Boston Student Loan Lawyer

Law Office of Adam S. Minsky

Two Major Student Loan Servicers to Merge

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BREAKING NEWS – Two of the largest student loan servicers in the country have just announced a merger. Nelnet will be purchasing Great Lakes Higher Education for $150 million.

Currently, the U.S. Dept. of Education contracts out servicing operations to four primary companies: Nelnet, Great Lakes, FedLoan Servicing (part of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority, or PHEAA) and Navient. These servicers also manage private loans on top of their federal student loan portfolios. Assuming the merger is approved, the combined Nelnet-Great Lakes entity would become the largest student loan servicer in the country.

What is fascinating about this – and, arguably, quite troubling – is that while student loan servicing remains atrocious, Great Lakes generally has the fewest customer complaints of the four major U.S. Dept. of Education servicing companies. Great Lakes is also the only nonprofit servicer of the four.  If this merger is approved, Great Lakes will effectively cease to exist, as it will become part of Nelnet. That will leave only three major servicing companies handling Direct federal student loans, two of which are currently subject to major lawsuits for systematic servicing problems (Navient and FedLoan Servicing/PHEAA). Read More

BREAKING: CFPB Goes After Major Private Student Loan Holder

| Articles Current Events Default Private Student Loans

This is a developing story.

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has reached a major enforcement agreement with National Collegiate Student Loan Trust, the holder of hundreds of thousands of student loan accounts, about its debt collection practices. This agreement has the potential to impact thousands of student loan borrowers across the country.

Background

National Collegiate Trust (“NCT”) is a collection of individual trust entities that purchased hundreds of thousands of private student loan accounts from commercial lenders (mostly banks) through securitization. In other words, banks bundled many private student loan accounts together, and then sold the bundles to NCT. When student loan borrowers with NCT-purchased accounts became unable to pay, NCT aggressively pursued these borrowers through private debt collectors and litigation.Read More

Student Loan Management When Disaster Strikes

| Articles Current Events Income-Driven Repayment Student Loans 101

It’s a scary time for millions of Americans right now. Much of eastern Texas has been declared a disaster area following Hurricane Harvey. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been declared disaster areas as well following Hurricane Irma, and the southeastern U.S. (especially Florida) may be next. The last thing anyone in those areas is thinking about right now is student debt. But what happens to your student loans when a disaster strikes?Read More

Mass. Attorney General Sues FedLoan Servicing – FAQs

| Articles Current Events Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness

Yesterday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit against loan student servicing giant FedLoan Servicing (formally known as the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority, or “PHEAA” for short). The lawsuit alleges widespread loan servicing problems that have harmed thousands of borrowers. The allegations against FedLoan Servicing are entirely unsurprising to me, as I’ve written extensively about ongoing problems with this student loan servicing company. But this is a major development and represents an important step in holding student loan servicers accountable for their actions.

Here are some common questions I’m getting about the lawsuit – and my answers.Read More

Public Service Loan Forgiveness: The Latest

| Articles Current Events Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a program that allows borrowers to have any remaining balance on their federal Direct student loans forgiven after 120 “qualifying payments” (typically under an income-driven repayment plan). Borrowers must work full-time for a public service employer to qualify. For hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of student loan borrowers, it is a critical program that allows people to work in traditionally low-paying sectors that often require advanced degrees.

The PSLF program has been in the news a lot lately, however, and not in a good way. There’s been talk about changing or eliminating the program. There’s been news about the U.S. Dept. of Education denying people access to the loan forgiveness benefit. And no one has been granted forgiveness yet under the program. There’s a lot of uncertainty, which is understandable given PSLF’s complexity and the constant stream of news stories.

So let’s take a moment and review where things are.Read More

My Testimony In Support of the Student Loan Bill of Rights

| Articles Current Events Policy & Reform

Yesterday, I testified at the Massachusetts State House in support of the “Student Loan Bill of Rights,” which would introduce new statewide protections for student loan borrowers in Massachusetts. Below is my testimony.

If you live in Massachusetts, contact your state representative and state senator and ask them to support the Student Loan Bill of Rights.

Dear Honorable Chairs of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure:

I am writing to you today in support of S129, the “Student Loan Bill of Rights,” sponsored by Senator Eric Lesser.

By way of background, I am a solo-practicing attorney with a uniquely-focused practice devoted entirely to helping student loan borrowers. To my knowledge, I am the only such attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – and one of the only in the country – specializing in this area of law. I have a unique perspective on the student loan crisis, particularly as it impacts student loan borrowers here in our Commonwealth.Read More

Student Loan News Summary – June 2017

| Articles Current Events For-Profit Colleges Loan Forgiveness Private Student Loans

Happy summer, everyone. With all the big national news going on lately, there’s a lot of developments in student loan law and policy that are flying a bit under the radar. Let’s bring everyone up to speed.

Credit Report Changes Will Help Student Loan Borrowers Who’ve Been Sued

Starting July 1, the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) will no longer report civil judgments on people’s credit reports. There have been ongoing concerns about credit reporting errors for judgments, since a judgment is often not linked to a person’s social security number. This is a significant change that will have a direct, positive impact on borrowers who have been sued by their student loan lenders.Read More

Updates on Trump’s Student Loan Proposals

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn Policy & Reform

It’s been a whirlwind week. Last week’s leaked budget documents from the Trump administration showed proposed cuts to critical student loan programs including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as well as major changes to income-driven repayment plans. The proposals sparked panic; hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers have made major life decisions – selecting specific careers and specific repayment plans – in reliance on the continued existence of these programs. To have the rug pulled out from under them would be disruptive and unfair, and would likely be the basis of viable legal challenges.

After just a few days, we have some important updates on some of these reforms. Some good news, and some bad. Read on.Read More

BREAKING: Trump Budget Proposal Ends Public Service Loan Forgiveness

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn Policy & Reform

President Trump’s budget proposal calls for the elimination of funding for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The program allows for borrowers who are repaying their Direct federal student loans under an income-driven repayment plan while working full time for a public service employer to have any remaining balance forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments. The first wave of borrowers eligible for forgiveness under this program will be applying later this year.

While this is certainly a time to be extremely vigilant, there are two things to keep in mind before panicking:Read More

How to Guard Against Bad Student Loan Servicing

| Articles Current Events Policy & Reform Student Loans 101

We all know student loan servicing is a mess, and it has been for a long time. The federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on private companies to handle student loan accounts, but these companies have been the subject of widespread complaints and major lawsuits due to misconduct and poor outcomes.

The Obama administration had begun to take steps to reign in bad student loan servicing conduct, but Betsy DeVos – the Secretary of the Dept. of Education appointed by Donald Trump – has begun to roll back these initiatives. Specifically, she rescinded Obama-era guidance that would take into account borrower outcomes and customer satisfaction when awarding federal servicing contracts to student loan companies. She also appeared to pull the plug on an attempt to simplify and centralize student loan management through a single web portal, which would have effectively allowed borrowers to bypass their student loan servicer.

It’s an uncertain and frustrating time for student loan borrowers. However, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from servicing errors and misconduct. While these steps are of course no guarantee that you’ll avoid problems managing your student loans, they may help.Read More