Private Student Lending
As college costs continue to skyrocket, more students and families are being forced into the more expensive and risky private student loan market to pay for college.
Today, student loan borrowers owe more than $130 billion in private student loans. These loans carry higher interest rates, contain fewer rights and protections for borrowers than federal student loans, and lack viable pathways for debt relief. The private student loan market also lacks basic transparency and reporting requirements, which leave students and families particularly vulnerable to predatory actors seeking to profit off of their educational dreams. With recent action in Washington that will limit access to federal student loans, even more families will be forced into the private market to pay for college.
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Fighting for Private Student Loan Borrowers
We have helped nearly a dozen states enact Borrower Bill of Rights laws, which regulate the student loan servicing industry, give borrowers the right to enforce these protections in court, and create Student Loan Ombudspersons to advocate on borrowers’ behalf. We have worked to pass laws in nearly 10 states to establish statewide private student loan registries to increase transparency and help hold private student loan companies accountable. We also advocate for national policies to strengthen consumer protections in the private student loan market, increase access to bankruptcy protections, and hold bad actors in the private student loan market accountable.
Exposing the Growing Dangers of Private Student Loan Market
Through our investigative work, we are exposing the risks of the growing private student loan market, the deceptive and predatory practices that private student loan companies and their debt collectors use to drive students and families further into debt, and fight to hold them accountable. Our research has helped push some of the worst actors out of the private student loan market and resulted in justice for harmed borrowers.
By The Numbers
$130 Billion
Millions of borrowers owe more than $130 billion in private student loan debt.
The Private Student Loan Market is booming
The private student loan market is booming and now larger than the payday loan market and the balance of outstanding past-due medical debt.
1-in-4 student loan complaints to cfpb
While private loans make up roughly 8% of all student debt, they make up one-in-four student loan complaints received by the CFPB.
In The Field
In The News
Featured Work
EXPLORE OUR OTHER WORK
PREDATORY LENDING & PRIVATE CREDIT
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.
SHADOW STUDENT DEBT
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.
Surveillance Credit & Big Tech
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.
SCAM SCHOOLS
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.
FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS
Even with extremists in power, we can still defend borrowers from attempts to sabotage existing relief programs, make servicing companies follow the rules, and expose predatory practices that keep people in debt.