What to Do If Your Student Serving Loan Fucks You
Student loan scams are on the rise , but you need to worry about more than just third parties to get the best out of you. In many cases, your service staff can screw up payments, delay loan applications, or sell your debt without proper notification.
If any of this happens, you’ll want to be prepared. Student Loan Hero has a rundown of what to do if your attendant screw you up.
Your loans disappear
If you are logging into your account to make a payment or check your progress and your balance suddenly goes to $ 0, this is most likely not the miracle it seems – in fact, it is a clear sign that your loans were sold to other service personnel. Here’s how to find your missing SLH loans:
- Contact a student loan service specialist to find out what happened to your loan.
- Check the National Student Loan Data System to see if it has updated information on your transferred loans.
- Review your free credit reports to see if your old or new support staff reported the transfer to the credit bureau.
Once you do, make sure you stay with them to update your information and accept timely payments, otherwise you might get in trouble.
Additional payments are not credited to the main balance
As I wrote here , if you are making additional payments, you need to check with your service provider that the money is going to pay the principal, not interest. This will not only lower your loan amount, but also lower interest in the long run.
Here’s an example of what needs to be sent to the service staff to ensure that they apply any additional payments to the principal, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau :
I am writing to provide you with instructions on how to apply payments if I am sending an amount in excess of the minimum amount due. Please apply payments as follows:
- After applying the minimum amount due for each loan, any additional amount must be applied to the loan with the highest interest rate.
- If there are several loans with the same interest rate, apply the additional amount to the loan with the smallest outstanding principal balance.
- If any additional amount beyond the minimum payable ultimately results in the repayment of the individual loan, please apply the remainder of my payment to the next highest interest rate loan.
Perhaps I will find a way to refinance my loans at a lower rate with another lender. If this lender or any third party makes payments to my account on my behalf, you should follow the instructions above.
Save these instructions. Please apply these instructions to any future overpayments. Please confirm that these payments will be processed as directed, or explain why you are unable to follow these instructions.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Keep copies of everything you send them and any payments you make for your records.
Trouble adjusting your repayment plan
Problems applying for income-driven plans and deferred payments are common reasons borrowers complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about their lending institutions, according to SLH. If your application is slow, follow these steps:
- Make sure all of your application materials are in order and correctly submitted.
- Continue making payments as before to avoid the risk of default or late payment.
- Keep up to date with your service center and check the status of your request frequently.
Most importantly, you want to keep all the documentation and correspondence with your service staff just in case. Take screenshots of your payments and account balances often, and if you suspect something is wrong, contact them or the Student Loans Ombudsman .