The Department of Education released new student loan default rate information in September and it’s not pretty! The overall two year cohort default rate increased to 9.1% (FY 2012 data). This official two year rate requires the Department to track borrowers for a very short two yea
A recent New York Times article about student loan debt collectors raises a number of important issues that we will be writing about in a series of blogs. The article explains how student loan servicers and collectors lack incentives to prevent student loan defaults. Among other reas
The Second Circuit recently issued an important decision that highlights student loan collection agency abuses. The court found that a collection agency’s notice to a student loan borrower stating “Account Ineligible for Bankruptcy Discharge” was exactly the kind of abusive debt coll
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s July 2012 report on for-profit higher education contains a wealth of important and shocking information about the for-profit education industry. Among other themes, the report focuses on the disproportionate default rates i
The Student Loan Default Trap: Why Borrowers Default and What Can Be Done, a new report released on Monday from the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, addresses questions about the causes of default and the effectiveness of programs intended to
The U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection held a hearing earlier this week, “Private Student Loans: Providing Flexibility and Opportunity to Borrowers?” In our testimony, we called on Congress and regulators to act now to provide relief fo
July 1 was an important date for many student borrowers. Key changes to student aid programs include: 1. New students without high school diplomas or GEDs will no longer be eligible for federal aid. (There is an exception for students who were home schooled). 2. Congress agreed at
The Department of Education posted a new web site for borrowers in default. It is intended to be a central point of entry for borrowers in default with information about consequences of default and on-line access to account information. The new site allows borrowers to request collec
We have written a number of posts about ongoing operational problems at the Department of Education. We received some encouraging news this week that some of these problems may be fixed, including: 1. We wrote earlier about problems with borrowers seeking to consolidate out of defau