Anyone have a loan with Access Group? Was it sold this week?

[Anonymous]

I noticed that my federal consolidation loans from Access Group were no longer showing up on their website this week. Turns out they have been sold to ACS, with no notice (I'm pretty good about reading my mail). I'm annoyed because I now lose the 1.25% discount Access Group gave me for history of on-time payments and direct withdrawal. Did this happen to anyone else? If we weren't hoarding every penny for down payment, I'd pay that $40K off tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

YES!! This happened to me as well. I am totally pissed off. How can they change my rate? this is complete BS.

[Anonymous]

Mine are with Access Group. So you only found out by checking your online accounts? I'll have to check mine out.

[Anonymous]

PP here, mine don't seem to have been affected. Yet, anyway.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This article says that access group chose to "outsource" their loan servicing to ACS, in which case I don't get how they can change the rate.

http://m.prnewswire.com/news-releases/access-group-inc-selects-acs-a-xerox-company-for-loan-servicing-136159313.html

[Anonymous]

Maybe Access Group had some kind of deal with ACS where ACS paid Access Group a bonus for the business and ACS gets the interest deduction you would have had. So Access Group still gets the money, ACS gets money and borrowers are screwed out of their interest deduction.

[Anonymous]

That is terrible. The one glimmer of hope is that perhaps this will bring attention to the issue of FFEL consolidation loans, from ~2006-2009, that cannot be refinanced at today's lower rates under current law.

For example, I have one of these loans - approximately the amount of a mid-size car (mid-20k range). My "sticker" interest rate is 6.8%, but due to lender discounts, I pay 5.3% interest-- when today's rates would be much lower, and refinancing was allowed pre-2005.

On these federally-guaranteed FFEL loans, the federal government (taxpayers) assume ALL of the risk if borrowers don't pay the loan back, or default. The lender gets the interest rate, risk-free to them.

If there are any reporters on here, please do a story on this. Refinancing at today's interest rates would save me about $50 per month, which could be put back into the economy, etc. I've been paying this loan dutifully, have an 800+ credit score, and get NO benefit from recent "loan forgiveness" or "Income-based repayment program" because I was responsible and took a scholarship and lived like a student during law school - didn't go to the highest-rank school that admitted me, and took out loans that were manageable on my expected salary.

Any time before 2005, we all would have been able to refinance at today's much-lower rates.

[Anonymous]

I too just received a bill from ACS in the mail; no previous notice given that my Access loan was to be transferred, and my rate now 1.25% higher. My E-Statements are no longer accessible on Access's website. I imagine their phones will be inundated tomorrow. Please post here if you learn anything re: the rate increase. I imagine that many holders of federal consolidated loans will be looking into whether we have actionable grounds for a lawsuit.

[Anonymous]

I just came home to this letter, too, and don't ever recall seeing anything from them or Access Group on this issue in the past. I'm fucking pissed. I lost the interest rate deduction and a company I've never heard of apparently has access to my checking account to automatically withdraw monthly payments. The letter I have basically thanks me for enrolling in their Checkmate II program--which I never accepted or agreed to. This is BS.

And I've now been on hold for ~15 minutes, so I think a PP is right--these have just started trickling in and they're getting inundated with pissed off loan holders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is terrible. The one glimmer of hope is that perhaps this will bring attention to the issue of FFEL consolidation loans, from ~2006-2009, that cannot be refinanced at today's lower rates under current law.

For example, I have one of these loans - approximately the amount of a mid-size car (mid-20k range). My "sticker" interest rate is 6.8%, but due to lender discounts, I pay 5.3% interest-- when today's rates would be much lower, and refinancing was allowed pre-2005.

On these federally-guaranteed FFEL loans, the federal government (taxpayers) assume ALL of the risk if borrowers don't pay the loan back, or default. The lender gets the interest rate, risk-free to them.

If there are any reporters on here, please do a story on this. Refinancing at today's interest rates would save me about $50 per month, which could be put back into the economy, etc. I've been paying this loan dutifully, have an 800+ credit score, and get NO benefit from recent "loan forgiveness" or "Income-based repayment program" because I was responsible and took a scholarship and lived like a student during law school - didn't go to the highest-rank school that admitted me, and took out loans that were manageable on my expected salary.

Any time before 2005, we all would have been able to refinance at today's much-lower rates.

I owe 80K in FFEL loans at 8.5% and 40K at 6.8%. PAINFUL, to say the least.

[Anonymous]

Just a follow-up to my post above. I called Access and ACS today. I was told that the 1.25% discount will continue with ACS and that the statements were sent out before the discounts were transferred over from Access. So my assessment is, if that's true, this could be okay. However, poster above make a good point regarding lack of privacy regarding how financial data is shared, and reaching a human CS agent appears to be more difficult with ACS. I waited for 10 mins, and then reached someone in the Philippines. I immediately asked to be transferred to US, as outsourcing CS for personal financial servicing is, to my mind, totally outrageous.

[Anonymous]

Mine were sold off too, and I'm just as pissed as everyone else. If you Google ACS student loans, you'll be innundated with horror stories. Silver lining is that those horror stories appear to be for private loans rather than FFEL loans. Right now I'm mostly ticked off about loosing the interest rate reductions but the OP's update gives me hope. Let's all hope the reductions do in fact transfer.

Bottom line is that your MPN (master promissory note) says that the loan servicer can change at any time; luckily the terms of the MPN itself remain in effect and they're still federal loans. But it is painful to have such high interest rates when other rates are so low right now.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I called and was told the discount was still in effect. However, because I can't log in despite entering the correct info, I can't verify it. I admit I was surprised to call the acs number and hear them answer the phone "access group.". But still, how about a little notice?

[Anonymous]

Great my access loans are private. Any day now I'm just gonna pitch a tent at some random park

[Anonymous]

I got the same letter, thanks for following up PPs. Access group tried to screw me earlier this year by--get this--retroactively revoking my automatic withdrawal and ontime payment discounts. They discovered a "late" payment from seven years ago, which was late only because they failed to make an automatic withdrawal on time. They eventually fixed it, but only after I had to go back to my 2004 records to show that I had a letter saying they would automatically withdraw the amount due for the payment they claimed was late. They suck bigtime.