Reboot Your LifeTampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

One of our PSLF class actions against the largest student loan servicer in the United States, Navient, was profiled by ABC Action News here in Tampa last week.  Our clients are finding they have to basically start all over with their ten years of Public Service Loan Forgiveness because the servicers are telling borrowers incorrectly that their payments for the last ten years qualified when in fact, they did not.  In the client interviewed for this story, Gill Cottrill, it’s all because he had the wrong loan type.  He had an older FFEL consolidation loan as opposed to a newer Direct loan.  That simple fact has cost him everything!  He has now had to move across the country to a lower cost of living area in order to try to pay down his student loan debt — debt that should have now been paid after his ten years of payments.

https://www.onenewspage.com/video/20180201/9604344/Student-Loan-Nightmare-Navient-accused-of-misleading-students.htm

If you believe you may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness but are worried that you somehow may also be denied, or worse yet, have actually been denied, you should seek out a qualified student loan attorney.  Our Navient case is seeking nationwide status.  We have another case pending against Great Lakes.  More may follow against other servicers who also misled their customers.

CNN Money recently featured two of our clients, Amanda Lawson-Ross and Bill Cottrill, in a story Student Loan Nightmare:  ‘I have to start all over’.  These two clients filed Complaints seeking class action status.

One observation in the story:  “They make it incredibly difficult to take advantage of [PSLF]; you have to jump through so many hoops just to qualify.”  My advice:  don’t rely on your servicer (Great Lakes, Navient, FedLoan, Nelnet, AES etc.) with $11/hour employees who are likely paid incentives to reduce call duration and work for the creditor for correct information.  Seek Help Now!

A report was issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the summer that spotlights the lack of accurate information borrowers are receiving about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program even after identifying themselves as a public worker.

Parent Plus loans continue to be a big problem.  Not only are the consumers unable to pay the loans that were taken out for their children, they are continuing to not take advantage of plans that would allow them to pay less without hurting their credit.

Case in point: (As an aside, this client found me by googling “student loan nightmare”.  Sad, but true.)

One client I met with this week received a statement from her FedLoan servicer that the amount due was now $542.88.  On an income of $35,000 with a husband unable to work, our client simply could not afford that.  When she called her servicer, she was informed that she did not qualify for income based repayment and her only option once she came off forbearance was to pay $542.88.  But we can lower her payment by more than 50%!  And once she retires, her payment can likely go to zero.