Last Updated: September 24, 2019

All of us at CollegeFinance.com appreciate the chance to provide information, tips, and insight to help you get the most out of your college investment.

This “Terms of Use” is between you and College Finance Company, LLC (“College Finance Company,” “College Finance Company, LLC,” “CollegeFinance.com,”, “we”, or “our”) and applies to your use of College Finance Company’s website at www.CollegeFinance.com (the “Site”).

Your Use of CollegeFinance.com’s Service

CollegeFinance.com (operated by College Finance Company, LLC) is a platform providing information about the cost of college.​

The term “Service,” means, collectively, access to information published on our sites, as well as widgets, applications, email notifications and other tools or media, or portions of such media provided by College Finance Company, LLC. When you use CollegeFinance.com, its affiliates, applications, and subsidiaries related by common ownership or control (“we,” “us,” and “our”) for our sites, products, and Services, you are agreeing to the following Terms of Use, all applicable laws and regulations, and you agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. While we attempt to make this agreement as clear as possible, it contains contractual verbiage.  If you do not agree with any of these terms, you may not use or access our Services.

Our content and Services are developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. All information in our Services is presented for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or financial advice. Use of our Services is not a replacement for consulting your own tax, legal and financial advisors before regarding your individual situation.

By accessing and using our Services, you are agreeing to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy (collectively referred to as the “Agreement”). It is important to read our entire Agreement carefully as some of the provisions affect your legal rights.  These Terms of Use include an agreement to resolve any disputes through binding arbitration that includes a class action waiver, as well as important disclaimers, warranties and limitations on liability.​

As a condition of your access to and use of the Services, you agree that you will not use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms and that you will comply with all applicable laws and any conditions or restrictions imposed by these terms. The Services are offered for your personal and non-commercial use only, and you are prohibited from using, and are expressly not granted the right to use the Services for any other purpose.​

We reserve the right to make changes to how we operate and provide our Services, including adding new services, modifying existing services, or suspending, discontinuing, or terminating your access to any or all portions of our Services.

Personal Information Collection: When you use our Services and provide us information about yourself, you authorize us to create and maintain an account in your name using your account registration information and other information that may be collected about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy as part of providing our Services.  When you use our Services, we may collect Personal Information from you which can be used to identify you, including, but not limited to your name, email address, education information, financial information, username and password. Some Usage Data may also be collected when using our services including, but not limited to Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses, log files, unique device identifiers, browser tyoe, pages viewed, any links you click on to leave or interact with our Services, and other usage information collected from cookies and other tracking technologies.​

By using our services, you agree that College Finance Company, LLC may share your information, including Personal Information and Usage Data, with Third Party service providers who help us operate our business processes. These service providers might include, but are not limited to, website designers, email service providers, fraud detection and prevention services, customer care resources, or data analytics contractors.  In addition, College Finance Company, LLC may share your Personal Information and/or Usage Data with advertising networks, marketing partners, publishers and other entities who perform analytics and advertise our products and services on websites not affiliated with us as described in our Privacy Policy. College Finance Company, LLC is not responsible for any data collection and practices of non-affiliated third-parties that are linked to or from our Website.​

Furthermore, by using our services, you confirm that you are authorized to provide us with any data you submit to College Finance Company, LLC. Further, you acknowledge that once your data is submitted to us, we may use the data, absent any personally identifiable information about you, to conduct research.  Once the data has been stripped of your personally identifiable information, the data is the sole property of College Finance Company, LLC and we may use it at our sole discretion.​

If you knowingly misrepresent the data you provide to us we may terminate your use of our Services without notice.

Communication Agreement  

By using our Services, you agree to receive periodic email, text messages (if you opt in), push notifications, browser notifications, or even snail mail from us for marketing and non-marketing purposes associated with the business of the Services. You confirm that all of your contact information is correct and you are the authorized user for the email address(es) provided. You also agree to notify us promptly if contact information changes in the future. You understand that your wireless service provider’s message and data rates may apply to the text messages that we send to or receive from you.  You will be able to unsubscribe from these email updates at any time.​

Territorial Restrictions  

We control and operate our Services from the United States.  Our website and Services are governed by the laws of the United States and are intended for the enjoyment of residents of the United States only. We make no representation that the website and Services are governed by or operated in accordance with the U.S. laws.  We make no representations that our content or Services, are appropriate for access or use in territories outside the U.S. We reserve the right to limit the availability of our Services to any person, geographic area, or jurisdiction, at any time and in our sole and absolute discretion.

