Predatory Lending & Private Credit
For too long, debt has been sold as a pathway to opportunity while Wall Street and Silicon Valley executives have been allowed to rake in record profits at the expense of working families.
Big banks and finance companies drive families into debt, often to pay for the basics—education, medical care, and housing. Along the way, companies target families with predatory financial products, pushing debts on people who can’t pay them back, charging higher rates to borrowers from historically marginalized communities, and financing scams and fraud. As Wall Street and Silicon Valley conspire to drive families deeper into debt, we are shining a spotlight on these abuses and fighting to protect borrowers.
What We’re Doing
We believe that opportunity should not come with a lifetime of debt. We are fighting to hold private companies accountable, demanding justice for families, and rewriting the rules that shape how private credit is extended, serviced, collected, and reported across the economy.
By shedding light on the myriad of ways that families are driven into debt, we are working to push for policies that build an economy that works for everyone. These include:
We expose how predatory schools and finance companies work together to drive students to take on billions of dollars in debt—spread across credit cards, home equity loans, and other private credit—to finance their education. Once students take on these debts, they face aggressive debt collection practices which leave borrowers in distress and drowning in debt.
We shed light on the unique risks and harms experienced by students and families in the growing private student loan market and push for policy change to strengthen borrowers’ rights and protections.
As Big Banks and Big Tech use information about families’ behavior when deciding who gets credit and how much it costs, we are sounding the alarm on how this new practice could drive families even further into debt—and who profits.
We work with state and federal policymakers to protect families from low-quality, predatory schools and online tech companies that leave students with worthless degrees and training and mountains of debt.
By The Numbers
$5 billion+
Students and families owe more than $5 billion in shadow student debt and credit.
$133 billion
Americans owe $133 billion in private student loan debt. (See map)
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FREE COLLEGE
It’s time to deliver a truly public, debt-free system and accountability for those who profit off the status quo, deny opportunity, and push borrowers further into debt.
WORKPLACE DEBT & LABOR EXPLOITATION
Every year, tens of millions of Americans leave their jobs. But for many of them, this can come with a surprise: a bill. That’s because more employers are relying on “stay-or-pay” contracts to trap workers, requiring them to pay a penalty if they leave a job. If left unchecked, stay-or-pay contracts have the potential to leave workers buried in debt just for taking a better opportunity or for having to quit a job to navigate personal hardship.
Public Corruption & Attacks On Public Power
Working families’ last defense against debt traps is often the federal agencies responsible for holding corporations accountable and enforcing the rules that govern our economy. Protect Borrowers will continue to expose public corruption and aggressively pursue the officials responsible for looting the federal government to the benefit of billionaires and the biggest corporations.
RACIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE
We are dedicated to ensuring that marginalized communities are protected from mistreatment by the loan industry. We have investigated and reported on predatory actors who attempt to take advantage of underserved communities. Through innovative advocacy and the novel application of legal tools, Protect Borrowers is working to address discrimination in the market and demonstrate how protecting borrowers is critical to advancing racial equity and economic justice.
STATE & LOCAL PROJECTS
We support state and local efforts to ensure we have a safe and well-regulated economy that works for everyone across the country by helping legislatures enact new laws, providing technical assistance as agencies implement and enforce these laws, and training local offices to provide services to their communities.