An Agreement Has Been Made on Stafford Loan Rates

Published on August 5, 2013

As we wrote in a prior post, Stafford subsidized loan rates increased from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1, 2013.   Since then, Congress has been trying to reach an agreement on how to get loan rates back down.  As reported in an article by the LA Times, as of Wednesday July 31, 2013, both the House and the Senate have passed legislation that will bring loan rates down.

Now instead of loan rates being 6.8%, they have come down to 3.9% and a cap has been set so that they are not able to go over 8.25%.  The new loan rate fixes the amount to the financial market so that Stafford subsidized loan rates will move in accordance with the market.

President Obama must now sign it in, which he has said he would do “right away.” For those who took out Stafford subsidized loans during the month of July, their rates will be adjusted to the new rate.