Stop Betsy DeVos from Creating a Student Loan Debt Monopoly!
The Department of Education, at the direction of Secretary Betsy DeVos, has announced it will consolidate all service providers who handle our country's $1.2 trillion student loan debt into one giant monopoly.
DeVos' department will select just one company to collect student debt payments on the government's behalf, rather than the 9 contractors that currently handle federal student loan debt.
As someone with student loans, I have interfaced with these companies every month for the last 4 years. These service providers are hard enough to deal with as-is. I've had to deal with bureaucracy and a number of other issues in trying to get the information I need to pay off my loans. I cannot even imagine the headache waiting for us when just ONE company is handling the massive amount of borrowers and debt.
Economic monopolies of any kind are bad - they erase any incentive for a company to be accountable to clients, because clients are NOT free to go anywhere else for the service.
DeVos is also doing away with the requirement that servicers must notify borrowers a few weeks in advance when it's time to recertify their income-driven repayment plans. This means if you're a borrower, are unaware of the deadline and don't recertify, your monthly payments could go up astronomically without your prior knowledge. This monopolistic servicer might still notify people of their own volition, but they stand to make a lot more money if they don't.
Please sign this petition to trigger an email to DeVos asking her NOT to create a student loan debt monopoly!
Betsy DeVos,
Please do not carry through with plans to consolidate all service providers who handle our country's $1.2 trillion student loan debt into one giant monopoly.
Please do not select just one company to collect student debt payments on the government's behalf, rather than the 9 contractors that currently handle federal student loan debt.
These service providers are hard enough to deal with as-is. There is bureaucracy and a number of issues in trying to get the information we need to pay off our loans. A headache awaits us if just ONE company were to handle the massive amount of borrowers and debt.
Economic monopolies of any kind are bad - they erase any incentive for a company to be accountable to clients, because clients are NOT free to go anywhere else for the service.
Please also do not do away with the requirement that servicers must notify borrowers a few weeks in advance when it's time to recertify their income-driven repayment plans. This means if you're a borrower, are unaware of the deadline and don't recertify, your monthly payments could go up astronomically without your prior knowledge. While the monopolistic servicer might still notify people of their own volition, they stand to make a lot more money if they don't.
Please do not create a student loan debt monopoly!
