Who is complaining aboutStruggling to repay your loan?
When looking at complaint volume about a company or product, consider company size and/or market share. For example, companies with more customers may have more complaints than companies with fewer customers.
The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it.Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database. A complaint is a consumer's account of a problem; it is not a finding against the company.
Consumers chose the issue “Struggling to repay your loan” on 3,575 complaints in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026, down 16% on the 4,262 of the 12 months before. That is 0.1% of all complaints received.
100% of them were filed under the product “Student loan”, where the issue makes up 18.4% of that product's complaints.
Company responses on this issue: 60.6% closed with an explanation, 1.1% closed with non-monetary relief, 0.1% closed with monetary relief, and 5% still in progress when the file was published. 64.6% were timely.
Which products
| Product (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Student loan | 3,575 | 100% |
Sub-issues
| Sub-issue (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge | 1,967 | 55% |
| Problem with your payment plan | 516 | 14.4% |
| Can't temporarily delay making payments | 395 | 11% |
| Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan | 366 | 10.2% |
| Problem lowering your monthly payments | 241 | 6.7% |
| Bankruptcy | 90 | 2.5% |
Which companies, with their size
Ordered by the number of complaints carrying this issue in the last 12 months.
| Company (as named by the CFPB) | Complaints, 12 months | Share | Company size | Per $1bn assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOHELA | 1,236 | 34.6% | no public measure | — |
| Nelnet, Inc. | 566 | 15.8% | no public measure | — |
| Servicer under contract with Federal Student Aid | 503 | 14.1% | no public measure | — |
| Maximus Federal Services, Inc. | 406 | 11.4% | no public measure | — |
| EdFinancial Services | 226 | 6.3% | no public measure | — |
| SLM CORPORATION | 206 | 5.8% | no public measure | — |
| Navient Solutions, LLC. | 113 | 3.2% | no public measure | — |
| AES/PHEAA | 43 | 1.2% | no public measure | — |
| Central Research Inc | 36 | 1% | no public measure | — |
| Climb Credit Inc. | 27 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| SOFI TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | 23 | 0.6% | $57bn assets | 0.40 |
| Ascent Holding Co | 15 | 0.4% | no public measure | — |
| Goal Structured Solutions, LLC | 13 | 0.4% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC. | 11 | 0.3% | no public measure | — |
| HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC | 9 | 0.3% | no public measure | — |
| Experian Information Solutions Inc. | 9 | 0.3% | no public measure | — |
| LendKey Technologies, Inc. | 8 | 0.2% | no public measure | — |
| College Ave Student Loan Servicing, LLC | 7 | 0.2% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC | 7 | 0.2% | no public measure | — |
| CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. | 7 | 0.2% | $233bn assets | 0.03 |
| EQUIFAX, INC. | 7 | 0.2% | no public measure | — |
| Earnest Inc. | 6 | 0.2% | no public measure | — |
| Georgia Student Finance Authority | 4 | 0.1% | no public measure | — |
| Williams & Fudge, Inc | 4 | 0.1% | no public measure | — |
| ECMC GROUP, INC. | 4 | 0.1% | no public measure | — |
| All other companies, including those not listed by name | 79 | 2.2% | — | — |
CFPB: “When looking at complaint volume about a company or product, consider company size and/or market share. For example, companies with more customers may have more complaints than companies with fewer customers.” The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it. 2 of the 25 companies in this table have a public size measure. “No public measure” means the company could not be matched by name to a single institution in the FDIC, NCUA or HMDA files, not that it is small.
How companies responded
- Closed with explanation2,167 · 60.6%
- Untimely response1,184 · 33.1%
- In progress178 · 5%
- Closed with non-monetary relief41 · 1.1%
- All other categories5 · 0.1%
| Measure | This issue | All issues |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with monetary or non-monetary relief | 1.4% | 31.6% |
| Closed with monetary relief | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| Responses marked timely | 64.6% | 99.6% |
Trend
Questions and answers
What does the CFPB issue “Struggling to repay your loan” mean?
It is one of the options a consumer selects on the CFPB complaint form to describe the problem. The label is the consumer's choice and is not checked by the Bureau. Sub-issues recorded under it include “Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge”, “Problem with your payment plan”, “Can't temporarily delay making payments”.
How many complaints carry this issue?
3,575 in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026 and 19,820 since 2017.
Which products does it apply to?
“Student loan” (100%).
Does the CFPB verify complaints?
The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it. Counts on this page show what consumers reported, not what was found.
Provenance
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database, bulk file downloaded 30 Sep 2026, complaints received through 30 Sep 2026. Only coded fields are used (company, product, sub-product, issue, state, dates, company response, timeliness); complaint narratives are never read, stored or shown. Complaints are published once the company responds or after 15 days, so the most recent two to three weeks are incomplete. Size measures: FDIC BankFind (report date 30 Jun 2026), NCUA call reports (30 Jun 2026), HMDA transmittal sheet (2025), Census Bureau population estimates (2025). All are US government works. Search the CFPB database · Methodology · Report an error.