Expands Student Loan Options for Students and Parents
NEWTON, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
SimpleTuition, Inc., a company dedicated to helping students and
parents make sense of education financing choices, today announced an
agreement with Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) to include its
full line of student loan products - Discover Student Loans - among
SimpleTuition's online offerings. Discover Student Loans include
federal Stafford, federal PLUS, and private loans that cover the costs
of higher education - tuition, housing, books and more.
"As an innovator and driver of change in the financial services
market, we saw an opportunity to provide families with easy and
affordable solutions to fund school-related expenses," said Shrikant
Dash, Vice President of Consumer Lending with Discover Financial
Services. "We researched ways to reach out to students and parents who
are seeking student loans and quickly realized that SimpleTuition
would be a great resource because of its leadership in the online
marketplace."
Discover provides families with affordable loan choices, including
federal Stafford loans with zero fees, federal Parent PLUS and Grad
PLUS loans with interest rate discounts, and private loans with zero
fees and a 2% cash reward upon graduation. Discover works with schools
to certify private loans and disburses funds directly through the
school, so families only borrow as much as they truly need. And
Discover's borrower benefits can help families save hundreds of
dollars on the total cost of each loan.
"SimpleTuition is committed to offering families a choice when it
comes to finding and selecting a student loan financing option," said
Kevin Walker, CEO of SimpleTuition, Inc. "By partnering with Discover,
we are able to help families make difficult financial decisions about
student loans and offer them solutions that best fit their specific
financial need."
SimpleTuition provides an online resource to help families
compare, analyze and apply for student loans. Families can view and
use an apples-to-apples comparison for Stafford, Parent PLUS, Grad
PLUS, federal consolidation, and private loans. Results can be sorted
by monthly payment, total cost of the loan, number of payments, first
payment due date and APR, and results contain detailed information
about loan pricing, borrower benefits and other attributes.
SimpleTuition is not a lender.
About Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a leading credit card
issuer and electronic payment services company with one of the most
recognized brands in U.S. financial services. The company operates the
Discover Card, America's cash rewards pioneer. Since its inception in
1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the
United States. Its payments businesses consist of the Discover
Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations, and
PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks. For more
information, visit www.discoverfinancial.com or
www.discoverstudentloans.com.
About SimpleTuition Inc.
Founded in 2005, SimpleTuition is the leading student loan
comparison site for personalized student loan research. SimpleTuition
is dedicated to helping students and parents make sense of education
financing options. The company offers the leading independent and
interactive solution for researching and comparing multiple Stafford,
private, PLUS, and GradPLUS loans from dozens of lenders. The site has
been recently featured on Kiplinger's Best List as the best financial
services website for student loans and as one of Fast Company's Top
Web 2.0 sites. The company also holds awards for exceptional website
development from the Interactive Media Council, Web Marketing
Association, and the International Academy of Visual Arts.
SimpleTuition is headquartered in Newton, Mass., and is funded by
Atlas Venture, IDG Ventures Boston, and North Hill Ventures. For more
information, visit www.SimpleTuition.com.
Discover Financial Services
Jon Drummond, 224-405-1888
jondrummond@discover.com
or
KMC Partners Public Relations
Jan Jahosky, 407-331-4699
jan@kmcpartners.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
