Tag Archives: students.

Overture Technologies Develops Online Service to Provide Students with More Secure, Reliable Way to Shop for Private Student Loans

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Bethesda, Maryland (PRWEB) April 16, 2009

Overture Technologies, the leading provider of decisioning software solutions that enable transparent, accurate and responsive lending processes for the mortgage and education finance industries, has announced the development of an online service that will be able to provide a more secure, reliable way for students to shop for private student loans. The Student Loan Marketplace is an innovative education financing tool that can help students and their families learn about and compare loan terms in an open and transparent network of lenders.

Overture plans to launch the service through marketing partners, such as associations of colleges and universities, and with participating lenders. The Student Loan Marketplace is the first multi-lender platform that allows students to review reliable private student loan terms based on their own personal and financial information instead of “as low as” advertisements for rates.

Amid the current rising costs of college and challenging economic environment, U.S. Department of Education data indicates applications for federal student aid in 2009 have increased by more than 20 percent over the same period last year. After exhausting all available scholarships, grants, work-study and low-cost federal loans, many students often must consider private student loans to finance part of the cost of education. This search has proven to be a challenge for many students, particularly those with little or no credit record, as the strain on credit markets has also resulted in a contraction of lending sources.

According to a College Board report on student borrowing trends, private student loan volume accounts for almost 25 percent of total education loan volume. The Student Loan Marketplace has been created to give students a secure, transparent resource where they can be matched with lenders to choose a loan based on the criteria that is most important to their individual situations.

*More Secure, Reliable Comparison Shopping for Students Who Are New to Borrowing

Currently, students new to borrowing are faced with a very confusing and time-consuming process to make apples-to-apples comparisons of private student loan terms from multiple lenders. If a student wishes to compare accurate rates and terms, he or she must enter personal information at each lender’s web site and consent to a credit pull before obtaining information suitable for comparison shopping, and then determine how to interpret calculations of APR and other costs across various loan products. With just one credit pull, The Student Loan Marketplace presents a side-by-side comparison of reliable loan products and terms on one page, and provides helpful explanations of terms.

“We built the Marketplace to put students in control of their private loans, giving them unprecedented insight into the details of the loan options available to them,” said David Kirby, general manager of Overture Technologies’ Education Finance Solutions group. “The Marketplace platform enables reliable comparisons of multiple private student loans in minutes – until now, no resource like this has been available.”

Jewish & Palestinian Students Unite to Answer Obama’s Call to Action in Cairo By Launching Site to Empower Middle East Entrepreneurs

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Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) June 9, 2009

Speaking to the Muslim world from Cairo University, President Barack Obama recently challenged people of all nationalities to “turn dialogue into interfaith service so bridges between peoples lead to action.” A group of four University of Pennsylvania students and alumni have recently answered Obama’s call by launching LendforPeace.org, a grassroots organization that promotes economic opportunity and stability in the Middle East. The organization, founded by two Jews and two Palestinians, is a not-for-profit Internet platform that allows individuals to make small loans to specific micro-entrepreneurs in the West Bank. In doing so, LendforPeace.org allows one to help Palestinian micro-entrepreneurs lift themselves out of poverty by building sustainable businesses.

LendforPeace.org, which was recently showcased on Fox Business, has partnered with world-premier institutions to develop their international microfinance platform. The organization received grants from the Clinton Global Initiative and Ashoka, and has formalized relationships with a number of successful microfinance institutions in the Middle East. These microfinance institutions have been approved by the US Government’s humanitarian assistance agency, USAID. They are responsible for selecting creditworthy entrepreneurs, posting entrepreneur profiles to LendforPeace.org’s website, and delivering capital and support services throughout the duration of each loan. Lenders can contribute as little as $ 25 to a particular entrepreneur’s micro-loan and then receive updates as their entrepreneur’s business grows. Unlike a donation, lenders get their money back at the end of the pre-set loan period and can choose to withdraw their money or to re-loan it again and again.

LendforPeace.org aims to unite people from all parts of the political spectrum by focusing on the concrete business of economic development. The site creates financial and emotional bonds between the diverse set of lenders around the world and borrowers in the Middle East who participate. The founders of LendforPeace.org are sensitive to the power of interfaith dialogue as they themselves crossed ethnic and religious lines to bring the organization to life. “We have constant political disagreements,” said Co-Founder Sam Adelsberg, “but we recognize that in order to make progress we have to focus on the areas on which we can agree. One thing we all believe is that there is no winner in poverty.”

