>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ julian: you are watching "getting answers" on abc7. every day, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time.

we are all over the big shakeup in college sports today. cal and stanford joining the acc. we will find out what this means for athletes when we speak to the assistant vice chancellor at uc berkeley. joining us with the best labor day sales. first, it is top of mind for the first time in three years, interest will start piling up again for u.s. adults with student loans and in just a month you will have to make the first payment in three years. joining us live with the information on paying down that debt is this is such an important topic for so many people's. -- for so many people. student loans have been out of sight, out of mind because of the pandemic, extended by president biden.

what is today's change on interest accrual mean for those balances? >> it means they are going to start going up if borrowers don't start making payments, unless they sign up for the safe plan. julian: talk about -- we will talk about the safe plan and just a moment. how soon will borrowers need to start paying again? the interest is one the requirement to have to pay down the debt is another. >> servicers will send out an e-mail to their borrowers 21 days before that first bill is due. most borrowers will see it due some point in october. september will act as a transition month. julian: some people might have a different servicer since they last paid down the balance? can you talk about what people should be on the lookout for? >> we have seen a lot of service or movement, new servicers

taking over. borrowers should jump on studentaid.gov, pull up their loan information and know about their servicer. have your account registered. it's one of those things where it feels like you are doing extra work for the servicer. but in reality you are taking care of yourself. if you miss a bill, a payment, that is on you, not on the servicer. it doesn't matter if it went to an old address or something like that. you have to keep your records up-to-date. julian: that is a really good piece of advice. maybe you need to update your e-mail address. when -- we know loan repayment is resuming after the last extension by the president after the student loan forgiveness plan was struck down by the supreme court. that's when he announced the safe plan. who exactly qualifies? how can some people have a bill as low as zero dollars, they

don't have to pay anything right now? >> almost all federal student loans are eligible for the safe repayment plan. some borrowers may have to consolidate into a federal direct loan in order to qualify for safe. the only category that wouldn't be eligible would be private student loans and parent plus loans. what's really nice about save is the formula they use for the calculations. discretionary income has been redefined ina way that is more favorable for borrowers. the monthly payment is much lower than the other income driven repayment plans. and if your monthly income is less than 225% of the federal poverty level, you can qualify for zero dollar per month payments. that is much different than a forbearance. continue to accrue and you are not making any progress on your

loans. if you're on the save taking zero dollar per month payments and making progress toward student loan forgiveness, one of the biggest perks of save is there is a subsidy. so of your monthly payment is smaller than the monthly interest that accrues on that loan, you get a subsidy that covers that gap. so for somebody who qualifies for zero dollar per month payments, they are getting a subsidy that covers all of the interest. so for someone in that situation, it is almost likely payment and interest pause never ended. julian: that's a really good point. clearly something that a lot of folks might want to look at, take advantage of. some people might already be in some form of an income driven repayment plan. save sounds pretty similar to that. is it pretty much the same thing, or is there a difference? >> there are subtle differences. the subsidy's a little bit different. the calculation's a little bit different. i most casesn -- in most cases, switching from

ibr, pay as you earn, and jumping over the save will save you some money each month. julian: that blanket $10,000 $20,000 of forgiveness was shut down by the high court but some people have seen success in getting their debt forgiven through the public service loan for -- loan forgiveness program. i've seen a lot of people posting on social media saying i've been a teacher for 20 years and finally i am getting approved to have my debt forgiven through this program. what should people know about the program now that it's actually really up and running in full steam? >> the administration's done a lot of work to help borrowers who may be didn't quite meet certain requirements. for example, they signed up for the wrong repayment plan. small mistakes that would cause ineligibility have now been repaired. public service loan forgiveness

is now working as it is intended. it is a great opportunity someone working in public service weather for the government or a nonprofit to get there loans completely forgiven after 10 years of income driven payments. julian: for a lot of folks, this is the first time they will be thinking about these student loans in three years. just like a credit card, paying the minimum is not going to cut it. the balance will look as if it is not budging every month. what is the best strategy to pay down the balance for people who have not thought about this in years? >> the big thing to remember is to look at it not in terms of what you are doing next month or even next year, but what is your plan to eliminate the debt? what's different between student loans and credit cards is sometimes paying as little as

