Lucas,
For some corporate predators, trapping students in cycles of debt means big business.
As the $150 billion market in private student loans grows, so too does the number of students ensnared in contracts that are crawling with onerous terms — including forced arbitration clauses and class-action bans, which deny students' rights to hold lenders accountable for bait-and-switch schemes and other rip-offs.
When you sign up to get an education, you should not be forced to sign away your rights.
Tell the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that forced arbitration clauses in student loan contracts rob students of their right to seek justice in court against predatory lenders.
What exactly do these provisions mean for students?
Forced arbitration clauses in private student loan terms mean that if the student ever has a legal dispute with the lender, public court is not an option. Instead, the student must face the lender in a private, secretive tribunal with advantages stacked highly in the lender's favor.
Class-action bans or waivers mean that students can't band together to hold their lenders accountable for unfair, deceptive and illegal practices. So if a lender was to rip off every one of it's student borrowers, only those few students with the time and resources to seek justice individually in costly and secret arbitration stand any chance of holding the lender accountable.
Meanwhile, private student lenders can reap millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains with no accountability.
The good news is that the CFPB wants to hear from the public about student loans.
Big Banks are going to lobby the CFPB to let them keep denying students' rights.
We need you to help us speak up for students.
Tell the CFPB: Forced arbitration clauses have no place in student loan contracts. They eliminate students' right to fight predatory lenders in court.
If you have a personal story about how you were unable to seek accountability against a lender or about other onerous loan provisions that harmed you or a student you know, be sure to share that in your note to the CFPB as well.
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen's Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
P.S. Chances are, you know students who are among the millions whose rights are being eroded by forced arbitration clauses. Help us inform as many students and recent graduates as possible about this problem by forwarding this message today.