If you are considering filing a Sallie Mae class-action lawsuit, hiring an attorney is essential. A qualified attorney can protect your rights and negotiate the best settlement possible. A qualified attorney will know how to build a compelling class action claim on behalf of the class members. The claim should contain all pertinent information, including evidence that the defendants were negligent. This article will highlight a few of the major points that are involved in the case.
Navient penalized borrowers for paying in advance
Consumers should be aware of their rights and the consequences of repaying their loans in advance. Navient is guilty of penalizing borrowers who paid in advance. The Attorney General’s Office received terabytes of data from Navient, including information on payments made in advance. The company has also failed to follow its policies regarding the removal of co-signers. Its behavior is not only unfair and deceptive but also illegal.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General backed the forbearance recommendation, but the company admitted that it failed to mention alternative repayment options in its phone counseling. In exchange for the settlement, Navient agreed to pay the affected borrowers $95 million and reimburse each borrower $350. Navient and Sallie Mae split in 2014, but the two companies remained connected. They service roughly $12 million borrowers nationally and two million borrowers in Washington. The companies service $300 billion in student loan debt.
Sallie Mae didn’t screen borrowers before putting them into forbearance
Forbearance is a type of extended grace period where borrowers can reduce their monthly payments for a specified period. Most Sallie Mae participants complete the program, which can be extended based on their financial circumstances. Although Sallie Mae doesn’t screen borrowers before putting them into forbearance, they do support programs that help borrowers recover from financial problems and get back on their feet.
The federal government is the biggest lender of student loans, and taxpayers are now on the hook for more than $1tn in student loan debt. For years, loan companies like Sallie Mae and other private institutions managed the student loan debt. In 2010, Congress acted to eliminate middlemen and spun off the student loan servicing arm of the company into a publicly-traded company, Navient.
Sallie Mae’s strategy to keep default rates on high-cost loans artificially low
The company hid its risky business practices by granting forbearance to delinquent borrowers. The executives manipulated the loans’ terms to prevent borrowers from defaulting until the company bought them out. But the borrowers had no way of knowing whether or not they could keep up with payments. As a result, default rates remained artificially low.
In the fall of 2006, Sallie Mae put itself up for sale to investors. This came at the time that it had struck sweetheart deals with for-profit colleges, including Career Education Corporation, ITT Educational Services, and Corinthian Colleges. The agreements called for the company to provide loans to low-income, high-cost students with bad credit and a high-interest rates.
The company’s strategy to maintain a low default rate on high-cost loans was criticized for using boiler-room tactics and pressure on collections personnel to push subprime borrowers into forbearance. Although the company promised to make a comprehensive analysis of its tactics, the company did not cooperate. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the public.
Wells Fargo’s role in the case
The lawsuit in which Wells Fargo is a defendant in the Sallie Mae student loan scandal was filed on behalf of DACA recipients, including a woman named Mitzie Perez. She is an immigrant who has been protected from deportation since being granted protection under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The DACA program allows undocumented immigrants to apply for federal work permits and Social Security numbers. The policy is valid for two years and can be renewed for up to a further two.
In addition to the CFPB’s ruling, Wells Fargo must reimburse thousands of borrowers for erroneous late fees and missed dividend payments. The lawsuit further claims that Wells Fargo did not properly disclose to borrowers that they could make partial payments and still be required to make full payments. As a result, borrowers were discouraged from making partial payments. Consequently, the settlement orders Wells Fargo to refund nearly $410,000 in illegal late fees and more than 900,000 in student loan debt.
