We work to protect the military community from consumer fraud, including protecting the legal rights of servicemembers and military families under the Military Lending Act and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to lower interest rates on loans, and protecting the military community from payday loans.
OUR WORK
Be Careful of Income Sharing Agreements
By Alex Kish At this point in the game, it might seem cliché to talk about the impact COVID-19 has had on higher education and how students have been forced online. But that doesn’t change the reality that unscrupulous actors are targeting vulnerable students (such as low-income students, veterans, [...]
Our Public Comment to the OCC about “Fair Access to Financial Services”
January 4, 2021 Chief Counsel’s Office Comment Processing Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 400 7th Street SW, Suite 3E-218 Washington, DC 20219 Re: Proposed “Fair Access to Financial Services,” Docket ID OCC_2020-0042 Dear Sir or Madam: We write to provide comment on the proposed [...]
Our Public Comment About the Role of Supervisory Guidance to CFPB
January 4, 2021 Director Kathleen Kraninger Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 1700 G Street NW Washington, DC 20552 Re: Role of Supervisory Guidance, Docket No. CFPB-2020-0033 or RIN 3170-AB02 Dear Director Kraninger: Veterans Education Success was heartened to see that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed [...]
Military.com: Act Now So You Don’t Fall Off the Student Loan Cliff on September 30, 2021
On January 21, 2021 President Biden directed the Education Department to pause payments and interest on all federally-held student loans until September 30, 2021. Read more about it here. This blog was originally posted on Military.com on December 9, 2020. Act Now So You Don't Fall Off the Student [...]
Why Are So Many of Our Military Members Missing Out on Student Loan Forgiveness?
Originally posted here By Mike Saunders and Seth Frotman | November 11, 2020 In 2017, the CFPB reported that 200,000 servicemembers owe nearly $3 billion in federal student loan debt. As this debt looms over the lives of members of the military and their families, it also jeopardizes the ability of our [...]
Our Comment on Time-Barred (“Zombie”) Debt Collection
August 4, 2020 Director Kathleen Kraninger Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 1700 G Street NW Washington, DC 20552 Re: Proposed Time-Barred Debt Disclosures, Docket No. CFPB-2020-0010 or RIN 3170-AA41 Dear Director Kraninger: The undersigned Military and Veteran Service Organizations write to express concern about the Consumer Financial [...]
Representatives from Veterans Education Success, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the American Legion, Military Officer Association of America, and the National Military Family Association announced their support for increasing protections for service members and their loved ones from predatory lenders through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during a joint press conference in May 2019.
MILITARY LENDING ACT UNDER ATTACK
When the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) curtailed enforcement of the Military Lending Act by telling its bank examiners to stop checking for violations of the Act, veterans and military groups responded: (see National Public Radio: White House Takes Aim at Financial Protections for Military and New York Times: Mulvaney Looks to Weaken Oversight of Military Lending). Veterans and military groups responded:
- Nearly 40 veterans and military service organizations call on the CFPB and US Defense Department to stop the rollback of servicemembers’ rights under the Military Lending Act (Aug. 23, 2018) (here) Resubmitted Sept. 5 with additional signatures (here)
- FULL PAGE NEWSPAPER AD nationwide (here)
- Sign the Citizens petition: KeepMilitaryProtections.Org
- Same letter borrowed submitted by a smaller, additional coalition (here)
- US Senators also write to US Defense Department (here)
- US Defense Department response (here)
- American Legion’s Louisiana Commander confronts CFPB’s Mulvaney at a Louisiana Town Hall (here)
- Bipartisan group of 33 state Attorneys General wrote CFPB urging it to enforce the Military Lending Act and protect servicemembers (here)
PROTECTING STUDENTS FROM FORCED ARBITRATION
We defended the rule to protect students from forced arbitration when their rights are violated:
