Tuition.io Launches Support For Parent Plus Student Loan Contributions

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The industry's first and proven student loan payback platform, Tuition.io, announced today it will begin supporting Federal Parent PLUS Loan contributions in addition to regular federal and private student loans. PLUS Loans are loans parents take out to help their children finance college. 

Tuition.io is the first company to publicly offer a product that allows the employer contribution to be applied to PLUS Loans, following a string of firsts for the company including being the first student loan contribution platform launched at scale with Fidelity Investments earlier this year.

"Throughout our experience working with corporate clients and understanding the burden placed upon parents taking out loans to help their children pursue college degrees, we felt it important to allow employers the ability to contribute to this large, unmet section of the student loan contributions landscape," said Brendon McQueen, CEO and Co-founder, Tuition.io.

By leveraging Tuition.io's proprietary account auditing technology and its industry partnerships, the company is able to assure which types of loans employees add to the platform, and more importantly, that the employees actually own the loan in question -- in addition to tracking the loans balance via account aggregation. Tuition.io's technology is designed to empower the employer to define the exact scope of their contributions and to create a policy that makes sense for them.

The pain points:

• Up to 35 percent of total student loans are held by people over the age of 40¹
• Tuition and fee price of a full-time year at a public four-year institution is 40% higher, after adjusting for inflation, in 2015-16 than it was ten years ago²
• From 2003 to 2015, there was an 886% increase in student loan debt of Americans aged 65 and older³
• Parents signed up for $10.7 billion in Plus loans during the 2014-15 academic year⁴

"Student loans are painful for all borrowers, but the pain for parents holding some of these loans is a serious issue, especially as a large percentage of them are actively exiting or looking to exit the job market," said McQueen. "We are now saving baby boomers who took out loans for their children's education thousands of dollars in interest. More importantly, we are introducing an inclusive, real incentive for an employer's most skilled set of employees to stay engaged with their jobs."

ABOUT TUITION.IO

Tuition.io is the leading employee benefit platform empowering employers to hire, retain and engage talent who are saddled with student debt by helping them pay it down. The first company to bring employer student loan contributions to market at scale, the platform has managed more than $2B in outstanding loans on its secure platform. Tuition.io works with companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies such as Fidelity Investments to startups including ChowNow and Chegg. Founded by Brendon McQueen who himself graduated from Columbia University with 12 student loans, Tuition.io is on a mission to provide an impactful solution for employers and employees across the country. For more information visit www.tuition.io or twitter.com/TuitionIO.

Contact:
Jen Warren on behalf of Tuition.io
[email protected]
(310) 422-6588

¹ Urban Institute: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/412849-Forever-in-Your-Debt-Who-Has-Student-Loan-Debt-and-Who-s-Worried-.PDF
² The College Board: http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2015-trends-college-pricing-final-508.pdf 
³ Federal Reserve Bank of New York: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-12/baby-boomers-are-drowning-loans-debt-average-67-year-old-soared-169-past-12-years
⁴ The Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/squeeze-the-parents-new-student-loan-goes-straight-to-mom-and-dad-1459205216

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SOURCE Tuition.io

Related Links

http://www.tuition.io