Date Received: 2020-04-10
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Problem with personal statement of dispute
Consumer Complaint: My daughter only stayed in college for one year, She was given the loan information to make payments. She made a few payments by calling in a few times, she missed a few payments. At that time I suggested we call Fed Loan and set up a payment arrangement. We called together, My daughter and I spoke with the woman service rep, I told her I was calling about the parent plus loans taken out in my name, we gave our social security numbers and the service rep set up my daughters bank account for repayment. Several months went by, I started getting alerts about my credit score dropping due to late payments, I reached out to my daughter who provided a bank record of payments being made. Several more months went by and I continue to see my score drop, at that point I disputed it due to having proof of payment. In late XXXX I decided to call Fed loan to find out what was going on, it was at that time I discovered that the parent plus loan was not set up with a payment plan, the only account that was set up was a loan in my daughters name. I had no knowledge of this account ; it was set up by the college without my consent. I was not involved in this loan. When the initial repayment plan was set up the service rep set up the wrong account and did not disclose that she seen an additional account. The service rep suggested a forbearance, it was approved. I have been making on time payments since then. During the 8 months I received 16 late payments recorded against me on my credit report. They reported on 2 accounts being late but I only have 1 account number. I believe that these late payments against me are unjust, I called The Fed loan facility and gave all of the necessary information, there was no mention by the service rep of several accounts. If these said accounts were discovered the first time, I contacted their facility I would not be in this position. We called Fed loan in XX/XX/2018 to set up a repayment plan I have records that show one account was being paid while the other fell behind due to the wrong account being set up for repayment.
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-10
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Fedloan has added new misleading information about the CARES act regarding student loan forgiveness programs. After responding to my last complaint about being encouraged keep making payments to stay on track with my loan forgiveness program, admitting that I was given wrong information, and promising that suspended payments made during this forbearance period WOULD be included in my qualifying payment total, they have now updated their website with more evasive messaging : " Borrowers with a Direct Loan, whom are on a qualifying repayment plan prior to the suspension, and work full-time for a qualifying employer during the suspension, will receive credit toward PSLF for the period of suspension as though on-time monthly payments were made. Borrowers currently on an IDR plan will have suspended payments count toward IDR forgiveness. '' Of course borrowers will not qualify under this stipulation. A frightening amount of people have been laid off from their jobs and are collecting unemployment. Therefore we are NOT working " full-time for a qualifying employer during the suspension ''. There is no requirement in the CARES act that states that a borrower must remain employed in order to qualify for this : " ( c ) Consideration Of Payments.The Secretary shall deem each month for which a loan payment was suspended under this section as if the borrower of the loan had made a payment for the purpose of any loan forgiveness program authorized under part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1087a et seq. ) for which the borrower would have otherwise qualified. '' If we weren't all losing our jobs, we wouldn't need the forbearance, and we would have otherwise qualified.
Company Response:
State: NH
Zip: 03054
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-10
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: To Whom it May Concern : Due to the CARES Act, I believe that I should not have had to pay my student loan bill this month, managed by FedLoan Servicing. I already paid the {$340.00} bill on XX/XX/2020 due to fear of possible repercussions, however I believe that the actual amount due should have been {$0.00}. I tried to reach out to FedLoan, however it is impossible to get through on the phone lines, and when I try to submit an email message through their website, I repeatedly get an error message. Per my understanding of the CARES Act, I should have SIX XXXX-dollar monthly payments due from XX/XX/2020 to XX/XX/2020. If so, I would please like a refund of my XXXX bill, and for someone to please ensure that I don't get billed for the next 5 months. Just as a side note - I am a healthcare worker on the frontlines in the XXXX, XXXX - to say this is a stressful time is an understatement. Finally, I'd like to say that in my few years with FedLoans, I've encountered absolutely abysmal customer service. They even messed up my initial consolidation which is going to cost several extra thousand dollars on my {$320000.00} principle. However, FedLoans said they would NOT correct it, and they themselves do not have any repercussions for this mistake. I find it absolutely heartbreaking that our government sees this agency as one that is fit to help our student borrowers. Sincerest thanks for your help, -XXXX XXXX
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 10467
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-10
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
Consumer Complaint: In order to refinance my mortgage, which I desperately need to do and as quickly as possible ( or it may not happen ), I need a payment amount to show up for my student loan on my credit report. However, because I was on forbearance, it is not showing up. I then applied for a payment plan, only to find out on the 10th business day when they finally answered my phone call that they would not be able to put me on a payment plan due to COVID-19. Thereafter, we decided that a suitable alternative would be a letter that could be emailed to me explaining the circumstances. However, they keep changing their story and at first, they were saying they would send that letter within a couple of hours and then they kept subsequently changing the time frame. This is unacceptable.
