Question:
Dear Steve,
I read your article on the current situation with the lawsuit between the trade commission and debt relief companies. A little more background I graduated from the for-profit art institute of Fort Lauderdale in 2007 with a bachelor of computer science and illustration. Along with others, I couldn’t find work in my field and the last job the career services sent me was a stock boy at whole foods with the reasoning I could draw the dry erase sale boards. Like many others was scammed into taking loans out during my time there totaling over 70k and have applied for the defense to repayment on my fed student loans of 68k. But I also have 18k in private loans not sure what to do with those.
I have my federal loans being handled through premier solutions servicing and was informed in November about the lawsuit. Since then I have tried calling, emailing and sending messages to them to find out about my loan status and what to do with zero response back from them. With that said I just don’t know what to do next. I have a family and don’t want this do potentially harm us financially especially since we live paycheck to paycheck. Is there someone I can contact to see what I can do with my loans being handled through them?
thank you in advance!
Damon
Answer:
Dear Damon,
You should immediately contact your student loan servicers directly and make sure they have your correct contact information. The situation with Premier Solutions Servicing and the FTC is not good and you should expect them to remain shuttered.
Many times similar third-party student loan assistance companies changed the consumer contact information to their address and the debtor was oblivious to what was actually happening on their account.
On the federal student loan side, you should explore consolidating those into one new Direct Loan and opting for an income-driven repayment to give you the lowest payment.
The outlook on private student loans is less clear. While there are options to explore with private student loans for schools that were not federally approved, you may want to read Top 10 Reasons You Should Stop Paying Your Unaffordable Private Student Loan.
You are not going to escape private student loans without some pain. But there is an off-ramp.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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What about the money that was paid to premier solutions? How do we get back the money that was paid to them and have it apply to our regular loan?
Odds are it’s gone forever.
Asked question.
Answered.