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
Our Written Testimony for House Veterans Affairs Hearing on VA Debt Collection Practices
Veterans Education Success Director of Military & Consumer Policy Mike Saunders' written testimony regarding VA's debt collection practices and GI Bill "overpayment" issues. Testimony of Mike Saunders, Director of Military and Consumer Policy Veterans Education Success Legislative Hearing House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations September 19, 2019 [...]
The Military Lending Act and You
This post was originally published by Military.com on August 13, 2019. The Military Lending Act and You By Mike Saunders, Director for Military and Consumer Policy, Veterans Education Success As an active-duty service member, you have legal rights to low-interest loans, but you might not even know it. You also [...]
Veterans and Military Service Organizations urge the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to maintain mandatory underwriting provisions of the rule regulating Payday, vehicle title and high-cost installment loans
Military and Veteran Service Organizations (MSO/VSOs) write to express opposition to recension of underwriting requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) 2017 rule regulating Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans.
Veterans and Military Service Organizations urge the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau not to delay implementation of Payday Loans protection rule
The undersigned Military and Veteran Service Organizations (MSO/VSOs) write to express opposition to the proposed delay of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) 2017 rule regulating Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans. The rule is currently set to be implemented on August 19, 2019. However, CFPB has proposed [...]
Here are Some Surprising Ways Troops and Vets Can Cut Their Student Loan Debt
Note: This advice column was originally published by Military Times on February 19, 2019 and can be found here. By Mike Saunders, Director of Military & Consumer Policy | VES Hundreds of thousands of veterans, service members and their families have student loans. But most of us have no idea [...]
The Predatory Underworld of Companies that Target Veterans for a Buck
The recent law enforcement crackdown on for-profit colleges is well documented. These schools mislead students by promising a fast track to a brighter future and then loaded students up with mountains of debt for worthless degrees—a form of consumer fraud that stretches back for decades. But the public may be [...]
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:
