Domino: A Blog About Student Debt

We’ve put together some helpful questions to the agencies in an attempt to get a handle on what this new scheme means for borrowers. The answers to these questions will determine whether borrowers are getting a bad deal and also whether these agencies are breaking the law.

The U.S. Department of Education and the CFPB need to act on campus debit cards.

Every day, consumer reporting companies across the country collect information and produce reports about hundreds of millions of Americans. These reports are provided to or bought by other companies and used to determine access to credit, employment, housing, insurance, and more. The information contained in the reports significantly impacts millions...

As reports of widespread servicing breakdowns leading to significant borrower harm continue to emerge, it is critical that we examine the disparity in loan performance between borrowers of color in comparison to their white peers, the role of student loan servicers in exacerbating these outcomes, and the federal inaction that...

For too long, the student loan industry has sought to sell judges on exotic legal theories to absolve these companies of the consequences of their abuses and deny borrowers their day in court. Today’s amicus brief, co-authored with Montana Legal Services and National Consumer Law Center, is the most recent...

Although student loans are the second-largest class of consumer debt, borrowers are armed with fewer rights and protections than consumers with mortgages, credit cards, or nearly any other type of debt. 

While policymakers strengthened consumer protections for most credit products in the wake of the financial crisis, the rights of student loan borrowers continue to lag far behind. At every step of the lending and repayment process, 44.7 million American student loan borrowers still lack the same basic rights enjoyed by...

The student loan industry has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unable to do business in a fair and honest manner, these cases also reveal how the absence of enforceable, industry-specific standards for common practices has left borrowers’ vulnerable to a staggering range of abuses.

Setting the Record Straight: ED’s Failures in Student Borrower Protection By Ben Kaufman | November 26, 2019 In October, the Department of Education (ED) and its Secretary, Betsy DeVos were held in contempt and fined $100,000 for violating a court order preventing them from illegally collecting on defrauded students’ debts....

DeVos and Navient are losing this fight in court. Navient is being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the States of Illinois, Washington, Pennsylvania, California, and Mississippi for illegal servicing practices.