As many of us feared, those who support student loan debt have used the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s broad-based loan cancellation scheme to attack any debt relief offered by the Department of Education, regardless of statutory basis or how targeted it may be. Yesterday, in a rambling complaint including, for some reason, […]
Category Archives: Student Loans
In 2019, a group of former for-profit college students brought a class action against the Department of Education, based on the agency’s failure to rule on their applications for borrower defense relief to their loans–or anyone else’s–for more than a year. After years of litigation, the parties reached a settlement, which was approved in November […]
Nearly a year after oral argument, the Third Circuit this morning released its opinion in CFPB v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust. The case is a long-running enforcement action brought by the CFPB against investment trusts that were created for the purposes of acquiring and servicing student loans, seeking to enforce civil investigative demands. […]
The Biden Administration announced on Friday steps to eliminate hidden fees for college students, such as student loan origination fees, college banking fees, and automatic charges for textbooks. The fact sheet, with more detail, is here.
The California Attorney General brought claims against for-profit online college Ashford University and its parent company for violating the state’s unfair competition and false advertising laws by making false and misleading statements to prospective students. The trial court agreed with the AG, and imposed over $22 miillion in civil penalties. Yesterday, an intermediate appellate court […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published a report on student-loan servicing practices since the resumption of federal student loan repayments in the fall, after a three-year payment pause in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CFPB report finds that borrowers are “encountering long hold times when trying to reach their student loan servicer, experiencing […]
In July, the CFPB and 11 states filed an adversary complaint in bankruptcy court against Prehired — a company that operated a private, for-profit vocational training program for software sales representatives. Promising entry-level wages of over $100,000, Prehired charged $30,000 for its program and encouraged students to enter into income share loans. The CFPB alleged […]
The CFPB today issued a report finding that “payment plans” offered by various postsecondary schools can carry risks to students, as they often include high fees, confusing and inconsistent disclosures, forced arbitration agreements, and snowballing interest. The Bureau also found that the third-party service providers schools partner with can engage in abusive debt collection practices. […]
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are sending a total of more than $9 million in refunds to 22,562 consumers who lost money to Ameritech Financial, a student-loan debt-relief scheme operated by Brandon Frere, who was convicted of criminal charges in connection with the scheme. Details are here.