possible is sometimes the best strategy for student loans if you are pursuing a loan forgiveness program such as public service loan forgiveness or income driven repayment. however, if paying the balance full is your eventual strategy, whenever you can pay extra, it is a good idea to do that. you want to target the high interest loans and get those paid off first. the nice thing about federal student loans is there's no prepayment penalties. there is no penalty for paying extra. as soon as you can pay it off, go ahead and pay it off. you are no longer spending interest. julian: that's good advice. when the president announced the save plan, he also said there would be a little bit of a grace period. how exactly does that work? >> they are calling it the on ramp. the way the on ramp works is, typically if you miss payments, there are lots of negative consequences. late fees, negative credit

reporting, and those can have lasting consequencess for borrowers. during the on ramp phase, there won't be negative credit reporting, there won't be late fees. so it's a way for borrowers to transition back to payment. that doesn't mean borrowers shouldn't make payments. instead of ignoring things, getting on save, you can be making progress towards forgiveness, getting help with interest. if you just stay on the on ramp and don't do anything, your balance is going to go up. there are still consequences to not making payments once the restart happens. julian: michael lux, such a great conversation, so much helpful information. we really appreciate your time. thanks for being here. today we learned about a big change for stanford and cal

athletics. the teams are joining a new conference, the acc. up next, we will speak about the impact on college football and the concern it raises for student thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy.

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julian: some of your favorite college sports teams will be facing off against new opponents. cal and stanford announced today they are living the pac-12 for the acc, the atlantic coast conference. what does it mean for the future of college sports here in the bay area? joining us is the assistant vice chancellor for the office of communications and public affairs at uc berkeley. appreciate your time, dan, thanks for being here. we should note the big move

won't happen until the next academic year. soon enough, it'll be goodbye to the pac-12 and hello to the acc. what are you hoping the movements for the future of sports and revenue at cal? >> we made this decision with the best interest of our student athletes in mind. there are very few conferences in the u.s. we are student athletes can continue to compete at the highest levels for national championships and perhaps even more important is, it's a perfect fit for cal. the acc institutions like berkeley that prioritize both academics and athletics. intercollegiate athletics is all about participation opportunities we can provide. we have 900 kids at the university who are competing in sports. the vast majority are never going to go bro. this agreement will allow them to continue to compete at the very highest levels.

julian: students and student athletes were top of mind. but we can't ignore this has revenue implications, too. some are calling this move a life raft for cal. is that a fair assessment? >> i'm not sure that is a fair assessment at all. there is no doubt the agreement we signed may create -- probably will create financial challenges. we are optimistic we can see our way through them. one of the things that comes along with being part of what's called a power five, our four conference is a good deal of media revenue. that revenue is important for supporting our program and student athletes, or facilities -- our facilities. but there is no doubt the agreement with the acc will create budgetary challenges. it is a collaborative process. the leadership of

intercollegiate athletics and campus leadership will get together, consult with the regions, with the uc and we will find our way through to a solution thatacknowledge ty realities of the university and at the same time preserve the essential role that intercollegiate athletics play on the berkeley campus. julian: it's certainly an important role and something students look forward to on campus. can we talk about those meteorite steals? how much does cal stand to receive? how much money are we talking about here? >> we really like to talk about it but we are precluded from going into the details because of the confidentiality clause in the contract between espn and the acc. what we can say is we are joining as full members and we will receive a full share of media rights but we also agreed to return a portion of that revenue to the acc to strengthen

and stabilize the conference for the years ahead. so we know we are going to have a safe, secure and stable home for our intercollegiate athletics program for many years to come. julian: i've got to say, on a personal note, as a graduate from the university of miami, in graduate school at syracuse university, i love it. hopefully i will be able to see a lot more of my favorite teams here in the bay area. but we have to acknowledge the move could disrupt long-standing football conference rivalries. what is your message to fans, as you reposition yourself in the college sports landscape? >> that's a great question. so, we are going to still compete against stanford. stanford has also decided to join the acc conference today. we will be looking at ways where we can play nonconference games against some of those very rivals you mentioned, usc, ucla.

i think bay area fans are going to be mighty excited to see schools like duke, clemson, boston college, virginia start to appear in the bay area. i think good days are ahead for the program. julian: and miami, you didn't mention it, i'm feeling left out. [laughter] do we still think there might be a huge game for cal and usc, ucla? >> we hope so. we tried hard to keep the pac-12 together. it is something nobody wanted to see. it's now the pac 2. it's unfortunate. because those were great rivalries. they mirrored that between southern california and another in california, sort of the rivalry between uc sister institutions. ucla and uc berkeley. this is all really you. i can assure you -- new.

