Over the years, there has been a sporadic increase in the scams of different student loan forgiveness programs. As a matter of fact, an initiative called “Operation Game of Loans” was launched to tackle these scammers in the United States.
However, there are certain services that you can actually carry out for yourself, and without any cost of course, via the Department of Education and your federal loan service provider. These services are:
- Applying for student loan forgiveness programs
- Consolidating your federal student loans
- Getting your loans out of default
- Lowering your monthly student loan payment
Student Loan scams appear in various forms, making different claims for service that seem captivating. We have highlighted 5 common student loan forgiveness programs below:
Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
The number one subject in the student loan world is student loan forgiveness program. There are a lot of ways to be eligible for student loan forgiveness including where you work, your career, your condition, among other factors.
The truth remains that student loan forgiveness programs are not a fast and simple procedure, and any company that claims otherwise is definitely looking to scam you. Examples to support this is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) which takes ten years of qualifying loan payments before one can finally apply. In fact, other student loan forgiveness programs may take about 20 to 25 years before you are eligible for the program.
How To Avoid Scam Under This Program
To avoid being scammed under this program, understand that there is no “easy” route or shortcut.To unsuspecting individuals who are seeking fast, immediate and hassle free student loan forgiveness, scammers will definitely try to make money off of them. The bitter truth and reality is that no student loan forgiveness program is fast, immediate or hassle free.
Student Loan Debt Elimination Program
This program in some cases, involves you not paying a dime regarding your loan. The debt will simply be eliminated. This is peculiar only to certain special cases under which the Federal government may allow for student loan debts to be forgiven. These special cases include: closure of your school, disability, and mortality cases. According to the Federal Student Aid website, “If you’re no longer required to make payments on your loans due to other circumstances, such as a total and permanent disability or the closure of the school where you received your loans, this is generally called discharge.”
How To Avoid Scam Under This Program
Although Student Loan Debt Elimination Program is true, you should still endeavor not to pay a dime to anyone to get your loan eliminated. Flee whenever you come across any agency offering you fast debt elimination. It’s a big scam! Scammers may want to entice you that your debt can be totally settled without a single cost.
Advance Fees Program
As earlier stated, there are a number of student loan services provided by the federal government free of charge. Student loans sometimes come with fees, whether private or federal loans, it is not a scam. For instance, although Federal loans have origination fees, they are however summed with the entire amount of your loan. If you default on your loan, you’d have to pay a fee.Likewise, private loans also usually have origination fee or disbursement fee. However, just like federal loans, this fee would be summed with the entirety of your loan.
How To Avoid Being Scammed Under This Program
Scammers may try to convince you that they could help get you lower interest rates or bearable loan conditions if you are open to a small fee upfront. Do not allow some company charge you a fee upfront prior to service provision. Student loan retirement is not designed to work that way. In all, do not allow anyone charge you an upfront fee for any student loan debt service.
Student Loan Consolidation Program
In certain cases, it is okay to embark on student loan consolidation. In fact, you can always consolidate your federal loans for free on the Federal Student Aid website. You can also consider other loan consolidation options if you have a private student loan or a combo of private and federal loans.
How To Avoid Scam Under This Program
Do not pay any consolidating or administrative fee requested by any consolidating agency offering consolidating services. This processing fee is a scam! In addition, you need to understand how consolidation affects plans to repay your student loan. Scam companies won’t inform you of this, however genuine companies would not hesitate to make you understand the consequences.
The Lawsuit Debt Relief Program
This is common to law firms. With this program, they can assure you that they can completely resolve your student loan debt. They will demand money from you to do this, claiming to be saving you thousands of dollars in the process. In most cases, the law firm will obviously never actually pay your loan service provider, thereby placing your loan on default. The moment your loan is in default, the law firm will try to argue that you can’t proceed to make your payments and then tries to bargain a settlement deal with your loan provider based on this claim.
How To Avoid This Program Scam
Beware of this scam! In fact, they might even request that you make your student loan repayment to them, and they will help you bargain a loan settlement deal with your loan provider. It’s still a lie. It is saddening that law firms engage in this dirty act. The desperation of most people to be relieved of their student loan debts is what makes them believe these scams are actually real. However, they are definitely nothing but scams with no genuine good intentions.
The best way to avoid this scam is that it’s better to pay off your loans the right way rather than wasting your money and valuable time with these scam lawyers.
Conclusion
The attracting point of most student loan scams discussed above is that they offer assistance that would be so captivating and too good to be true to individuals with student loan debts, particularly for borrowers with debt as high as $200,000 and above. These Scammers try a lot to appear as “innocent” as possible. Their videos, ads, websites and commercials usually seem very convincing and valid. However, it is your duty to confirm the authenticity of these companies before you engage in any monetary transactions with them.