Links to or Connections with Third Party Sites or Applications  

Our Services or communications may contain Third Party offers, content or links to Third Party sites, applications or services.  Our Services may also include features that allow you to connect your CollegeFinance.com account with accounts or services provided by third parties, such as accounts you maintain with financial institutions or social media platforms. We do not control, maintain, or endorse the Third Party content or services, and we are not responsible or liable for any Third Party content or service, including any damages, losses, failures, or problems caused by, related to, or arising from Third Party content or service. Your interactions and business dealings with the Providers of the Third Party content or service, including products or services offered by such third parties, are solely between you and the Third Party. You should review all of the relevant terms and conditions associated with Third Party content or service, including any privacy policies and Terms of Use. We are not responsible for any information that you agree to share with third parties.​

Our content  

All content and materials, including but not limited to text, images, calculations, visual interfaces, information, data, and computer code (referred to as the “Content”), provided by us through our Services and all related intellectual property rights are the property of College Finance Company, LLC and/or its third-party licensors. Our Content is protected by US. and international intellectual property laws and treaties. You are permitted to use our Content only on our Services, and you may not copy, modify, sell, reproduce, distribute, republish, display, post, create derivative or collective works from, or transmit in any form (including in-line linking or mirroring) our Content, in whole or in part, without our express prior written consent. You may not reverse engineer or reverse compile any of our Services or the technology used to operate our Services. Nothing in the Agreement or our Services grants you, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use our Content except as expressly stated in the Agreement.

Our Partners’ Intellectual Property

Our Services may also display certain intellectual property, such as company, product, and service name and logos, that is owned by our Third Party partners. Nothing in the Agreement or our Services grants you, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to copy, modify, sell, reproduce, distribute, republish, display, post, create derivative works from or transmit in any form (including in-line linking or mirroring) any of our Third Party partners.

Infringement of Rights

You may not use our Services in any manner that infringes the rights of any Third Party. If you believe, in good faith, that any of our Content infringes your copyrights, you may send a notice of infringement (“Notice”) under the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by email at legal@CollegeFinance.com or regular mail to College Finance Company, 399 Boylston Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02116.

College Finance Company, LLC reserves the right to block or otherwise prohibit in our sole discretion any individual who repeatedly posts materials that are alleged to infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

Use License  

Permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of our content or Services for personal, non-commercial transitory viewing only. This is the grant of a license, not a transfer of title, and under this license you may not:

• Modify or copy the materials
• Use the materials for any commercial purpose, or for any public display (commercial or non-commercial)
• Attempt to decompile or reverse engineer any software contained on our website(s);
• Remove any copyright or other proprietary notations from the materials
• Transfer the materials to another person or “mirror” the materials on any other server
• Use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent or other device or mechanism (including, without limitation, customized browsers, spiders, robots, avatars or intelligent agents) to navigate or search CollegeFinance.com other than the search engine and software available from CollegeFinance.com on such CollegeFinance.com and other than generally available Third Party web browsers such as Firefox is strictly prohibited.

This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by College Finance Company, LLC at any time. Upon terminating your viewing of these materials or upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

Disclaimers  

We provide our Content and Services “as is” and “as available” without any warranty or condition of any kind, express or implied. College Finance Company, LLC, on behalf of itself, its affiliates and its licensors, disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, relating to our Services or Content,  including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, quiet enjoyment, quality, accuracy, title and non-infringement, and any warranty arising out of the course of dealing, usage or trade.​

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from our Content and Services, or otherwise available through our Services will create any warranty regarding CollegeFinance.com or any of our Services that is not expressly stated in these terms. You use our Services, and use, access, download, or otherwise obtain our Content or other content available through our services, at your own discretion and risk. You assume all risk for any damage that may result from your use of or access to our Services, your dealings with any other member or Third Party, and your use of our Content or other content available through our services. You are solely responsible for any damage to your property (including any computer system or mobile device used in connection with our Services), or the loss of data that may result from the use of our Services or the use of any of our Content or other content available through our Services.​

College Finance Company, LLC does not guarantee the continuous operation or access to the service and assumes no liability or responsibility for (i) any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from our Service; (ii) any unauthorized access to or use of our servers and/or any and all personal information stored therein; (iii) user content or the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any Third Party; (iv) any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like that may be transmitted to or through the service by any third-party; (v) that our website or Service will be available at any particular time or location, uninterrupted or secure or free of viruses or other harmful components; and/or (vi) that any defects or errors will be corrected.​

