U.S. Colleges Taking Loan Kickbacks, Reaping Other Benefits from Broke Students
March 17th, 2007The invisible hand of the market, shaking down students.
Via: MSNBC:
Colleges across the country are taking kickbacks from student loan companies and reaping other benefits while making it harder for students to get better deals on their loans, the state attorney general has charged.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday an investigation he began last month into the $85 billion student loan industry found numerous arrangements made to benefit schools and lenders over the students.
…
“There is an unholy alliance between banks and institutions of higher education that may often not be in the students’ best interest,†Cuomo said. “The financial arrangements between lenders and these schools are filled with the potential for conflicts of interest. In some cases they may break the law.â€
Investigators found that many colleges have established questionable “preferred lender†lists and entered into revenue sharing and other financial arrangements with those lenders.
In the process, students have been denied their choice of lender, or faced difficulty using that lender, hurting their chances of getting better loan terms, the attorney general said.
Two-thirds of college students take out loans for college, he said.
Since most colleges and universities in the US are run as businesses, not as educational institutions.. this should come as no surprise.
Although the schools’ web addresses end in .edu – this is misleading.. they should read .com
It’s all about the bottom line! 🙂
Never borrow money from banks they create them from nothing. Even a mafia boss is more honest than that, he cannot do what banks do
and shaking down Registered Nurse Jane Doe, as well as her husband, Postman John Doe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/business/14debt.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin