Personal finance tips: Choosing a college loan, and more

Choosing a college loan

If your family hasn't set aside anything for your kids' college tuition, don't panic, said Ron Lieber at The New York Times. You aren't alone, but "the sad fact is, most families with no savings will be borrowing a fair bit of money to send their children to college." Schools may offset the cost with grants, "but don't count on generosity here unless the school is particularly well endowed." Do your research on loans: Government-backed loans are the best, "and most traditional-age students can take out $31,000 in loans during their time as undergraduates." They also come with more-flexible repayment options "if you get in trouble later." Private lenders can be less understanding, so if you still need to borrow more, remember to "read every word" of the loan agreements.

Money apps for splitting bills

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Want to manage your money like a Millennial? asked Charlie Wells at The Wall Street Journal. As our lives go increasingly mobile, several personal finance apps have sprung up to help consumers split bills and pay peers. A particularly popular one, Venmo, allows users to pay one another using saved debit cards and bank accounts at no charge. Another, called Splitwise, can help you divvy up costs by keeping "a running tab of shared expenses" and lets users "pay each other in lump sums." And if you have a big, shared expense coming up — such as a group dinner or a vacation trip — try Tilt, a service that "makes it easy to collect money in advance" by setting up and sharing an event page, where participants can contribute funds.

Obama's identity-theft plan

The White House wants to curb consumer identity theft, said Katie Zezima at The Washington Post. President Obama signed an executive order last week mandating that government agencies use enhanced security features — including credit cards with advanced security chips — to process payments. The Buy Secure initiative is "meant to spur retailers and banks toward using chip-and-pin technology," which requires people to enter a PIN for the card rather than use the traditional magnetic strip cards, which are more vulnerable to theft. At least 15,000 retailers — including Home Depot and Target, which recently suffered huge customer data breaches — have vowed to adopt chip-and-pin technology by next year.