for digital download, and delivery is usually free
+ Mint has 30 free eBooks on personal finance
+ If you like horror, Scott Sigler’s eBook Infected is free until March 31
+ Scholarship Search Secrets is free and paperless, too
+ Money savers - compact fluorescent lightbulbs - I’ve just started having to change bulbs I put in my house in 2001 - rechargeable batteries with a 1 hour charger
+ A really important point: green living can be money saving, too - sometimes.
+ Earth Day is April 22 - be on the lookout for free giveaways - last year, Lowes, Ikea, and Home Depot all had free CFL lightbulbs

Free Song of the Week
+ Dirty Work, by Munk

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+ Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

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The Good Faith Estimate

March 27, 2008

If you’ve ever taken out a mortgage before, you probably know all about getting a good faith estimate. Taking out mortgage is a complicated process and there are literally dozens of different fees you’ll have to pay for in order to get it. Processing, underwriting, property appraisal and document preparation are just a few of the fees you’ll probably see. A good faith estimate is simply an estimate made by your lender to get the approximate fees due at closing. The fees range from lender to lender but you can expect to pay somewhere around 3%-5% of the sale price. As you can see, the price can be pretty significant and you’ll want to shop around for different estimates. Before you go out to get your estimates, there are some things you should know about them.

What You Should Know About It

First, keep in mind that the good faith estimate is exactly that. It’s an estimate the lender makes to the best of their ability, but the final costs may vary so don’t be surprised if you end up paying a slightly different amount.
Some people have compared shopping for a mortgage to shopping for a new car. Many lenders include some unnecessary fees in there and you may be able to negotiate with them. If any fees seem much higher at certain lenders, ask your lender to explain them to you.
Remember that some of the larger lenders that operate nationwide may not be able to provider a completely accurate estimate. They simply may not be familiar with all the taxes and customs in your area.
Since mortgage payments are generally due on the first of the month, you may be able to reduce the prepaid interest you owe by closing near the end of the month.
You’ll have to deal with some fees from your local and state government, such as transfer taxes and recording fees. These should be the same at every lender and are non-negotiable.

getting a good faith estimate, good faith estimate, good faith estimates, how to get a good faith estimate, Mortgage, mortgage questions, mortgages, what is a good faith estimate

Loan Topics

FAP768: Determining which college is cheapest, YouTube Scholarship

Lehman Loses $300 Millon on Stated Loans.

Lehman Loses $300 Millon on Stated Loans.

FAP767: Going green on Free Stuff Friday, Earth Day 2008

The Good Faith Estimate

What You Should Know About It

Related:

Loan Calculator