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If you have a student loan serviced by Great Lakes, it would be better to take your time reading this, because there are some good and bad news that you might be interested in. Great Lakes Student Loans servicer is one of the giant loan servicer company in the US, where the other competitors are FedLoan, Nelnet, Navient. Unlike the other many student loan servicing companies, fortunately, this loan servicer is not the worst one to deal with. Great Lakes Student Loans servicing has a range of advantages that you can take the benefit of them. Also, there are some kinds of warnings you are going to need knowing while dealing with Great Lakes Student Loans.
If you need any help or consultation related to any subject with student loans, for more detail information and specific instruction, please call Student Loans Resolved Helpline. Our professional team of legal advisors and financial experts will guide you on to make a wise decision about your loans or debts.
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation is one of the most outstanding student loan servicing companies in the US among the other giants such as Navient, Nelnet, and FedLoan. Great Lakes is a not-for-profit organization which is directly working with educational institutions and lenders. Even though the organization is the one who has received the lowest number of complaints by borrowers, still there are some problems the people can face.
By the way, it worth to note that in 2018, Great Lakes merged with Nelnet which is the student loan servicer with the highest number of customer complaints. Despite the fact that it was combined with Nelnet, the company announced that it would keep operating under its name. It is better to keep in mind that most likely this acquisition will make a difference in the service you will receive by Great Lakes in the future.
Overall, the Great Lakes deals with loans with an amount of $51 billion. They offer a comprehensive list of services such as student loan forgiveness program, repayment plans, and loan consolidation. The company has a quite powerful reputation in the industry, so according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Great Lakes has very few numbers of borrower’s complaints in comparison with other services. In addition to this, well-known rating agencies such as Better Business Bureau has given to Great Lakes high rates (A+).
Of course, you will confess that dealing with a massive amount of student loans is not as easy as it looks. Especially, if you have some situations with making your payments or your student loans goes to default, it will negatively affect your credit score. Thus your future could face risk. Great Lakes Student Loan servicing offer a range of services for borrowers which we could categorize them in the following directions.
If you have federal student loan currently serviced by Great Lakes, and especially you have a difficulty with making regular payments on time, it is better to think about Great Lakes Repayment plans. By depending on your financial situation, this loan servicer offers you some payment options to make your payments in adjusting to your condition. First of all, it worth to note that these repayment options vary by depending on what kind of student loan you have.
For Private student loans serviced by Great Lakes, you can contact your lender to rearrange the repayment options. Most lenders are inclined to adjust repayment options to your finances to maintain receiving payments. However, it is better to keep in mind that lenders are NOT obliged to provide alternative payment options or offer any breaks on payments.
Income-based Repayment (IBR) – if you want to reduce your monthly payments, another alternative plan is IBR. This program allows you to pay 10 or 15 % of your discretionary income. The repayment amount could change because each year your family size and income are considered. Due to it decreases your monthly payments; as a result, overall length period of loans is expanded which means you pay more interest on the whole amount of credits.
If you would like to change your repayment plan, there is one thing to keep in mind. Changing repayment plan could affect your income, so tax regulations may not be convenient for your situation. That is why, before any changing, it would be better to consult with any financial advisor or tax specialist. You can call Student Loan Resolve Helpline to get any information support.
As we mentioned earlier, it is one of the student loan servicers who has received the lowest number of complaints. However, it does not mean that Great Lakes is too close to the perfect operation. Throughout their history, the company has faced some kinds of lawsuits. To be prepared for any case, it is better to know about these cases. On the other hand, if you think you have faced any wrong experience by Great Lakes, you can turn this to your advantage. We will talk about this in the further paragraph of this article.
Even though it is considered one of the top-quality student loan servicer companies in the US with great mission and vision, no one is guaranteed for some mistakes caused by employee factor. Generally, we could classify the problems of Great Lakes which caused a number of lawsuits against them, in the following way.
Great Lakes has designed a particular repayment method – Auto Pay which is self-explanatory from its name. So, for those who are on Auto Pay mode, it takes the monthly payments from the borrower’s bank account automatically. The positive side of this mode is that Great Lakes reduces 0.25% on the interest rate. The problem which Great Lakes has done is turning off Auto Pay for some borrowers who were actually on this mode without even notifying them. And of course, this led to increased loan debts, and these borrowers filed a lawsuit against the servicer.