Company Response:
State: OH
Zip: 44146
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-10
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't temporarily delay making payments
Consumer Complaint: the care act of XXXX went into effect XX/XX/XXXX. i have not been contacted by fedloan servicing about the freeze on payments, but only received my regular bills. i have now paid my past 2 months of payments and believe they should be refunded! i have a lot of debt and if i could have paid another bill with that , it would have made my life less stressful than it already is!!!! and they also have all of my PSLF records a whack : (
Company Response:
State: WI
Zip: 545XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-09
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Over the last 2 years I have paid my minimum payment via the Pay as You Earn program, with my current student loan service provider. On months where I am able, I make additional payments above the minimum amount due, in effort to payoff my loan quicker. For the last 6 months I have seen that the additional payments I made have only been applied toward the interest balance, and nothing toward to the principal balance. I am not clear as to why any additional payments made above the minimum amount due would not be applied toward the principal balance. Also it does not appear that any portion of the minimum payment is being applied to any portion of the principal balance. I first tried to reach the service provider via email on XX/XX/2020 via their online portal with no response. I made a call to the service provider on XX/XX/2020, and spoke to someone who explained it is their policy to apply all payments toward the interest, and that I could not apply any payment toward the principal balance, until the interest is paid off. What was not made clear is how the principal goes down, if all I am doing is paying interest, which keeps getting added on monthly. The provider could not explain the policy or how this works, nor how I would ever be able to payoff my loan. I tired to equate my situation to auto loans and home mortgages that are paid ahead, where additional payments can be applied to the principal balance of the loan, so they can be paid off faster. The service provider could not explain and continued to say that all payments are applied to the pending interest.
Company Response:
State: GA
Zip: 30189
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-09
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I thought I was on a deferred payment plan for these accounts. I have been working very hard to fix my credit, and all of a sudden I get reported as 60 days late and 90 days late. My primary issue is that I have been, as has most of America, affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. I thought all student loans were in an automatic deferment. I am in disbelief that AES would do this to me, especially now. I have called and begged them to help, but they have told me that they can not help me. They are reporting the data, what do they mean they can't help me? Please help me, they are destroying my credit, during a crisis, this can not be fair! Sixty days late in XX/XX/2020 and 90 days late in XX/XX/2020 2020
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 19380
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-09
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have two student loans which are being serviced through American Education Services. I have applied two separate times for loan forgiveness only to be denied on a technicality of paperwork. I applied on XX/XX/2020 and was denied because I did not put my name and Social Security number on the back back of the page. The same information was on the front side of the application and it was on one sheet of paper. I was told I would have to start the entire process over. On XX/XX/2020, I resubmitted the application and was again denied because the date was not in the correct format dd/MM/yyyy. The dates were there just not in the format they wanted. I was again told I would have to resubmit the entire paperwork. Being denied due to some minor technicality is ridiculous. This is an unnecessary burden to something I am entitled to. In addition, I am being told I have to continue my payments even though the federal government has suspended all payments for student loans that are not private. They are violating the law.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 293XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-08
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account status incorrect
Consumer Complaint: In XX/XX/2018, Fed Loan Servicing reported that my payment was 120-149 days late. This is incorrect because my student loan was in forbearance since XXXX meaning that I did not have to make the XXXX payment. Even if the XXXX payment was due, it would not be 120-149 days late. I have tried to get it off of my report since it looks like 4 missed payments on my account due to having 4 student loan accounts to no avail.
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 010XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-08
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-04-09
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Hi, I contacted you in XXXX about my student loans and now it seems like since I contacted you, my student loans balance has gone down somewhat, which further lets me know AES has been taking my money for over 10 years and not applying my payments to my loans. My name is XXXX and I consolidated my student loans with XXXX XXXX in XXXX and it appears my loan was sold to XXXX XXXX XXXX who changed their name to American Education Services. This company has had many complaints over the years and they are continuously taking advantage of customers. I cant even target my payments to specific loans. My original loan amounts are as follows : 1. Beginning balance XXXX} ( sub ) Current balance XXXX 2. Beginning balance {$1900.00} ( unsub ) Current balance $ XXXX} 3. Beginning balance {$XXXX ( sub ) Current balance {$12000.00} 4. Beginning balance {$14000.00} ( unsub ) Current balance {$11000.00} Totol due as of XX/XX/XXXX {$27000.00} I have been making payments towards my student loans since XX/XX/XXXX, over 10 years and I still owe {$27000.00}?? Something is wrong!!! Since XXXX, my payments were between $ XXXX {$200.00} and as of XXXX, my payments are {$380.00} a month. I have contacted AES on several occasions to have them explain to me why I still owe them so much money. Unfortunately, their response doesnt justify the money I have already paid over the years and the remaining balance. I have been trying to research who I can speak with to have my consolidated student loan researched for accuracy and not doctored up documents. Would you be able to assist me? Here is the contact information I have for AES : American Education Services XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX, PA XXXX XXXX American Education Services XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX, PA XXXX
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 21228
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A