i can assure you we understand how exciting those games are and we are going to find a way to keep thing against those teams in the years ahead. julian: i know a lot of fans are at ease hearing that for sure. let's talk about student athletes. as cal enters the acc, the closest opponent is the cardinals in louisville. 2000 miles away. that is a really long haul for those student athletes. is there concern about travel in all of this? >> the closest opponent is going to be stanford just down the road. the next will be smu in texas. this ia -- this is an important question. many of them are already traveling to the east and many of them won't need to

because their competitive context will remain on the west coast. in many instances, those are sports the acc doesn't have. so they will continue to complete, such as rugby, against competitors here in the west and the mountain time zones. at the same time, even this year, our football team right now is in texas. getting to work in washington is no walk in the park. so the travel impacts are going to be a lot less than you might think. we do have a few maybe 200 students who will see some trouble impacts. we are already looking at ways to mitigate that. we may do shared travel with stanford. we may look at multi-team events, scheduling things for winter break. these are all things that are really important to us. because again the ability of our student athletes to thrive is always going to be the top priority at the university. julian: what's being done

to ensure students still get the best quality education during the season that we know they all actually come to cal for in the first place? >> we have a whole team of faculty and staff members who are supporting the academic aspirations of our student athletes. the academic performance -- their academic performance is as high as it's been 20 years. it's a priority for the campus. we walk that walk. julian: dan mogulo we really appreciate your time. very important conversation. thanks for being here. >> pleasure to be here. and of course gobert's. julian: cookouts, road trips, and sales are synonymous with the labor day holiday. after the break, an expert joins us to talk about how you can get the most for your hard earned dollar this holiday weekend.

julian: labor day is the celebration of the social and economic achievements of the american labor movement and a time to relax and for many people shop for great holiday deals out there. joining us now is andrea with some tips on how to get the best deals this labor day holiday weekend. appreciate your time. thanks for being here. >> i know a lot of people are going to be out shopping and i have the deals on what to buy and what to skip. julian: let's start with what to buy. what items should we be on the lookout for? >> long holiday weekends like this are a great time to make updates to any of those big-ticket household items, things like mattresses, household appliances, outdoor patio furniture. i will quickly give you a couple of examples. mattresses have a lot of deals. you can get a king bed for the price of a queen, a queen for the price of a twin, it will even throw in a free

adjustable base when you make a qualifying purchase. you can save up to 50% back-to-school bundles. look for special financing offers and see if they can throw in free delivery. if you are shopping in person, test the options in person. look online to see if you can find it for a better price. then household appliances, retailers like lowe's, home depot, best buy are offering great deals. they are offering over $1400 off a whirlpool side-by-side refrigerator and freestanding electric range for peace -- four piece sweet bundle. also, patio furniture. i mentioned. those items are off about

50% savings right now. everyone from ashley furniture to target, to wayfarer has good deals. -- wayfair has good the park oakley five is under $500 right now. you can't get better than that. we were talking about the big household items. i also want to talk about seasonal items like wills. now is the best time to buy. we are seeing around 40% to 60% savings on grills, propane torch article -- from propane to charcoal. julian: variable w to suggest the item you are going for. -- very bold of you to suggest the item you are going for. [laughter] >> dino. i better be careful. julian: a huge list of items

we should be looking for, those big-ticket items, those appliances, a mattress. what are some items that we should skip and may be until black friday which will be here before we know it? >> if you things wait to buy, hold off on fall clothing. they might be on sale right now, but the better deals will come in october. instead by that summer clearance clothing. you're looking at buying things for 75%-80% off. a lot of the stuff for kids could be layered through the colder months. you want to avoid electronics right now. the next best time to buy would be black friday and amazon will be hosting another prime day in october which will be a good time to pick up personal gadgets and smartphone devices. also hold off a couple more

weeks for an iphone. the new iphone usually launches about mid to end of the month, and the older models will be discounted. that could be a good time to save if you are planning to upgrade as long as you don't go with the latest model. finally, make sure you are comparison shopping. always compare deals. look for the free shipping offers. or subscribed to the retailer's newsletter to get a coupon code or free shipping code. i also love getting cash back when i shop online. go to a site like coupon cabin dot com. you can get cashback. and that will add up if you are dropping hundreds of dollars. for percent back at home depot. over 6% back at mattress firm. 3% back at gap. if you are spending hundreds, that'll add up and you can help pay off your purchases. julian: we always appreciate your consumer money-saving tips. thanks so much for joining us.

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julian: thank you so much for tonight record travel under way at millions of americans head out for the labor day weekend. tsa predicting it will screen 14 million passengers over this last holiday weekend of summer. alarming moments at an airport in the northeast. an s.w.a.t. team responding to