Another problematic mistake made by Great Lakes is applying for payments on not the right loans. According to the legislation, if you pay more than the required payment amount, then this extra amount should be applied to the loans with a higher interest rate. The problem was that Great Lakes didn’t do it on this way, even some borrowers who had paid the entire credit but find out that these payments were applied on the entirely different loan.
According to the regulation of certain groups of student loan forgiveness programs, some borrowers are required to be on income-based repayment programs. The problem was that Great Lakes didn’t even start processing the income-based repayment applications, even in some cases they ignored them completely. Some borrowers were not also informed about deferral or rejection of their claims, which is according to the law Great Lakes were obliged to give the required information.
Another mistake made by Great Lakes is putting the borrowers on the wrong repayment plan. So, people who have financial difficulty in making their payments chose individual repayment plans which reflects their situations in the best way.
However, Great Lakes, mistakenly put some borrowers on a different repayment plan which considerably increases their monthly payments and make them financially suffer. The more surprising part is that even there are some cases which claims that Great Lakes has changed repayment plans without borrower’s request about change. They did not also inform the borrowers about changing of their repayment plans.
Keeping student loan collection for people who did not have any loan.
This is one of another interesting case about Great Lakes. So is that some people accused Great Lakes by claiming that their employees contact the people to demand loan collection even if they haven’t taken any loan. It completely mystery how this process happened, but reality shows that there is a considerable number of lawsuit cases accuse Great Lakes of this illegal behavior.
We listed these problems that have been made by Great Lakes because these might be helpful to get student loan relief through Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge program, if you think that you have experienced any of these activities by Great Lakes, then it worth to think about applying for Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge program.
It would not be surprised to say that you can get rid of your Great Lakes student loans entirely. How? In this part, we will explain. Through applying Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge Program, you can get 100% discharge for Great Lakes Student Loans if you could prove that Great Lakes has acted illegal manner towards you.
The US Government has created Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge Program. This program is intended for assisting the borrowers who have been illegally treated, lied or defrauded in any or another way. BDAR is completely legal program and operated by the US Government, and this is not any form of student loan forgiveness scams which is very popular in these days.
The program allows you to get your massive amount of student loans entirely forgiven and receive some refunds for any amount that you have already paid. All you are going to need is to prove that you have been defrauded or experienced illegal behavior by your school or servicer. In this paragraph, we will guide you on how to apply for BDAR, and how you could benefit from this program. In addition, we will give you some tips for getting Great Lakes student loan forgiveness.
DOE employee will review your application, and you will be informed about the results of the process. If your request is accepted, you are going to wipe out your outstanding loan debts; even you could get any refunds. In opposite, if your application is rejected, you will get a detailed explanation of why your request is not accepted.
But there is one thing to keep in mind that, you don’t get BDAR discharge because you think that you deserve. So it entirely depends on the employee of DOE who is reviewing your application. That is why you have to pay close attention to application procedures and legal details.
In order to be eligible for BDAR program for servicing companies, you are going to need to prove that loan servicing company has committed some fraudulent activity against you. For example, it could be lying, misleading, releasing false information, a deceptive practice that has led your loan more expensive.
Otherwise, they did not inform you about your opportunities for some benefits or gave you incorrect information that made your loans more costly for you. If we take into consideration that Great Lakes have been accused of many lawsuits claiming illegal behavior against borrowers, you have an excellent chance to qualify for Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge Program.
Although Great Lakes is one of the most outstanding loan servicing companies in the US, it does not mean that you can not claim student loan discharge against them. If you think you can support your claiming based on actual documents and you can prove your arguments clearly, then it worth to take time starting to write your BDAR application.
As we mentioned earlier, BDAR program is designed by the US Government and intended for helping people who have been scammed or defrauded by servicing companies. If you remember, we had listed above some sorts of illegal activities that Great Lake committed.
While filling out your application for Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge Program, it would be recommended that take a look at these defrauded activities list. It is because you are going to need to link your claims and arguments to those illegal behaviors that common lawsuits accused of Great Lakes. Remember, it is not enough to merely state that Great Lakes has lied to you. You are required to point out specific arguments and practices which proves that Great Lakes has committed illegal acts against you.
Final note
Even though Great Lakes is considered high-quality student loan servicer in the whole US, and it offers a comprehensive list of services, it does not mean you should be afraid to pursue your rights. Whenever you find out that Great Lakes student loans servicer has committed some illegal activities, without wasting time, try to use your rights and apply for BDAR. On this way, Student Loan Resolved could help you a lot. If you need any specific information or if you want to get a consultation with your BDAR application, please do not hesitate to call our helpline.