Students Pay SLM 9.25% or JPMorgan 10.25% From Exploitive Loans
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. charges Mirella Tovar as much as 10.25 percent annual interest on her student loans -- a rate as high as a credit card.
The 24-year-old aspiring graphic designer, the first in her family to go to college, is among millions of former students paying off high-interest loans to private lenders, among them JPMorgan, SLM Corp. and Discover Financial Services. In a good month, Tovar earns $730 as a part-time hostess in a pizza parlor, and most of that money goes toward her debt of $98,000.