You acknowledge that College Finance Company, LLC is solely an intermediary between you and our Third Party partners whose offers we present. College Finance Company, LLC expressly disclaims any liability for any errors or omissions in our Content or our Services.​

Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this section shall affect warranties which are incapable of exclusion or restriction under applicable law.​

Limitation of Liability  

College Finance Company, LLC and its representatives, agents, and any of their respective officers, directors, equity holders, employees, parent entities, subsidiaries, affiliated entities, representatives, agents and licensors (collectively, the “College Finance Company, LLC parties”) will not be liable to you or any Third Party for any special, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages (including but not limited to, loss of profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use, loss of data, business interruption, personal injury, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of revenue, or other intangible losses) arising out of or relating in any way to our Services or Content whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless College Finance Company, LLC, its affiliates, licensors and service Providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to our Service, including any data or content transmitted or received by you; (ii) your violation of any term of this Agreement, including without limitation your breach of any of the representations and warranties; (iii) your violation of any Third Party right, including without limitation any right of privacy or intellectual property rights; (iv) your violation of any applicable law, rule or regulation; (v) any other party’s access and use of our Service with your unique username, password or other security code; or (vi) any other relating to your violation of these Terms of Use or your use of our Services or Content other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use. College Finance Company, LLC reserves the right but not the obligation, at our expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and in such case, you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claim.

Governing Law  

Any claim relating to College Finance Company, LLC Services shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without regard to its conflict of law provisions.​

You and College Finance Company, LLC agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy between you and College Finance Company, LLC arising in connection with or relating in any way to this Agreements or to your relationship with our Services (whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other legal theory, and whether the claims arise during or after the termination of the Agreement) will be determined by mandatory binding individual (not class) arbitration. Any arbitration hearing will take place at a location to be agreed upon in Massachusetts. You and College Finance Company, LLC further agree that the arbitrator shall have the exclusive power to rule on his or her own jurisdiction, including any objections with respect to the existence, scope or validity of the Arbitration Agreement or to the arbitrability of any claim or counterclaim. Arbitration is more informal than a lawsuit in court. THERE IS NO JUDGE OR JURY IN ARBITRATION, AND COURT REVIEW OF AN ARBITRATION AWARD IS LIMITED. There may be more limited discovery than in court. The arbitrator must follow this Agreement and can award the same damages and relief as a court (including attorney fees), except that the arbitrator may not award any relief, including declaratory or injunctive relief, benefiting anyone but the parties to the arbitration. This arbitration provision will survive termination of the Agreement.​

A party who intends to seek arbitration must first send a written notice of the dispute to the other by certified mail (“Notice”) to the College Finance Company address. The Notice must: (a) describe the nature and basis of the claim or dispute; and (b) set forth the specific relief sought (“Demand”). You and College Finance Company agree to use good faith efforts to resolve the claim directly, but if you and College Finance Company  do not reach an agreement to do so within 30 days after the Notice is received, you or us may commence an arbitration proceeding. During the arbitration, the amount of any settlement offer made by you or College Finance Company must not be disclosed to the arbitrator until after the arbitrator makes a final decision and award, if any. If, after finding in your favor in any respect on the merits of your claim, the arbitrator issues you an award that is greater than the value of College Finance Company, LLC’s last written settlement offer made before an arbitrator was selected, College Finance Company, LLC will pay you the amount awarded by the arbitrator. The arbitration proceedings, including any exchanged materials, shall be confidential and you and College Finance Company, LLC  agree to use reasonable efforts to streamline the proceedings, including discovery, consistent with the objectives of efficient dispute resolution.​

Waiver of Class Action or Jury Trial 

You and College Finance Company, LLC agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or a class member in any purported class or representative proceeding.  Also, you and College Finance Company, LLC agree to waive the right to a trial by jury. Further, unless both you and College Finance Company, LLC agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims or otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.

Deactivation and Termination  

The Agreement is effective until your account, if applicable, is deactivated by either you or College Finance Company, LLC and you discontinue all use of our Services. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any section of the Agreement that by its nature is intended to survive termination of the Agreement or your use or access to our Services or Content will survive such termination.

Changes to Our Terms of Use  

Periodically, we may enhance our Terms of Use.  We reserve the right to make changes or updates at any time.  If we make material changes to the way we process your Personal Information or Usage Data, we will revise the date on this webpage. We encourage you to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the Information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications. If you no longer wish to use our Services based on these changes, you may deactivate or terminate your account(s).​

The materials contained in this website are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

If you have questions, complaints, or suggestions regarding our Terms of Use, please contact us at legal@CollegeFinance.com.