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Hello and welcome to Nerdwalt's Smart Money Podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions in 15 minutes or less.

I'm your host, Sean Piles. And joining me as my co-host, Deana Yocum.

We have a special episode for you today. It's a story about something many listeners, including myself, are all too familiar with, student loans.

If you have student loans, you've probably come across ads on TV, radio, or Facebook

from companies offering to relieve your college debt.

Or maybe you Googled something like student loan help and found listings of firms that

claim they can lower your monthly payments or even forgive your debt entirely.

Yeah, and unfortunately, these offers are rampant.

I get offers in the mail all the time that look like official government notices of a very

limited time offer to refinance my student loans.

And only upon close inspection can you tell that it's just some company that's looking

to profit off of my personal mountain of student debt.

Straight to the shredder with those, Sean. Yes, exactly. Well, at NerdWallet, we hear from

borrowers all the time who are confused about whether these companies are legitimate or not.

And if you've ever wondered if those claims are too good to be true, the answer is they are. As NerdWallet's

public interest reporting team found after spending six months investigating public records related

to student debt companies all across the U.S., more than 130 firms with histories that genuinely

give borrowers reason to be wary.

We're talking about court judgments, lawsuits, and excessive tax liens for overcharging and misleading borrowers.

Many of the victims of these companies barely have enough to cover their monthly expenses, let alone their student loans.

...