Student Loan Servicer Contacts Borrower’s Friend After Missed Payment

The incident occurred after the borrower missed a scheduled payment on federal student debt. The servicer reached a third party listed in the borrower’s file and left a message requesting a return call. No debt details were shared, consistent with narrow location-information rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

FDCPA Section 804 permits debt collectors to contact third parties once to obtain location data, provided the collector does not state the debt exists. Student loan servicers operating under Department of Education contracts must also follow CFPB supervision standards. Complaints to the CFPB about improper third-party contacts rose 22 percent between 2022 and 2023 as payments resumed.

Servicers maintain they pull contact data from loan applications and skip-tracing vendors. Borrowers have limited recourse beyond filing complaints or disputing data accuracy. No new statutory limits on student-loan third-party contacts have been enacted since the 2021 pause.

The CFPB’s next supervisory report, due in Q2 2025, will indicate whether enforcement actions increase against servicers exceeding one third-party contact per account.