National Collegiate Trust has been actively filing lawsuits under its own name, as well as the names National Collegiate Student Loan Trust and National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust. If you have a private student loan, NCT purchases packaged and securitized student loans from the originating lender. Even if you have been current with your payments, your loan may no longer be with the originating lender and instead may have been sold as part of a package.
The ‘Worst Debt in America’
Private student loans have been called the worst debt in America, and collectors for private student loans have been the targets of many complaints. The Department of Education, as directed by President Obama, has established a new web-based system for receiving complaints on student loan servicers. However, the government, which profits from such loans, has typically done very little other than to advise potential complainants on phone etiquette and advise loan servicers to be a little nicer. As one lawyer with the national consumer Law Center pointed out, students are often in contact with the servicer and if the servicer is “competent and efficient” they can help distressed borrowers avoid default.
Official Review Under Way
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced that it is launching an official review of student loan servicers, with a request for information to the servicers indicating that the federal agency intends to establish stronger rules to regulate the $1.2 trillion market in student debt. In a complaint that harks back to the late mortgage crisis, borrowers report undertrained or downright malicious behavior on the part of customer service representatives, and a general unwillingness of the loan servicer to provide answers, clarity, or commit to a plan that would help the borrower avoid default.
- Do not default on your loans. Unless you are prepared to live with the consequences, including the presence of that debt for 20 years on your credit report keep up your payments and answer the complaint before the deadline. It is reasonable to ask if NCT owns your loan, as they are not the originators of the loan and indeed may have only taken ownership of it at three or four removes from your originating bank.
- Ask your servicer for a copy of your original loan documents and correspondence if you do not have them already. If you are retaining a lawyer, your attorney may make this request for you and the response may be more timely and favorable.
- Record all interactions with your loan servicer, if you have retained an attorney please tell them to direct all communications through your attorney and not to you.
- Know and understand your rights under the fair debt collection practices act, and laws at your state level to protect you from unreasonable collection practices.
Who to Contact
If you are notified that you are being sued by any of the above entities, do not blow it off – you need to take this very seriously. But don’t leave it to chance, either. If you have questions about the NCT, talk to an attorney with Van Horn Law Group.