Facing more than $80,000 in student loan debt, Tiffany Tatafu did what thousands of other student loan borrowers do: She searched for answers on her phone.
‘They wouldn’t give me any answers’ Tatafu’s experience is a textbook example of how third-party companies prey on vulnerable student loan borrowers. Based on her $45,000 annual income and family size of three, Tatafu’s monthly payment was set at $120. For one year, she made those payments to the debt-relief company, plus an extra $50 for the company’s monthly service fee.
Despite the company’s pitch, signing up for federal repayment plans isn’t impossibly difficult. Borrowers can submit the income-driven repayment paperwork to their federal student loan servicer on their own — free. A final wrinkle complicating Tatafu’s situation: The debt relief company contracts out the handling of monthly payments. Even if she cancels the debt relief company’s services, she still owes fees to the company handling the payments for the rest of her three-year contract or she risks damaging her credit.