Loan Offer Robocalls: Student Loan, Debt Relief and Personal Loan Calls

The kinds of loan calls people get

• Student loan forgiveness. A recording says your loans may qualify for forgiveness and asks you to press 1. Some callers claim a link to the Department of Education.
• Debt relief and consolidation. An offer to cut your credit card debt in half or combine it into one payment.
• Personal loans. A message says you are “pre-approved” for a large loan, often sent by text.
• Business funding. Merchant cash advance and small business loan offers to owners’ cell phones.

Some of these come from real lenders buying leads. Others are fee scams that never deliver a loan or any relief.

What regulators found in student loan robocalls

FCC order against Urth Access, December 8, 2022. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau ordered all U.S. voice providers to take immediate steps to stop suspected illegal robocall traffic from what it called the “Student Loan Robocall Operation”: Urth Access, LLC, Fire Data LLC, US Acquisitions LLC, Dawood & Dawood, Dawood and Company, and associated people and entities (Order DA 22-1271). Providers could comply by cutting off the customer relationship or blocking the traffic. Providers that did neither had to report to the FCC, and a provider that failed to act could be treated as knowingly carrying unlawful robocalls.

FTC case against Superior Servicing. In December 2024, the FTC announced it had obtained a temporary restraining order (entered November 22, 2024) and a preliminary injunction against Superior Servicing, LLC, a Nevada company, and its operator. The FTC alleged the company used telemarketing calls and mailers, claimed to work with the Department of Education, and charged illegal advance fees of up to $899 plus monthly payments that did not go toward borrowers’ loans. In July 2026, the FTC announced that the operator, Dennise Merdjanian, was permanently banned from debt relief and telemarketing, with a monetary judgment of $45.9 million, partially suspended based on her ability to pay. The FTC said the scheme took more than $45.9 million from consumers.

The advance fee rules

The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule has two rules that fit loan calls closely:

• Debt relief. A seller may not request or receive any fee for a debt relief service “until and unless” it has actually renegotiated, settled, reduced or otherwise changed the terms of at least one debt under an agreement you accepted, and you have made at least one payment under it (16 C.F.R. 310.4(a)(5)).
• Loans. A telemarketer may not request or receive a fee in advance of getting you a loan when it has guaranteed or claimed a high likelihood of success in getting one (16 C.F.R. 310.4(a)(4)).

These rules are enforced by the FTC and states. They do not usually give you a private lawsuit. But a caller asking for money up front is a strong sign the operation is breaking the law, and it is often the same operation breaking the TCPA.

Your private claim is under the TCPA

• Recorded or AI voice call selling a loan or relief service to your cell or home phone without prior express written consent: $500 per call, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(3); 47 C.F.R. 64.1200(a)(2), (a)(3)).
• Sales calls to a Do Not Call number: more than one in 12 months from or for the same company supports a claim under 227(c)(5).
• Texts: loan offers by text raise extra questions in 2026. See our spam text lawsuit guide for how courts now treat texts.

Calls from your own lender are different

If you took out a loan and gave the lender your cell number, calls about that loan, including recorded payment reminders, are generally covered by the consent you gave. Those are not sales calls, so written consent is not required. You can revoke consent to robocalls at any time, and under 47 C.F.R. 64.1200(a)(10) the lender must honor it within ten business days. After that, recorded calls may be actionable. Our page on collection robocalls covers that situation.

A lender you already have that calls to sell you a new loan is another matter. Your existing relationship may excuse Do Not Call rules for a time, but a recorded sales pitch to your cell still needs written consent.

When a loan call is probably not a claim

• You applied for a loan online and the lender called you back, with a live person, about that application.
• A single live call from a lender to a number not on the Registry.
• The caller never names a lender or company and you cannot trace the offer.

How to document loan offer calls

1. Never pay an upfront fee for student loan help. Federal student loan programs can be handled with your servicer at no charge.
2. Ask for the company’s legal name, its website, and whether it is your loan servicer. Write down the answers.
3. Save voicemails and texts, including any link or application sent to you.
4. Keep any contract or payment request. It names the seller and helps regulators too.
5. Log every call in our call log.

What to do next about loan and debt relief calls

If you paid a fee, contact your bank or card issuer to dispute it and report the company at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If calls keep coming from a named lender or relief company, gather the recordings and dates and ask for a free case review. For calls where no one names a company, our guide to building a case against an unknown caller shows how to keep records until the seller surfaces.