Something Strange With Your Student Loans? Who Can You Call? The Department of Education

 Thousands of federal student loan borrowers across the nation now have the opportunity to air their grievances and seek redress through the Department of Education’s recently released federal student aid complaints system. By opening up a new avenue of communication between the Department of Education, students, and borrowers, this formal feedback system is intended to abate some of the struggles that individuals face concerning the federal student aid system, student loans, servicers, schools, and more.

The following are just a few examples of the types of feedback that can be submitted through the federal student aid complaint system:

  • Report information about a school or person who you think has violated federal laws regarding federal student aid.
  • Report suspicious ads or companies that try to charge people for information regarding federal student aid such as federal student loan repayment programs or forgiveness programs.
  • File complaints concerning applying for and receiving federal loans, grants, and work study; federal loan servicing; and the collection of defaulted federal loans.
  • File complaints about schools’ administration of federal student aid programs, including misrepresentation of facts about the school or the school’s recruitment and marketing practices
  • You can also submit positive feedback if you feel you have had a great experience with the federal student aid process or received valuable information.

Users can submit and manage positive feedback, complaints, and allegations of suspicious activity for review and resolution on their behalf or someone else’s via feedback.studentaid.ed.gov.

For those who have concerns about private student loans you have the option of filing a complaint through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) via consumerfinance.gov/complaint/#student-loan. In addition to complaints about private student loans, federal student loan borrowers still have the option of filing a complaint about federal loan servicers through the CFPB.

We are interested in knowing how the new feedback system worked for you. If you have submitted a complaint, email us at hello@higherednotdebt.org to let us know how the process went.

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