With major changes happening at the Department of Education, and mass layoffs happening at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, many student loan borrowers are wondering where they can turn for help if something happens with their student loans.
While federal government options are limited, they’re still available. But many borrowers can also seek assistance from their state governments for help with their loans.
In fact, over the last decade, many states have added resources to help student loan borrowers and also hold loan servicers and other agencies accountable. States have created agencies or groups that have been specifically focused on student loans.
Usually called an ombudsman or a student loan advocate, these individuals and offices have the power to help you with your student loans. In some cases, they can even use state laws to force loan servicers to act.
Here’s what you need to know.
What Types Of Problems Should You Escalate?
Before getting started, it’s important to know what types of problems you should escalate. These resources shouldn’t be your first line — they can’t directly see your loans or make changes. These are the people that you go to when you can’t get the assistance or help you legally deserve.
The most common reasons to seek assistance all stem from trying many times with you loan servicer, and not getting a satisfactory response.
For example:
- Missing loan payments or loan payments that were not applied correctly
- Incorrect loan balance
- Errors involving interest
- Issues with collection activities
- Errors with your credit report
- Problems caused by moving loan servicers
- Misinformation provided by customer service agents
- Problems relating to requirements for loan forgiveness, loan discharge, deferments, forbearances, and reinstating repayment obligations after discharge
- Problems with loan consolidation
Since most of these issues directly involve your loans, you need to go through the proper loan servicer channels first. Then, if you’re not getting a response or the issue fixed, you can escalate it.
Make sure you’re keeping documentation along the way.
Federal Student Loan Assistance
First, you should make sure you escalate the issue to the proper channels first. Each loan servicer has their own ombudsman office. You can call your loan servicer and ask for a supervisor for a review of your issue. This is the first step to trigger a review internally, which may resolve your issue.
After that, if you’re still not getting a resolution, you can go to the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman. Yes, this office is currently understaffed, and reports are it has a backlog of over 16,000 complaints. Regardless, it’s important to get your issue into the system so it can be tracked. And in the future, it can be used to analyze issues.
You can also file a complaint with the CFPB. This is another watchdog agency that is designed to help you resolve issues with your loan servicers, but it is also struggling with staffing. Regardless, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Finally, leverage your congresspeople. Reach out to your two U.S. senators, and your specific U.S. representative and ask them to help you with your issue involving the Department of Education. This is called a casework complaint, and they’ll create a case and direct it to the appropriate federal agency. Beyond being another resource for your individual situation, when your representatives start seeing a lot of issues involving something (and when it starts taking a lot of staff time and attention), it will start to get their attention. Eventually, they won’t be able to ignore it on a macro scale.
State-Based Student Loan Assistance Options
Next, if you’re still not getting resolution (or you want to bring more attention to an issue under state rules), you can reach out to your state’s agency for assistance, if you have one available.
Here are the states that offer assistance:
California
California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation
(866) 275-2677
CA Department of Financial Protection & Innovation
Colorado
Office of the Attorney General
(702) 508-MySL (6975)
Colorado Office Of the Attorney General
District Of Columbia
Department of Securities, Insurance & Banking
(202) 727-8000
DC Student Loan Ombudsman
Illinois
Office of the Attorney General
1-(800)-455-2456
Illinois Attorney General Student Lending
Maine
Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection
(207) 624-8527
Attorney General Consumer Complaints
Maryland
Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation
(410) 230-6077
Student Loan Ombudsman
Massachusetts
Office of the Attorney General
(888) 830-6277
Student Loan Assistance
Minnesota
Office of Higher Education
(651) 259-3965
Office of Higher Education
Nevada
Office of Nevada State Treasurer
(888) 477-2667
Student Loan Ombudsman
New Jersey
Department of Banking and Insurance
(855) 411-2372
Student Loan Information
New York
(800) 342-3736
students@dfs.ny.gov
Student Loan and Debt Relief Resources
Oregon
Division of Financial Regulation
(800) 877-4894
Student Loan Help
Rhode Island
Offices of the Attorney General and General Treasurer
(401) 274-4400
Student Loan Protection Center
Virginia
State Council of Higher Education
(804) 786-2832
studentloan@schev.edu
Student Loan Advising
Washington
Student Achievement Council
(833) 881-0397
studentloanadvocate@wsac.wa.gov
Student Loan Advocacy
Final Reminders For Borrowers
If you’re struggling with getting help for your student loans, there are options available to you.
Even if your state doesn’t have an ombudsman’s office, most state attorneys general will also accept complaints and potentially help you.
Make sure that you are advocating for yourself, especially as key deadlines approach for your student loans.
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