Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs)

Blogs

Aug 4, 2021

Student Debt In Disguise: How Employers are Using Predatory Debt to Hurt Workers and Hold Back Competition

New evidence indicates that employers nationwide are increasingly leveraging shadow student debt to trap workers into unfair contracts and substandard working conditions. In particular, a growing number of industries and employers are using bait-and-switch tactics to force workers to take on loans and debt through nefarious “training repayment agreements.”

More
Press Releases

Jul 1, 2021

Income Share Agreement Provider, For-Profit School Operator Sued by Dozens of Former Students for Illegal Lending and Deceptive Practices

A group of 47 former students announced a groundbreaking lawsuit against Make School, Inc., a venture capital-backed operator of a for-profit coding academy, and Vemo Education, Inc., the largest provider of a risky kind of private student loan known as an Income Share Agreement.

More
Blogs

Apr 26, 2021

The ISA Market is Getting Bigger and Weirder, Putting Borrowers at Increasing Risk

The practice of building credit products with income-based repayment features and subsequently attempting to evade consumer protection law is rapidly growing. Without action by regulators, ISAs could be the next chapter in the long history of predatory lending.

More
Blogs

Mar 19, 2021

Without Strong Consumer Protections, a History of Borrower Harm Will Repeat Itself During the COVID-Era Rise in Credentialization

With millions of newly unemployed Americans desperate for help, unscrupulous schools and lenders are pouncing. Without substantial, immediate, and sustained action, tens of billions of dollars will flow to predatory programs that will harm borrowers, their communities, and our country for decades to come—just like in the last recession.

More
Blogs

Mar 11, 2021

Coding Bootcamps Offering ISAs May Be Unlawfully Depriving Students of the Ability to Protect Themselves from Fraud

The results of a new investigation published today by the SBPC offer new evidence that for-profit coding bootcamps and ISA companies may be systemically violating federal law by omitting a legally mandated term from the contracts underlying students’ ISAs—language required under the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Holder Rule.”

More
Press Releases

Jun 1, 2020

Advocates File Complaint with Federal Trade Commission, Urge Enforcement Action Against Vemo Education for Its Deceptive Marketing of Income-Share Agreements to Students

The National Consumer Law Center and the Student Borrower Protection Center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging it to investigate Vemo Education, Inc. (Vemo) for unfair and deceptive business practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act in the marketing and promotion of income-share agreements (ISAs) for students at certain universities.

More
Blogs

Feb 14, 2020

One More Way States Can Step Up as Betsy DeVos Rolls Back Legal Protections

For-profit schools have a long track record of engaging in fraudulent and deceptive tactics to entice vulnerable students to enroll—often charging significantly more than their nonprofit counterparts. Once enrolled, many of these students are pressured into taking out high-cost loans for what are often worthless degrees.

More

EXPLORE MORE

Workplace Debt & Labor Exploitation

Stay-or-Pays and TRAPs

State & Local Projects

Racial & Economic Justice