Many American students today are familiar with the concept of “student loans,” but many have no idea how and where to get a loan on good terms.
Where can I get a loan?
As soon as you google this request, a considerable number of companies will offer you their services on the most favorable terms. However, not all are so simple.
Today, the topic of obtaining or canceling student loans is increasingly becoming a target for scammers who want to get the most out of naive clients. Therefore, you must do extensive research and visit well-established websites like Purefy, where you can find reputable companies offering the best loan rates.
In this article, we’ll show you how you can avoid unpleasant encounters with credit scammers.
The company requires you to pay advance payments
If a company requires you to pay an advance or make an advance payment without giving a reason, most likely, you are faced with scammers. Often fraudsters may require you to provide your banking information, but in no case should you provide your data to any companies, especially before signing a contract with you. You must know all the terms and conditions of your agreement before providing any information about yourself.
You can always get a free consultation on choosing a loan from credit consultants. However, please be aware that prepaying a loan before signing the contract is illegal in the United States.
The company “guarantees” you fast student loan relief
Student loan relief companies cannot influence the terms of your creditors. Such companies cannot “negotiate” with the companies from which you took out a loan. Repayment of federal loans is carried out due to income-based repayment plans, the terms of which are established by federal law. To obtain a federal student loan forgiveness, you must apply to the appropriate federal institution. The federal loan forgiveness process can take a very long time, and if some private companies promise to intervene in this process, you are dealing with fraud.
The private company promises to remove your legally owed loans from your credit report
Private firms dealing with credit repair cannot erase student loans or any other debt types that you owe lawfully. On the other hand, if a debt collector calls you to collect a bill, make sure you owe the requested amount. To avoid the scam, you need to ask for written confirmation of your debt.
A company pressures you to sign a “power of attorney” contract
Some scammers can demand that you sign the following contracts, which can cut off your communication with your legal contractor:
1. A power of attorney
2. Third-party authorization
These contracts will give a right to the company to negotiate with a debtor company on your behalf. In that case, this company will ask you to provide them with the monthly repayment amount, which they will further hand to your servicer. It is a very dangerous scam that can cost you a lot of money.
The company demands your FSA ID
Every person who receives federal student loans has a Federal Student Aid account. Some companies can demand you to share your account information with them, including your user name and passwords. Thus, you will provide information about your loans. That will allow a scammer to change loan details on your behalf. Neither your servicers nor the US Department of Education will demand your FSA ID.
A company pretends to be connected with the Department of Education or your servicer
Some scammers can have logos, email addresses, websites, or names that look familiar to the US Department of Education or your servicer. In that case, do not provide any information to such a company before getting additional information from the legal sources. If you have faced any such scam, report it immediately to police services. Remember that governmental organizations have “.gov” in their website address.
Conclusion
While it is easy enough to spot loan scammers, you still need to be careful. Your future depends on the correct repayment of your debt. Therefore, you must take loans very seriously.
Be sure to ask companies for the terms of the contract, do not pay for services without signing agreements, trust only government organizations, as well as your legal creditor. If you stick to the advice in this article, you will never have to worry about student loan scams.
