Clark Howard's Tips

April 30, 2008

We're getting a large increase in the number of calls about student loans. The lending market is essentially frozen because of the fallout from the mortgage crisis. Are you still trying to figure out how to pay for college this fall? Clark has 2 important pieces of information to share with you.

There's emergency legislation working way its through Congress that will allow the federal government to be the "bank" for educational loans for this fall. Clark has full faith that this legislation will be pushed through in time for school.

Yet federal loans may not cover a tuition bill in its entirety. You can try to get a private loan, but very few private lenders are disbursing funds. So where do you turn? Try the peer-to-peer online lending sites where you can borrow directly from other people and cut the banks out of the equation.

Here's how they work: A borrower posts the amount they need to borrow; their credit rating; their debt-to-income ratio; and how much interest they're willing pay. Multiple lenders can then log on and each lend just a fraction of the money to limit their individual risk. Prosper.com is one of the most popular sites for this sort of thing. Clark also has a list of other P2P lending sites available.

Consumer advice courtesy of