Hanneh Bareham, a Certified Financial Education Instructor℠, is a freelance personal finance reporter. She started with Bankrate in 2020 as a staff credit cards reporter before transitioning into the role of student loans reporter. After shifting her focus to personal loans for two years, Hanneh rejoined the Bankrate team as a freelance writer in 2025 after a brief stint away to focus on her acting career. She has now furthered her scope across multiple forms of consumer lending, with a focus on student loan policy and debt management.
She has been featured in multiple national and regional media outlets, including CNN, CNBC, CBS, Business Insider, The Chicago Tribune, and more. Her desire to empower borrowers comes from her own experiences as a young adult managing her finances during a tumultuous economic climate. She aims to help others reach their goals through a better understanding of macroeconomic trends and policy.
When she's not checking her repayment strategies with a loan calculator, Hanneh enjoys screen acting, baking and trying to find the best cup of coffee on the East Coast.
You have a world of options at your fingertips when it comes to paying down your loans. Knowing what they are is the key to becoming debt-free.
— Hanneh Bareham
The FAFSA update is slated to add an additional $1.8 billion in need-based student aid, but colleges and universities won’t receive the new information until March, according to the DOE.
The Federal Reserve has finally shown the signs of a rate plateau. However, interest rates are still breaking records, and it’s not a given that personal loan rates will fall anytime soon. While the [...]
Emergency and retirement savings are the most-delayed financial decisions.
Roughly 9 million adults age 50 and older are still actively paying off federal student loan debt.
Debt consolidation sees a spike as credit card balances grow
Biden announced a new federal student loan repayment plan to help borrowers.
Hundreds of scholarships are available online and through local organizations.
This marks the largest student loan discharge made by the Education Department.
