- A student loan ombudsman is an impartial mediator
who can help you resolve any student loan disputes
that you might have with your loan servicer.
So in this video we're gonna be covering
when you should use this type of service
and how a student loan ombudsman can help.
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, it's Justine with The College Investor
Investing and Personal Finance for Millennials.
So did you know, that a student loan ombudsman
you may have not known of this term,
but they are basically Switzerland?
They are a neutral party that can help you take a look at
what's going on with your student loans,
and help you resolve any disputes that you might have.
Now, there are a ton of different things
that might be incorrect or something that could be wrong
with your student loan account.
There's a lot of common disputes,
including missing payments,
maybe your student loan balance is incorrect,
perhaps you're on the wrong repayment terms,
maybe your student loans are in collections
and you're finding that this is incorrect.
There are a ton of common disputes about your student loans.
Be sure to check out our blog article that list
all of these things in which you can actually report
and try to find a resolution.
So if this is something that you're experiencing,
the first step would be to gather
all of the information needed
before you contact your loan servicer.
So you are going to take a look at which type of loan
this applies to, figure out what your payment amount is,
the total outstanding balance that you identify
as being the correct amount,
and also any kind of minimum payments
and what type of repayment plan that you're on.
Having this information ahead of time
and figuring out exactly what needs to happen
in order to resolve this problem,
is going to make those phone calls a lot quicker
because you have the information ready to go.
Now one thing that I like to do,
whenever I'm calling customer service
regardless if it's with student loans,
or maybe a bill or subscription,
is to have a call log or customer service tracker
to really highlight and save the details of those calls.
I like to keep an Excel spreadsheet
and just save it to my computer
so that I have detailed notes of when I called,
what number I called, the customer service reps name
and or ID number, and then any notes related to that call.
That way I can reference that call service tracker again,
and if I have to make additional calls afterwards,
I know exactly what happened, who I talked to,
so that I can get everybody involved up to speed.
You can also keep a journal inside of your desk
and write down any notes related to those calls
so that you have that information on hand.
Another important step when it comes
to managing your student loans
is to keep documentation of your payments.
So if you need to be taking screenshots of the confirmation,
the receipt that you have saying that
you actually paid on that student loan, that's a great idea.
And then also creating a file folder
to save all of those screenshots,
or just keep receipts and everything in a safe place
so that you can reference back
to those accounts and confirmation numbers,
so that you know for sure you made these payments,
this is the repayment plan you're on,
and that can help you resolve any disputes
that you might have.
Now if that doesn't work, if all else fails
and working directly with your student loan servicer
is not working, then you can call
your student loan servicers ombudsman, and yes your lender.
The servicer who has a hold of your student loans
actually has the ombudsman available for you to use
and that would be your next step.
Now if that doesn't work, then you can contact an ombudsman
through your federal or state agencies.
Usually the state ombudsman
is with your state general attorney
or a higher education agency.
So the order in which you want to resolve these issues
is working first directly with your loan servicer,
then going through your loan servicers ombudsman person,
and then finally working with your federal
or state ombudsman to help you resolve the dispute.
All right, there are typically two types of ombudsman,
one that works for your federal student loans,
and then one that works for private student loans.
The federal student loans is through
the Federal Student Aid ombudsman,
and all of your federal loans including direct
or the Family Federal Education Loans, Perkin Loans,
all of those loans will work with an FSA ombudsman.
Any private student loans that you might have,
you'll need to work with a private student loan ombudsman.
Now in any case an ombudsman can be really helpful
in a variety of different ways.
First, they can research the problem and work with you
and the lender to resolve the dispute.
They can also identify and evaluate options,
clarify requirements for any deferment, forbearance,
cancellation and discharge.
They can also explain how interest, late fees
and collection charges work.
Sometimes it just takes a third party to explain
what's going on and you could be missing something
that an ombudsman can clearly see,
and help you see oh, actually, yeah,
I was on the right repayment option
I just didn't really understand how it worked.
They can also review loan payment options,
but they don't have the authority
to overturn decisions made by other entities.
So if there's a decision that's been made
with your loan servicer, they can't overturn that for you,
but they can help explain things to you
and to the loan servicer of what's going on
and figure out what needs to happen
in order for all parties to move forward.
So ombudsmen have a pretty solid track record
of finding success in resolution.
But if you still need help which sometimes unfortunately
can be the case, you can then direct
your complaint towards other entities
like the Federal Trade Commission,
or the Department of Veteran Affairs.
If you have a GI Bill and you're going to college,
you can work directly with the VA to resolve any disputes.
You can also file your complaint
with the better business bureau.
Sometimes even filing a complaint online
can warrant a phone call and you can sometimes
get the attention of the right loan servicers
to help you out.
And if you really want to put it out there,
you can talk about your issue on social media.
Sometimes the public pressure can be enough
for these loan servicers to reach out to you
to handle any problems that you might be having.
Now, if you are experiencing problems
with the collection agency, then you'll want
to direct your problems over towards
the default resolution group,
and they're going to help you with any types of collections
that you might have on your student loans.
But no matter how you slice it, student loans can just be
a bear in figuring out.
That's why we provide free guides for you
to understand how student loans work,
regardless if you have federal private student loans
and how to effectively pay that debt off
as quickly as possible.
For more information on student loan debt
and how to pay it off,
be sure to visit the collegeinvestor.com.