Consumer Statement:
Received a letter in the mail that said “Federal Student Loan Consolidation Notice”. I called the number(888)380-6587 on February 2, 2015.
I spoke with Annette Martinez, who mentioned that I may qualify for the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Plan. She asked for my my full name and address. Also asked for my social security number. I did ask why she needed my social and Annette said it was to verify I was who I said I was (should have smelled the scam right then). She then asked for my pin for my student loans. (I found it odd she needed that too, and figured the DoE would have access to that)
She then put me on hold. When she came back, Annette said I qualified for IBR (Income Base Repayment) for $29.99/month for 240 months and then after that, the rest of my loan would be forgiven.
We talked about the different options, and everything seemed legitimate, until Annette mentioned there was a “loan closing cost” of 3 payments of $233, all within less than 30 days.
I started asking questions about the process and why it cost so much to file what she called “administrative forbearance” with FedLoans. Annette said their company was like the H&R Block of student loans and the “loan closing cost” was to pay them and the other branches involved in student loan processing to do all the paperwork. She said that student assist plus would NOT be the ones handling my loans, that they were just the mediator for the Dept. of Education, and that I’d be paying a different loan servicer with lower interest rates. We decided payments would be via checking account and the 3 payments, starting at a later date of February 12, 2015. She then asked me for my routing number and account number to charge the payments and monthly dues to.
I was then emailed an electronic PDF document, and told to sign and send with my first payment when ready (I had received several confirmation emails from Annette throughout this process, and thought she’d answered all the right questions. I was then transferred to student loan processing for a verbal contract agreement, which is essentially me saying that I agree with what Annette mentioned during our earlier conversation. I said yes to everything.
I never found anything incriminating online during this process. But later that day, I spoke with my dad, and he pointed out they would NEVER ask for SS, PIN, driver’s license, or for payments to switch accounts. Not long after, I found the other review of SAP on this site. I immediately called and cancelled and then emailed Annette to cancel and ask that all information be purged. I have kept all the printed documents and filed a 90 day fraud alert on my credit accounts, warned my bank and fedloans, filed a complaint via the BBB, and will be looking into protecting my SS number and possibly changing my student ID if necessary. Thus far, no account activity has occurred (it is February 8, 2015).
Consumer Action Taken:
Emailed and cancelled account and then called the representative and left a voicemail explaining the same. No response from Annette thus far.
Date This Problem Happened: February 2, 2015
State You Live in: Missouri
Race/Ethnicity: White
Age Range: 21-35
Total Amount of Fee Paid:
Company Name: Student Assist Plus
Company Address:
8001 Irvine Center Drive., Suite 400
Irvine, California 92618
Company Telephone Number: 888-456-4055
Website of Company: studentassistplus.com
If you feel you’ve been financially hurt by a debt relief company and deserve a refund, read these step-by-step instructions on how to proceed to attempt to get your money back.
If you do get your money back, come back and leave a comment about it. I’d love to praise companies that step-up and do the right thing for people.
Scam reports are submitted by consumers like you. If you would like to file a scam report, please click here.
If you are the company named in this report and you want to respond, please read How to Handle a Consumer Complaint Like a Pro And Come Out Smelling Like a Rose
- Litigation Practice Group – Consumer Complaint – February 15, 2023 - February 15, 2023
- Zwicker & Associates – Consumer Complaint – December 5, 2022 - December 5, 2022
- South Coast Financial Center – Consumer Complaint – November 7, 2022 - November 7, 2022
I don’t understand the problem everyone has with these companies. I am currently employed by a company doing the same thing. I was looking into my competition when I came across this site. If they do the work for you, you pay the fee. You could file your taxes by yourself but most likely you pay an accountant because they know the best way to get you the biggest refund, we pay to have our oil changed when it literally takes a few minutes to do it our selves. There are a million things that we pay for that we can do our self, but we don’t, we pay someone else to do it for us.
The programs that are being offered are real, some of them have forgiveness at the end if you qualify and stay compliant. If the department of education had your best interest in mind you would have been notified and enrolled in the right program that you qualify for when they became available.
The truth is that these programs were passed for political gain, not to forgive debt. No one is advertising these programs to educate you about them except for the so called “scam” companies. The service providers don’t want you to know about the programs because they lose a ton of money. Don’t be fooled and think that they aren’t making money off you. They are raking in the dough.
Think about it. These “scam” companies open an office (which costs money), build the infrastructure (which costs money), hire and train employees so that they understand the programs and benefits (which costs money), then spend thousands of dollars just to reach out to help people. Not to mention if they are doing it right the money goes into a third party trust account in the customers name until services have been rendered. I’m sorry but that seems pretty noble to me.
I don’t know about you but I would pay someone $1000 if it was going to save me $10,000 and I never had to think about it again. Just my thoughts. What are yours?…
You should file an Attorney General complaint against this company as well. Much more impactful than a BBB complaint. I’m sure you’ve figured out but there’s no such thing as the “Obama Loan Forgiveness Program”. This term is used as a catch-all by the debt relief idiots to describe the free, legal programs that are available to apply for. And such a coincidence that your monthly payment would be 29.99 – shucks, to me that sounds like a marketing number and not a random percentage of your adjusted gross income. It couldn’t be that you qualify for a $0 payment on IBR and this company has deceptively wedged a $29.99 fee into that, could it? No… no one could be that unethical. Or could they?
Student Assist Plus is not the company or affiliated with the company who prepared your consolidation application. We provide a completely separate service. If you would like to know if you are signed up to our program, please call 888-456-4055. We can help with whatever you need, including cancels and refunds. If you would like to speak to the company who prepared your consolidation application, please call the number from the mail you received. Thank you!
Sounds like it was one of your sales affiliates, or vice versa. No excuse for such blatant misrepresentations. Teach your affiliates how to properly sell document preparation services. THE OBAMA LOAN FORGIVENESS PROGRAM DOES NOT EXIST. At least call the programs by their real names. By the way, any complaint that’s registered on here is also sent to the CFPB. You know, the federal agency that just shut down two student debt relief programs? Yeah, those guys… Probably about time for you to lawyer up…