If you attended a predatory school and want to challenge your AES serviced private student loans, you should contact AES and ask for a School Misconduct Discharge Application. You can do this by contacting AES’s Office of Consumer Advocacy. AES at 1-800-233-0557. Or by email at:
OfficeOfConsumerAdvocacy@pheaa.org

If AES refuses to provide you with an application, you can submit a complaint here to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is a federal agency tasked with supervising certain financial institutions and enforcing consumer rights. The CFPB requires the companies it supervises to respond in writing to consumer complaints. Although there is no guarantee that your complaint will lead to the result you want, your complaints help the CFPB to understand and prioritize the problems that student loan borrowers are facing and helps its mission to protect consumers from unfair and unlawful treatment.

You can find a blank version of AES private student loan School Misconduct Discharge Application here. (*Note: this is not a fillable PDF).

Completing this application will probably take at least an hour. The process will require you to explain in detail how your school misled, defrauded, and lied to you and why you are entitled to loan relief. It also requires that you gather supporting documentation to submit along with your application.

Be thorough but concise in explaining to AES why you should be entitled to relief from your private student loans. Be specific and include details such as dates, amounts owed, and how specifically your school lied to you, did not deliver what they promised to you, and/or otherwise deceived you about the education you were getting and the total costs you would owe. Make sure that your answers to every question/section specifically describe your own experience and how you have personally been affected by your experience.” (*TIP: If you already filed a federal borrower defense application, you can include the same information here).

We recommend you write out the answers to AES’s questions on a separate document that you include as an attachment to your application (*TIP: make sure to put your name and AES account number on each additional page you submit).

The application states that, in order to be considered, you must provide supporting documentation. Examples of documents that you can include in support of your application are:

• A copy of a notice from the Department of Education approving your federal borrower defense to repayment application for your federal loans for the same school that your private loans are for (this includes a Sweet v. Cardona approval letter).

• A copy of a Department of Education public announcement of school misconduct related group discharge for students that attended certain for-profit schools. These schools include:

  • Marinello Schools of Beauty

  • Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (including WyoTech, Heald and Everest)

  • ITT Technical Institute

  • Westwood College

  • College America

  • The Art Institutes

• Public information about lawsuits, enforcement actions, and investigations related to your school. A broad overview of enforcement actions, lawsuits, and investigations against many predatory, for-profit schools can be foundhere. These cases can be cited and included in your application as proof of your school’s wrongdoing.

• Any original documentation you may have from your school that includes proof of misrepresentation, deceptive recruitment tactics, or substantial misconduct (i.e. enrollment agreements, financial aid claims, recruiters’ statements, job placement claims, etc.).

         You can submit your School Misconduct Application to AES by:

• Mail: AES, P.O. Box 2461, Harrisburg, PA 17105-2461

• Fax: 717-720-3916

• Document Upload: Upload your completed form and supporting documents directly to AES using its File Upload Feature. Simply log in to your online account at aesSuccess.org, open the file upload feature and select “Other” as the reason for your upload.

If you don’t receive a response from AES in 30 days, you should file a complaint with the CFPB here. Include your complete application and attachments in your complaint and note that you submitted more than 30 days ago. Be sure to check your AES portal for updates related to your application.

You should submit a complaint to the CFPB if AES denies your application or tells you that they will not consider it. In addition to filing a complaint with the CFPB, you should also contact AES for information on why you were denied, and what additional information or documents you can submit for reconsideration of your application. Also, please email us at info@ppsl.org with a copy your denial letter.