LendforPeace.org’s launch comes on the heels of a $ 5,000 pilot which yielded a 100% repayment rate. While the Middle East is more volatile than other regions, this success is in line with repayment rates worldwide: according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign, the average on-time repayment rate for microcredit is more than 97%. LendforPeace.org hopes to replicate the success of its pilot going forward. While economic development is central to the organization’s mission, LendforPeace.org believes the interaction facilitated on the site alone may have a positive impact. Said Co-Founder Allam Taj, “Part of our goal is to humanize the Palestinian experience, both through exposing lenders to specific individuals in the West Bank and by letting borrowers know that their loan was made possible by an organization started by young American Jews and Palestinians who care about their future.”

LendforPeace.org benefits from an accomplished Board of Advisors including Delphine Thizy, PlaNet Finance’s Director of the Palestinian Territories, and attorney Howard Finkelstein, one of the country’s pioneers in the securitization of microfinance-related obligations. LendforPeace.org is also being advised by Hanna Siniora, a member of the Palestine National Council and the chairperson of the Palestinian-American Chamber of Commerce, and David Gutelius, a Silicon Valley software entrepreneur and co-founder of Ishtirak, a technology and microeconomic development consultancy focused exclusively on the Middle East and Islamic Africa.

LendforPeace.org recently held its official launch in Philadelphia at the Wharton School’s Jon M. Huntsman Hall. The event included a presentation by the founders, an invocation from University Chaplain Chas Howard and a keynote address on active citizenship by Dr. John DiIulio, the first Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The event culminated in a surprise video-conference with Salma Suleiman of Asala, one of LendforPeace.org’s microfinance partners in Ramallah. Salma stayed up until 3 AM local time to participate in the launch event and to encourage attendees to get involved. Said Salma, “LendforPeace.org will help us increase our microlending activities here in the West Bank. This in turn will enable us to shepherd more and more families out of poverty.”

In the words of President Obama, “Faith should bring us together. That’s why we’re forging service projects in America to bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews.” LendforPeace.org is proud to be a part of this movement of interfaith dialogue and service.

For more information, please visit http://www.LendforPeace.org.

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National Educations SAGE Tuition Advantage program offers a 0% APR* financing option for students.

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Chicago, IL (PRWEB) February 24, 2012

National Educations SAGE Tuition Advantage program offers a 0% APR* financing option for students.

At a time when tuition and discount rates are at record highs, National Education and SAGE Scholars have created a product for schools to increase net tuition revenue, promote student retention and manage tuition discount rates.

SAGE Tuition Advantage is a 0% APR* financing option that schools can offer their students in lieu of a discount. The program does not affect any of the schools current revenue from other sources such as Federal Direct Loans, private loans or tuition payments made by the students and their families. Colleges simply replace a portion of their current unfunded discount dollars with SAGE Tuition Advantage.

The program is attractive to both schools and students because of the 0% APR* financing. Payments are deferred until 6 months after separation from school and no interest is charged until the loan converts to repayment. Students are rewarded by having a portion of the principal balance forgiven if they graduate from the issuing institution and another portion forgiven for making timely payments.

Schools make no up front investment and benefit from partnering with a nationally recognized servicer to administer the program (National Education Servicing received Exceptional Performer recognition from the Department of Education). The additional revenue stream to the school occurs as the loans are repaid, and in a lump sum when the loans are securitized. Matt Scotty, President of National Education says Schools are excited about the benefits of this new tool: increased net tuition revenue with a long term payment plan and 0% APR to students and families.

Just how much money can be saved? Colleges can explore projected revenue figures by visiting:

http://www.sagetuitionadvantage.com/

*0% APR with earned benefits, 2.55% APR without.

SAGE Scholars, Inc., established in 1995, has created the nations largest private college savings program, with more than 190,000 participating students and 288 participating colleges (43 states). Families who save in programs such as the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin state 529 Plans are rewarded with Tuition Reward Points similar to frequent flyer miles that can be redeemed for guaranteed minimum discounts if students are admitted to and attend a member college, beginning with the freshman year.

National Education, established in 1988, is a financial solution company sharply focused on developing, marketing, originating and servicing education financial products. National Education has received the Exceptional Performer designation from the U.S. Department of Education.

For more information, contact:

Matt Scotty at 800.345.4325 ext 5173, President, National Education Servicing

Justine Gianandrea at 800.345.4325 ext 5324, Senior Vice President, National Education Servicing

Dr. Jim Johnston at 215.564.9930, President, SAGE Scholars

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