The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) asked for comments on student loan servicing a few months ago.  Thousands of borrowers and their advocates responded before yesterday’s deadline, highlighting again and again that the current system does not work well for borrowers and is not created to ensure that borrowers have enforceable rights to quality service […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has launched a public inquiry into student loan servicing practices.  The issues that the Bureau is seeking information on include: industry practices that create repayment challenges, hurdles for distressed borrowers, and the economic incentives that may affect the quality of service. The CFPB is also re-launching an enhanced version […]

We thought last year was a busy year in the student loan world (and it was) but this year was even busier.  As The Institute for College Access and Success  (TICAS)  and others have reported, student debt burdens continue to increase.  The Obama Administration announced a commitment this year to expand options for borrowers and to […]

The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s focus on problems in the student loan market.  The article highlighted the work of Rohit Chopra, “the nation’s student-loan watchdog.” Apparently, Mr. Chopra’s work is not “sitting well with the industry.” This is a good sign for borrowers that the CFPB is […]

Senator Harkin released draft proposals for Higher Education Act reauthorization in June.   As part of this process, Senator Harkin created an email address to receive feedback by August 29.  This was intended to facilitate the submisssion of feedback and suggestions from “interested stakeholders.” Over the next month or so, we will be highlighting ideas […]

We wrote an open letter last year to private student lenders urging them to stop making excuses and start helping borrowers.   Unfortunately, not much has changed. There have been improvements for newer borrowers. Most new private loan products are better, but let’s not get carried away congratulating the lenders.  The predatory loans they made […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a rule this week that will allow the Bureau to supervise certain nonbank student loan servicers for the first time.  This important move should invigorate oversight of student loan servicing.  The CFPB’s supervisory authority covers any nonbank student loan servicer that handles more than one million borrower accounts.  This […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) annual ombudsman report focuses on the problems many borrowers face trying to repay private student loans.  We applaud the CFPB report, especially since it is so difficult for borrowers to get relief from burdensome private student loan debt.  The agency also issued an advisory to help borrowers pay off […]

Thanks to so many of you for responding to the new polling feature on our home page.  Your responses reveal some interesting and often surprising results. In the first poll from this summer, we asked if you were having trouble with just federal student loans, just private loans, or both.  About one-third of the approximately 300 borrowers […]

Unfortunately, the bad news about student loan debt burdens keeps coming.  The Education Sector recently highlighted a number of troubling trends, including: From 1994 to 2009: The percent of graduates taking out loans increased from 42% to 62%, Median monthly loan payments as a percentage of monthly salary increased by 1.2% during this period.  For […]