It's that time for people to get ready to pay their student loans back, and some tell News 5 that trying to figure things out has not been easy.
"Everything I've tried, it just doesn't seem to help. It's really overwhelming," said Frank Stroble.
In less than three weeks, student loan payments will begin again for people like Stroble.
"You're paying it back with your life, it feels like," said Stroble.
So far, Stroble says the return has been giving him a lot of anxiety, mainly because he feels he's not getting enough information.
"Tried to contact people via phone and email, and I get the runaround," said Stroble.
Scott Puglise says he's experiencing problems, too.
"It's been awful. Awful. Almost like everybody else I talked to. The information out there is all over the place," said Puglise.
Teresa Murray, a Consumer Watchdog with U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Cleveland, tells News 5 that these issues are happening due to the millions of people trying to get help before next month.
Murray also said budget cuts to the Department of Education's finances are making things difficult, too.
"They've been told to reduce their staffing, reduce their hours, not supposed to have evening and weekend hours that they would normally have, and then you have a lot of the servicers whose contracts actually expired during the pandemic," said Murray
To make matters worse, Murray says scammers are aware of the challenges borrowers are experiencing, so she says some people could be at risk.
"Don't pay anybody to help you figure out a repayment plan or delay your payments or anything like that because you don't have to pay to get help," said Murray.
Murray also advises against using a search engine to type in student loan help or your provider's name because she says there are imposter websites trying to steal your personal information.
Another tip Murray recommends is for people to look up their student loan servicer on studentaid.gov because it may have changed.
Secondly, she says it's best for people to call early and to even record the conversation because people like Puglise are experiencing long wait times.
"Very long time. Hour, hour and a half, so just talking to my bank, student consolidation companies, trying to talk with the government programs, yeah, it's been ridiculous," said Puglise.
Finally, Murray says not to ignore your debt and to ensure all your information is accurate and easily accessible.
"Normally, the servicers are dealing with like a few million people a month in a normal month, and now it's like 40 million people are trying to call and get through and get answers, and it's just a hot mess," said Murray.
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