Student borrowers should instruct lenders to apply payments that are more than the minimum to their highest interest loans, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra said Wednesday.
He noted if a student borrower has several loans with the same servicer and doesn’t provide instructions, the servicer will probably allocate excess payments across all loans.
“This means the borrower will pay down debt slowly and pay more money in interest over the life of the loan,” Chopra said in a report and a press conference.
Pre-payment penalties are barred for federal and private student loans.
The CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman faulted many student lenders for making it difficult for borrowers to give instructions online or with monthly payments.
In the report, Chopra said it may be useful for Congress to look into whether some recent servicing reforms for credit cards and mortgages should also be applied to student loans.
But he cautioned many of those consumer protections may not be a good fit because the characteristics of the loans are different.
The CFPB executive noted unlike student borrowings, credit cards are revolving loans and mortgages are generally for a single loan.
He said the CFPB is finding student borrowers are having more success with servicers in modifying loan prepayments than they did last year.
After spotlighting problems with military student borrowers in 2012, the CFPB said some lenders and servicers have done a better job at providing them with the protections they are entitled to under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, although problems still exist for many men and women in uniform paying off college loans.
CFPB Provides Advice On Reducing Student Loan Debt
October 16, 2013
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The one industry numerous people have been waiting for the CFPB to start watching is debt collection companies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does have the mandate to do so, as they are non-bank financial agencies. The agency has also informed numerous corporations in the debt collection business that they will be under CFPB direction starting in Jan. Get a personal loan to pay back that debt.