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How to beat KeyBank student loans

Dena Standley | October 19, 2022

Dena Standley
Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.


How you'll feel when you beat KeyBank.

Summary: If you've fallen behind on your payments for your KeyBank student loan, SoloSuit can help you get collectors off your back and win in court.

KeyBank promises to provide excellent services and reasonable interest rates when getting a student loan. For some customers, this is not the case as KeyBank has received countless complaints and negative reviews for their harsh treatment, exorbitant interest rates, unfair late fee charges, and outrageous overdraft fees.

These business practices go against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that protects the consumer against unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices. Here is a quote from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act:

“Among other things, the FDCPA bars collectors from using obscene or profane language, threatening violence, calling consumers repeatedly or at unreasonable hours, misrepresenting a consumer's legal rights, disclosing a consumer's personal affairs to third parties, and obtaining information about a consumer through false pretenses.”

Letting KeyBank debt collectors know that you are aware of your FTC consumer protection rights will help you beat them. To further assist you in preparing for their call, email, or messages, we will discuss how KeyBank works, look at some reviews, and what action to take when they contact you.

Know more about KeyBank student Loans

Keybank is the 29th largest bank in the United States and has an A+ accreditation from Better Business Bureau (BBB). Despite the high accreditation, KeyBank's BBB profile has over 132 reviews with 1.13 stars out of five. Consumers complain about poor customer service and the lack of discretion in the interest and late fees charged. One consumer had this to say in the BBB customer review section:

"We did a Covid payment deferment, and ever since, we have gotten late fees. We made our monthly payments when the deferment ended, and our credit reports were flagged for being late. They tried to say we missed a payment in Sept of 2019, but the deferment was after that date. Recently, we have been making extra payments, and they still keep charging late fees.” - Debbie

Do not accept any debt figures from KeyBank student loans without sending a Debt Validation Letter to check the exact debt amount and confirm they have not added unfair charges. Many creditors and debt collectors simply give up after receiving a Debt Validation Letter, because it's not worth their time and resources to validate the debt.

SoloSuit can help you draft a Debt Validation letter in less than 10 minutes.

Check out this video to learn how to make a Debt Validation Letter in 2 easy steps:

KeyBank has different types of loans

KeyBank student loans fall under two categories; The Federal KeyBank student loans, which cover your education fee with the benefits of a federal loan, and the Private KeyBank student loan, which is the additional loan you take on top of the federal loan to cover additional expenses. Their private student loan has three options:

  • Key Alternative loan: Covers the financial gap between your federal student loans and other expenses.
  • Key Career loan: Fits the undergraduate or graduate student attending loan-approved institutions for career enhancement training.
  • Achiever loan: For students with parents, sponsored, or families who want to help a student pay for costs associated with achieving higher education.

Tom took the Achiever loan with KeyBank for his son and experienced bad business practices from their employees as per his review on bad credit loan center. According to Tom, he has been making on-time payments for six years on his son's loan. Each month, Tom receives harassing calls on his home and cell phone before the payment due date on the loan. He goes on to say that the people who call are rude and that his requests for them to stop have been ignored.

You do not have to tolerate such mistreatment by KeyBank debt collectors. Report them to your state's attorney's general office, FTC online platform (or call 877-382-4357), or CFPB website and submit a complaint online (or call 855-411-2372).

Take action when KeyBank debt collectors contact you

KeyBank debt collectors want you to agree to pay their debt within the shortest time possible. Some agents use threats and lies to convince you to make payments immediately. To avoid being scammed or taken advantage of, the following are the actions you can take.

Ask for proper identification

You may encounter fake KeyBank debt collectors who want to scam you. To avoid falling prey to this trap, you need to ask for the proper identification of the debt collector contacting you. Request their full name, employee number, company they represent, address, and website information. Fake debt collectors will become upset or verbally abusive if you probe for this information. Stop further communication with them until they give you these details.

KeyBank headquarters contact information:

Address: 127 Public Sq, Cleveland, OH 44114-1217
Website: http://www.Key.com
Phone Number: 1-800-539-2968

Do not admit to any debt

Do not confirm any information regarding your debt that KeyBank debt collectors mention to you without first requesting debt validation. You may be giving up your legal rights if you admit to debt without getting a written document from KeyBank. Debt collectors sometimes make mistakes by contacting the wrong person, giving you exaggerated debt figures, and chasing after a legally expired student loan.

Verify the debt by sending a Debt Validation Letter

Consumers have a right to request a creditor to validate their debt to ensure they are not scammed, or the collecting agency is not taking advantage of them. Sending a Debt Validation Letter will help you beat KeyBank student loans. They must respond to the letter with extensive information on the debt (i.e. the exact amount owed, the name of the creditor that owns the debt, etc.). SoloSuit's Debt Validation Letter template contains the crucial information to verify the student loan amount. It also uses legal terms that should motivate KeyBank debt collectors to treat you professionally.

Do not make any payments

Once you send a Debt Validation Letter, the law gives the creditors 30 days to respond to you. Within that period, they should cease further debt collection. Do not send money to KeyBank student loan until you receive their debt validation, otherwise they will consider the payment an admission to the debt as they had quoted.

What if KeyBank sues me over a student loan debt?

If KeyBank is suing you for your unpaid student loan, you have options. The worst thing to do is ignore the lawsuit. Failure to respond to a debt lawsuit can lead to a default judgment against you, which would give KeyBank the legal right to garnish your wages, put liens on your property, etc. For this reason, the first step to beating KeyBank in court is to file a written Answer.

SoloSuit can help you draft your own Answer for free. You can also request SoloSuit to file the Answer for you and have an attorney review your documents before sending them in. You don't need an attorney in order to beat KeyBank. You can represent yourself and get the case dismissed with SoloSuit's help.

SoloSuit can help you file an Answer in all 50 states.

For more information, check out this flowchart that outlines all the possible routes a debt lawsuit can take:

Debt Collection Lawsuit Flowchart



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