Joint “junk fees” comment to CFPB from Student Borrower Protection Center & U.S. PIRG Education Fund

In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) request for information (RFI) on harmful “junk fees,” the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund submitted comments exposing how financial service giants and universities are plaguing postsecondary students with unexpected, unavoidable, and hugely expensive charges on a range of financial products.

Download the full comments on this page. Excerpt:

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) notes in its Request for Information (RFI) that the economy in general and the financial services industry in particular are increasingly dependent on exploitatively structured fee-based revenue that shields market participants from competition. This finding would likely not surprise students, who have long been the targets of fee-driven profiteering and who have responded in droves to the Bureau’s RFI with harrowing narratives of personal loss, food insecurity, and long-term financial damage imposed through junk fees that have lined corporate executives’ pockets.”