Original Article at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/lenders-race-to-keep-up-with-requests-for-consumer-debt-relief-11589362202

Millions of Americans have asked for a break on their debt payments, but their lenders are having a hard time keeping up.

Borrowers seeking debt relief are encountering jammed phone lines, overflowing inboxes and stretched-thin customer-service departments. Multiple calls to the same lender can yield different answers on the relief programs borrowers qualify for. Sometimes it is taking lenders weeks to reflect the changes on borrowers’ accounts.

And lenders vary widely in how much debt relief they are offering and for how long. Lenders are declining to defer payments for some borrowers who were behind on their payments before the coronavirus laid waste to the U.S. economy. Some who have been given deferments are getting alerts that their payments are past due anyway.

Lenders “are pretty overwhelmed by the amount of calls and questions they’re getting,” said Leslie Parrish, a senior analyst who covers consumer lending at Aite Group, a research and consulting firm.