Newsroom

April 25, 2017

CFPB 'snapshot' report reviews student loan complaints

Student loan borrowers continue to complain about poor information from and sloppy practices by servicers, according to the CFPB's monthly consumer "snapshot" report issued Tuesday. As of April 1, the bureau has handled about 44,400 student loan complaints from consumers.

At $1.4 trillion, student loan debt represents the U.S.'s second-largest debt market behind mortgages, the CFPB noted.

The bureau's report noted that student loan borrowers also complain about difficulty enrolling and staying in an income-driven repayment plan, and confusion about their progress toward loan forgiveness programs. Specifically, consumers have expressed concerns about their standing in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which is a program allowing forgiveness of remaining student loan balances if certain conditions are met. The three companies that have received the most student loan-related complaints include Navient Solutions LLC, Fedloan Servicing/AES and Nelnet.

In January, the CFPB sued Navient for creating obstacles to repayment for borrowers by providing bad information, processing payments incorrectly and failing to act when complaints were lodged.

This month's CFPB "snapshot" report also highlighted complaints from Nevada and the Las Vegas metro area. As of April 1, consumers in Nevada have submitted 14,600 of the 1,163,200 complaints the CFPB has handled. Of those complaints, 10,800 came from consumers in the Las Vegas metro area.