What is SoFi?

Social Finance, Inc., commonly called SoFi, is an online personal finance company that originally provided student loan refinancing and mortgages, then expanded into personal loans. The original business model was built on the concept of alumni lending targeted at graduates of prestigious universities. Founded in 2011, in recent years SoFi has changed from the alumni lending model to a focus on lending to individuals with high credit scores and specific education requirements.

SoFi has grown from a small startup company to a successful lender with billions of dollars in loans issued to hundreds of thousands of customers.

Timeline for SoFi Loans After Default?

SoFi personal loans are generally issued with a fixed period for repayment like 36 or 48 months. Revolving credit card debt balances do not reach the point of charge-off — when the debt is declared a loss on the books — until after 180 days of delinquency. In contrast, most SoFi loans will reach charge-off after only FOUR MONTHS, or 120 days of delinquency. This can come as a shock to some borrowers, who are surprised at how quickly their defaulted loans are sold to debt buyers that will attempt collections far more aggressively than SoFi itself does, including civil lawsuits to recover the unpaid balances.

SoFi Debt Collection, Negotiating Payment Arrangements to Avoid Charge-Off

If the loan has not yet reached charge-off at 120 days late and been formally written off, collection efforts will typically come directly from SoFi, or an assigned agency tasked with calling the borrower and sending collection notices. Within this four-month period, this lender is very motivated to work with borrowers to restructure their loans. For consumers who are trying to avoid the negative credit impact of a charge-off, it’s often possible to work directly with SoFi before the account is sold to a debt purchaser.

How Can I Avoid Being Sued by SoFi after Default?

SoFi itself does not have a known pattern of directly suing consumers on defaulted loans, and it’s rare to see an account escalate for legal action within the four-month charge-off timeline required for this type of loan. There have been exceptions in the past, as SoFi was working out its practices for debt collection and recovery, and it’s never safe to assume that a loan default won’t result in a lawsuit. However, most of the time the actual risk of litigation isn’t from SoFi itself, but rather the debt purchasers they sell their defaulted loans to within 1-2 months after charge-off. If you want to avoid any risk of this situation happening, then your best bet is to simply get on the phone with SoFi and work out a modified payment arrangement that will allow you to navigate through your financial crunch without worrying about a $30,000 to $40,000 loan being sold to someone that wants to sue you for it.

Help, My SoFi Loan Was Sold to Velocity Investments, LLC!

If your SoFi loan went to charge-off status and you have received a notice that Velocity Investments, LLC has purchased the account, you are probably wondering what happens next. Normally, this debt buyer will be open to working out payment arrangements on the full balance, or a settlement for discounted payoff. However, they will frequently work through third-party agencies for the actual collection effort, and those third parties may include a regular collection agency or a law firm. In many cases, it is possible to work out a settlement that is paid over a longer period of time like 12 month, 24 months, sometimes even as long as 36 months, instead of having to come up with a large lump sum all in one payment.

Accounts sold to Velocity Investments, LLC and assigned for collection to an outside agency can often be settled by consumers working on their own. However, your results may be better with professional help. If you have a SoFi loan purchased by Velocity Investments, LLC and would like further support, please read my series on Tailored Debt Settlement and then email me at [email protected] with the background information on your situation.

Help, My SoFi Loan Was Sold to LVNV Funding! (Resurgent Capital)

After charge-off at 120 days of delinquency, it is common for SoFi to sell the loan to a debt buyer. Above we discussed one possible purchaser, and LVNV Funding is another entity that frequently buys SoFi loans. LVNV Funding is part of Resurgent Capital, one of the largest debt buyers in the United States.

LVNV Funding is usually willing to work out payment arrangements over time, or settlements for discounted payoffs. As with other debt buyers, it is common for LVNV Funding to outsource the actual process of collection to a third party agency that works on their behalf, and such agencies can include collection law firms.

Accounts sold to LVNV Funding (Resurgent Capital) and assigned to a collection agency can also be settled by consumers working on their own. However, your results may be better with professional help. If you have a SoFi loan purchased by Resurgent Capital or LVNV Funding and would like further support, please read my series on Tailored Debt Settlement and then email me at [email protected] with the background information on your situation.

