Not just pg, also the stripe founders have been fawning over Austen. They all knew it was a predatory “school” but backed it anyway.
It seems kind of important to the premise. These things may have been loans and had a finance charge or whatever. But if you can “default” and nothing happens… what are they really?
Later, they extended it to eight years and removed the “tech job” stipulation. I read one account a guy owing money who worked as a mailman.
The important part of this is a loan gives you rights as a creditor that an ordinary Accounts Payable does not. Did Lambda School’s creditors ever exercise those rights? If not, how important is the existence of a finance charge or APR or whatever? I mean, if it is only a loan for the purpose of being a product for banks, but functionally is just a, whatever, a payment plan: man, the CFPB is basically complaining about annual billing versus monthly billing discounts, bundling, and any number of psychological tricks. Scummy yes, but dramatic? No.