Aug 3 2012

Meet Julio from Florida

Since we launched on July 21st 2011, we’ve heard directly from consumers about the challenges they face in the marketplace, brought their concerns to the attention of financial institutions, and helped address their complaints. Accepting, resolving, and analyzing consumer complaints is an integral part of our work.

Periodically, we’ll feature stories from consumers who we have helped, and who have agreed to let the CFPB make their stories public.

Julio, a 31-year-old waiter from Florida struggled to pay his private student loans from a for-profit college after his payments shot up.

When Julio left Puerto Rico to pursue his dream of studying to be an artist, he chose a for-profit college that he says advertised itself as a top ranking school. But after accruing $110,000 in debt and graduating with only an Associate’s Degree, not the Bachelor’s he wanted, he couldn’t find a job in his field. The college was not competitive, he was told.

Like many other students, Julio says the school steered him into taking on expensive private loans before exhausting his federal loan options. For more than a year, he promptly paid $700 a month to the private student loan lender. But when his federal loan kicked in, his payments increased to $1,100 a month and he could no longer make ends meet. He called his private student lender and asked to work out a deal for lower, extended payments. The company refused, he said.

After Julio contacted the CFPB, the loan provider discovered that Julio was eligible for a reduced-payment program. Julio’s private student loan payments were cut back to $407 a month for the next year. Julio is still working out a plan for to reduce his payments for the federal loans.

Learn more

To see more about how we handle consumer complaints, read our Consumer Response Snapshot and to see all credit card complaints, visit our consumer complaint database.

http://www.ConsumerLitigators.com/ Consumer Litigation Group

Private student loan lenders are protected from bankrupting consumers. However, there’s no downside for these student loan lenders. They get all the profit with no risk. Private student loans are even insured by TERRI. So there is truly no risk to these lenders. Therefore, the CFPB should propose and implement regulations requiring private student loan lenders to obey the same regulations applicable to federal student loans. For instance private student loans should have the same deferment and forbearance options as federal student loans.
Anonymous

helpful information
NoHelpToMe

Hmm, this is interesting. When I contacted the CFPB for help, they did not seem to understand why I would not want a late fee to remain on my account after I had already paid it. I’m glad Julio got a better result.
Straw9494

Anyone wonder why Julio would take on $110,000 in debt to become an artist? Has artist become a lucrative career all of a sudden and does Julio have any responsibility for that or is it all due to deceptive actions, fraud and greedy bankers?
Trevor

While I’m glad that Julio is now able to make his payments, I think this sends a very bad message to Americans. Julio didn’t do adequate research on his own, and ended up paying a ton of money for an associates degree in a historically low paying field. Julio entered into a contract to repay his loans according to the agreed upon terms. The lender is under no obligation to modify those terms. The CFPB strong-armed the lender to lower the payments. This basically sends the message that if people are irresponsible, and get in over their heads, the government will come and save them. Julio’s lack of personal responsibility does not equal abuse by the lender and shouldn’t be an issue that a government agency gets involved in. The CFPB needs to focus on actual cases of abuse and not just unbased consumer complaints.