A hidden index-fund crisis?

And more of the week's best financial advice

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

A hidden index-fund crisis?

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New payment terms on credit cards

"More credit cards are offering flexible payment plans for customers who want to spread out the cost of expensive items, or unexpected expenses," said Ann Carrns at The New York Times. American Express' Pay It Plan It program "allows cardholders to pay off large purchases over several months for a fixed monthly fee" that the company says "would always be the same as or better than the cost of interest." Citibank and JPMorgan Chase have also begun offering similar "fee-based" payment or loan options. The plans generally let cardholders carry a balance while still getting a grace period on interest for other purchases.

Unforgivable red tape

The government's Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is "doing little in the way of forgiveness," said Jessica Dickler and Annie Nova at CNBC​. A Government Accountability Office report found that from May 2018 to May 2019, "the Department of Education processed 54,184 requests for loan forgiveness" through an expanded PSLF program that was said to allow certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans canceled after 10 years of on-time payments. But the department rejected nearly 99 per­cent of the requests, approving a total of 661. Last year, Congress authorized a $700 mil­lion fund to shore up the program, which was created in 2007, but the Education Department has spent only $27 mil­lion of it.