Conduent Education Services: A Comprehensive Overview
Federal student loans are managed by various loan servicers, each playing a crucial role in the repayment process. Among these servicers was Conduent Education Services (CES), formerly known as ACS Student Loans. This article delves into the history, services, controversies, and eventual exit of Conduent from the student loan servicing landscape.
What Was Conduent Education Services?
Conduent Education Services provided customer care and repayment services for various types of student loans, including campus-based loans, private education loans, and Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans. As a loan servicer, Conduent handled customer service tasks for borrowers, acting as an intermediary between borrowers and lenders.
For borrowers who previously had loans serviced by ACS, Conduent became their loan servicer after Conduent Business Services acquired ACS Student Loans in 2017. Although the name changed, the underlying loan terms and repayment options remained the same for borrowers.
It is important to note that ACS should not be confused with AES (American Education Services), which is a separate entity.
Loan Types Serviced by Conduent
Conduent serviced several types of loans, including:
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- FFEL Loans: The FFEL Program was discontinued in 2010, but existing loans continued to be serviced by Conduent. Borrowers with FFEL loans could choose from repayment plans such as the standard 10-year plan, graduated repayment, or extended repayment up to 25 years.
- CPS Loans: These included Federal Perkins Loans, Nursing Student Loans (NSL), and Health Professions Student Loans (HPSL). Repayment options for these loans depended on the school that originated the loan, not on Conduent.
- Private Loans: Conduent also serviced private loans, some of which were existing ACS student loans still being paid off. Repayment options for private loans depended on the lender that originated the loan.
Services Offered
Conduent Education Services offered borrowers a range of tools to manage their student loans:
- Access to payment information
- Express and recurring payment options
- E-billing
- Electronic tax forms
Most borrowers interacted with Conduent through its online platform for tasks such as applying for deferment, making payments, or requesting loan documentation.
Controversies and Legal Issues
Conduent faced numerous controversies and legal challenges related to its loan servicing practices. Even when Conduent operated as ACS Education Services, it received a high volume of complaints from borrowers. These shortcomings eventually led to legal troubles and customer dissatisfaction.
- Steering Borrowers Away from Affordable Repayment Plans: In January 2019, ACS Education Services was ordered to pay $9 million for allegedly steering struggling borrowers away from affordable repayment plans.
- CFPB Settlement: On May 1, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with Conduent Education Services (CES). The CFPB found that CES engaged in unfair practices by failing to adjust in a timely manner the principal balances of student loans made under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. These required adjustments, which accounted for circumstances such as deferment, forbearance, or the borrowers’ entrance into an Income-Based Repayment program, were placed into queues and, in some cases, were not made for years. As a result, some borrowers paid off loans with inaccurate balances, and some borrowers were unable to consolidate their loans while they waited for CES to adjust their principal balances. The consent order required that CES make proper adjustments to the principal balances of the affected loans and reimburse borrowers who had already paid off their loans.
- New York Settlement: Conduent also agreed to a $9 million settlement with the state of New York in 2019. The investigation revealed that Conduent had engaged in illegal practices, such as steering borrowers into forbearance instead of income-based repayment plans and failing to inform servicemembers of Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility.
- Massachusetts Fine: In 2016, ACS was fined $2.4 million in Massachusetts for delaying income-driven repayment applications for thousands of borrowers. The servicer also faced penalties for charging excessive fees and violating interest rate caps under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
Some have suggested that the rebranding from ACS to Conduent Education Services was an attempt to move past the negative press associated with ACS's history of mishandling borrower accounts.
Borrower Complaints
During its transition from ACS, Conduent faced several borrower complaints:
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- Users being locked out of their accounts, making it difficult to make payments.
- High call volumes, making it challenging to reach a loan representative for assistance.
Conduent's Exit from Student Loan Servicing
As of September 1, 2019, Conduent ceased servicing federal student loans and transferred all its loans to other servicers. ❗ Editor’s note: Conduent Education Services stopped servicing federal student loans as of September 1, 2019. It transferred all its loans to other servicers.
Options for Borrowers with Conduent (formerly ACS) Student Loans
If you previously had Conduent or ACS student loans, here are some options that may be available to you:
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): If you pursue PSLF and are eligible, your student loans will be switched over to FedLoan Servicing (now MOHELA).
- Student Loan Refinancing: Another option is to refinance your student loans, which could potentially cut your interest rate. However, refinancing federal loans will turn them into private loans, causing you to lose access to federal protections such as loan forgiveness, income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, and forbearance. Take Student Loan Planner®’s refinancing quiz to see if refinancing makes sense for your situation.
- Student Loan Calculator: Utilize a tool like the Student Loan Calculator to find the right repayment plan for your financial situation.
Conduent Human Capital Solutions
Conduent also offers human capital solutions that support clients’ employees and learners in over 50 countries and 25 languages. These solutions provide a flexible, scalable model for smarter learning and better results. Conduent delivers scalable learning solutions with content administration, development, and automation.
Key features of Conduent's learning solutions include:
- Knowledge Connection: A guided experience philosophy with custom course evaluation and additional content creation tools, including mobile, text, and video integration for custom, secure information distribution.
- Mobile Ready: Learning strategies are mobile-friendly.
- Multi-language Support: Easily supports multiple languages for a global audience.
- Dashboards and Reports: Offers compliance dashboards, analysis reports, transcripts, continuing education credit summary, enrollments, and assessment analytics.
- Assessments: Tools for building engaging assessments with multi-level randomization options.
- Evaluations: Evaluation activity that allows you to combine general, instructor, and content-specific questions into a single evaluation.
- Streaming Video: Integrated streaming video service for uploading video files directly.
- Badging: Full support for authenticated badging with tracking capabilities.
- eLearning Formats: Supports HTML, SCORM 1.2 or 2004, AICC, and TinCan formats.
- Continuing Education: Sophisticated credit profile and credit activity system for managing continuing education requirements.
- Instructor-Led Training and Virtual Instructor-Led Training: Offers both face-to-face instruction and self-directed activity.
- Assignments: Rule-based assignments for managing compliance training.
- Enrollments: Supports various enrollment options, including open enrollment, direct auto-enroll hyperlinks, and paid enrollment.
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