10:30 p.m. Updated to revise email address for submitting comments.

Do you have student loans that aren’t backed by the federal government? The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to hear from you.

The agency is required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law to look into how students are using private loans to finance their college educations. Private loans, made by schools or banks, can be more expensive and carry fewer consumer protections than loans made through the federal student loan program, including Stafford or Perkins loans.

The agency seeks to understand, for instance, why families sometimes take out private loans before exhausting their federal loan options and whether marketing by schools may play a role.

The agency has prepared a report on questions it seeks to answer and will take comments for the next 60 days.

You can submit comments online, or by sending an e-mail to the consumer bureau at CFPB_StudentsFedReg@cfpb.gov.

(You can also mail comments to the following address: Monica Jackson, Office of the Executive Secretary, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Attn: 1801 L Street, Washington, DC 20220.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=56db25c22ed5d1861f43255788cee273