Brandon Frere Cautions Student Loan Borrowers on Potential Drawbacks of Auto-Pay

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Auto-Pay

Setting up auto-pay with a borrower’s student loan account can be a blessing or a curse. Auto-pay can be a huge help to student loan borrowers who want to make on-time payments, but issues can arise with them, as well. Brandon Frere, an entrepreneur in the world of financial services, cautions student loan borrowers to use auto-pay judiciously and be alert to potential issues.

“This is another service issue that I think borrowers should be aware of,” said Frere. “While auto-pay may help a lot of people, it’s not a perfect setup, especially depending on the quality of the servicer.”

I encourage all borrowers to regularly check up on their student loan accounts to make sure that payments are going through correctly.

Brandon Frere, CEO, Frere Enterprises

For borrowers who want to set and forget their student loan payments, auto-pay may be an attractive and potentially helpful feature. If a borrower has federal loans, they can receive .25 percent discount on interest by enrolling in auto-pay. Despite its benefits, auto-pay can also cause sticky situations if something goes awry. Indeed “payments mishandled” is one of the most common complaints from student loan borrowers.

“The key thing,” Frere continued, “is to make sure that as a borrower you aren’t lulled into total security when it comes to auto-pay. I encourage all borrowers to regularly check up on their student loan accounts to make sure that payments are going through correctly.”

Indeed, auto-pay can work just fine. But auto-pay may make things more difficult for borrowers who want to change up their payments, change bank accounts, or make extra payments on their student loans.

On the other side of the equation, auto-pay may make unwanted or even erroneous debiting of a borrower’s account a more difficult situation for borrowers. While this is not necessarily a common occurrence across loan servicers, some have accused at least one servicer of erroneous charges. A borrower who trusts auto-pay to debit the correct amounts may realize unwanted charges have happened too late before and must now work with their servicer to get a refund.

Frere said: “None of these issues are necessarily insurmountable, but they do cause a lot of work and consume time that some student loan borrowers just have. All for a service that is supposed to save time.”

About Frere Enterprises
Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His company website, www.FrereEnterprises.com, is used as a means to communicate many of the lessons, fundamentals, and information he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide.

As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider’s look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs.

FrereEnterprises.com

Source: Frere Enterprises

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