Tax Liens - Unpaid taxes often result on a lien placed on your credit report and/or on your property. Unpaid tax liens stay on your credit report indefinitely and therefore should be settled as quickly as possible. Many lenders will not give you a loan if you have an unpaid tax lien.

Tradeline - Any item besides a public record that appears on your credit report is a tradeline. Note that not everything you pay for every month is a tradeline. Credit cards, car payments, loans, and other debts are tradelines, but many other things such as cell phone, gas and electric bill etc, only report on your credit report if you don’t pay them! No one ever said the system was fair.

T-Bill - See Treasury Bill

Teacher Shortage Area - A federally designated geographic area, grade level, or academic, instructional, subject matter, or discipline that has been classified as a shortage area as defined by the Department of Education.

Teach-Out Program - A program of study offered by a school that is substantially similar to a borrower's program of study at a school that closed and ceased to provide educational services during the borrower's loan period.

Term-Based School - A school that uses standard academic terms, such as semesters, trimesters, or quarters.

Termination - Withdrawal of the eligibility of a school, lender, or servicer to participate in the guarantor's programs.

Third-Party Servicer - In the case of a lender or guarantor, a state or private for-profit or nonprofit organization or an individual that enters into a contract with the lender or guarantor to administer any aspect of the lender's or guarantor's FFELP as required by statutory or regulatory provisions related to part B of Title IV of the Higher Education Act. In the case of a school, a state or private for-profit or nonprofit organization or an individual that enters into a contract with the school to administer any aspect of the school's participation in any Title IV program.

Three-Times Rule - The federal requirement that no single installment of a graduated or income-sensitive repayment schedule may be more than three times greater than any other installment.

Three-Year Rule - The statutory provision that a school loses its eligibility to participate in the FFELP if its cohort default rates exceed acceptable statutory levels for the three most recent consecutive fiscal years. The current acceptable level is a cohort default rate of less than 25%.

Title IV: A section of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, that authorizes federal loan, work, and grant education financial assistance programs.

Totally and Permanently Disabled - The condition of an individual who is unable to work and earn money or attend school due to an injury or illness that is expected to continue indefinitely or result in death.

Trailer, Summer Term - A summer term that comes at the end of a school's Scheduled Academic Year.

Treasury Bill (T-bill) - A note or bill issued by the U.S. Treasury as legal tender for all debts.