Understanding Credit
By April Qualls, Regional Director
National Student Loan Program

Pay nothing until 2005! Whether it’s the holidays or summer clearance specials, your students are continually enticed to use their credit cards to finance their purchases. Using credit can be easy and convenient, if your students use it wisely. That means understanding how credit works. Here’s a brief overview:

When students sign a credit agreement, they agree to pay back some or all of the borrowed money, or principal, sometime between the date when their bill is calculated and the due date. This grace period usually lasts between 21 and 30 days.

If students don’t pay back the full principal within the grace period, they’ll have to pay the creditor a finance charge. For credit cards, this charge is the interest that accumulates on any unpaid balance, calculated as a percentage of the amount they owe. Certain creditors calculate this charge using a fixed interest rate, which stays the same throughout the loan or credit agreement. Other creditors calculate this charge using a variable interest rate, which changes as market interest rates change. Encourage your students to compare what the cost of credit would be on different cards by comparing the annual percentage rate (APR). That’s the annual interest rate they pay on the amount of money they owe the credit card company.

Creditors may also charge students a number of fees for late payments, uses of credit over their limit, or administrative services. If they’re careful about choosing a card and using credit wisely, they can avoid paying fees in addition to finance charges.

Want your students to learn more about budgeting, credit cards, and student loan repayment? They can visit www.nslp.org/creditanddebt and take a free interactive course called “Credit and Debt.”

Submitted by:
Teresa Boldt
National Student Loan Program
1300 O Street
Lincoln NE 68508
800-735-8778, ext. 6827

NextStudent Names Jon-Paul Keenan Regional School Relations Director

PHOENIX - (November 1, 2004) – NextStudent, a Phoenix-based provider of student lending services, has hired Jon-Paul Keenan for the position of Regional School Relations Director reporting to Joe Kunkel, Vice President of Education Lending. In this position, Keenan will be responsible for sales promotion, relationship management and business development for the Southern region.

Keenan comes to NextStudent with more than 14 years student lending experience. Most recently, Keenan worked at AmSouth Bank/Sallie Mae in Decatur, Georgia, where he was a Regional Account Executive responsible for developing business and managing relationships with colleges and universities in his market area. Before that, Keenan worked at Georgia Student Finance Commission where he started as a Senior Auditing Specialist and progressively expanded his responsibilities to the position of Lead School Relations Specialist responsible for managing the School Relations Staff. Keenan also served as the In-School Deferment Specialist at Florida Federal Savings Bank and a HEAL Litigation Clerk for Chase Education Finance.

“Jon-Paul’s track record makes him the right choice for this position,” says Kunkel. “He brings incredibly strong financial service expertise and outstanding leadership skills to the team.”

Keenan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration – Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from the same university.

For more information about NextStudent, please visit their website at www.nextstudent.com.