Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently shut down Equitable Acceptance, a financing company, in Pennsylvania, and is ordering the company to cancel nearly $200,000 in debt for Commonwealth customers.
“Equitable Acceptance scammed people who were simply trying to pay down their student loans, and today we’ve kicked them out of Pennsylvania and canceled hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said. “Student loan debt is a huge burden for far too many in our commonwealth, which is why we’re fighting for borrowers every day. When companies like Equitable Acceptance come along, prey on Pennsylvanians, and try to rip them off with high-interest pay-back schemes, we will hold them accountable.”
It is free to enroll in U.S. Department of Education student loan repayment programs such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Debt relief companies charge customers, on average, more than $1,300 in fees to enroll them in the programs.
Equitable Acceptance provided financing to borrowers to pay debt relief companies for these fees then charged customers interest rates between 17.99 percent and 20.99 percent. Many of the debt relief companies were scams that did not provide any of the services they advertised.
Amy Schulman, senior deputy attorney general of the Pittsburgh regional office, filed the settlement in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.