Help, My SoFi Loan Was Sold to CKS Financial!

As we discussed above, it is normal for SoFi to sell the account to a debt buyer after the 4-month charge-off deadline has passed. CKS Financial is both a collection agency as well as a purchaser of debt, so when this company is involved, the situation can be potentially confusing to consumers. It’s important to know who the actual creditor is after the sale, before proceeding to negotiate a settlement or payment plan. It may be that CKS Financial is actually working on behalf of Velocity Investments (see above discussion), or they may have actually acquired the account themselves and therefore are collecting on their own behalf. The initial mailed notice should help to clarify the specific situation for your loan.

CKS Financial is also usually flexible in dealing with consumers after they’ve purchased a SoFi charge-off loan. Long term payment arrangements are possible here as well, and also settlements for discounted payoffs via lump sum or longer term settlement plans. In most cases though, results are better with professional support.

If you have a SoFi loan purchased by (or assigned to) CKS Financial and would like further support, please read my series on Tailored Debt Settlement and then email me at [email protected] with the background information on your situation.

Timeline for Negotiating Settlements with Debt Buyers on SoFi Loans

After your SoFi loan has been sold to one of the debt buyers discussed above, what is the timeline after that for negotiating settlements? The short answer is that settlement opportunities or the option for payment arrangements are available once the buyer has formally taken over the account and incorporated it into their collection system. Time equals risk when a larger balance remains in default, meaning the longer you wait, the more likely you will be dealing with a law firm and the worse the outcome will be.

There is no hard and fast rule for this, but most of the time, the debt buyer will not immediately escalate a file to a law firm. They are savvy enough to recognize that it’s better to give consumers some time to call and work things out before they step up the pressure. So generally speaking, the initial 2-3 months after the sale takes place can often be a good time to enter negotiation with the debt buyer or their assigned collection agency.

After 4 months or more beyond the date of sale, if you just ignore the matter and never respond, then the odds increase that the debt buyer will get your attention the hard way, by assigning your account to a law firm. Once that happens, the debt buyer will no longer work with you directly, but will insist that you work with the law firm instead. And since the law firm will be entitled to a percentage of whatever they collect from you, the settlement outcomes with law firms are almost always higher than they would have been when dealing directly with the debt buyer, or one of their non-legal collection agents.

Should I Request Debt Validation from the Purchaser of My SoFi Loan?

The short answer is, “No”! It is very important for consumers to understand that the worst strategy to use nowadays with debt buyers is Debt Validation, or “disputing the debt.” I stopped using this technique many years ago, but you will still find numerous websites recommending this obsolete and dangerous approach. It used to be the case that debt buyers did not obtain the necessary documentation from the original creditor to back up their claims. But all of that has changed in the past 10 years or so, with major internal changes within the debt buying industry driven by regulatory changes. Nowadays, a request for validation is likely to merely antagonize the buyer, and many will react by providing the documentation you are requesting attached to a lawsuit! I strongly recommend against creating an adversarial relationship when you are trying to negotiate a settlement. Of course, if you really do have a dispute about the balance or terms of the loan, that is different. But it’s actually very rare to see this, and most of the time, people want to use the validation approach with the aim of “beating the debt buyer” on the assumption the buyer cannot provide documentation.

SUMMARY

SoFi is a major new player in the personal loan marketplace, and the balances for SoFi loans are often larger figures in the range of $25,000 to $100,000 or more. The larger size of most SoFi loans requires some careful analysis and planning in the context of a debt settlement strategy, especially since this type of debt reaches the charge-off point after only four months, rather than six months for charge-off on revolving credit card debt. It’s quite often the case that defaulted SoFi loans are sold quickly after charge-off to debt buyers, including Velocity Investments, LLC, LVNV Funding LLC (aka Resurgent Capital), or CKS Financial. Any of these purchasers might escalate a SoFi loan for legal action if too much time elapses without the debtor making contact and working out arrangements. Many consumers get annoyed when they learn their account has been sold a debt buyer, but there is no question that it is perfectly legitimate for SoFi to recover what they can by selling your defaulted loan to one of these firms. The best approach is straightforward negotiation, with the aim of either establishing long-term payment arrangements on the balance, or a discounted payoff via negotiated settlement.