Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem lowering your monthly payments
Consumer Complaint: I was mistakenly informed on a number of occasions that my IDR would be backdated to have no out of pocket costs to me and I would not have to use my general forbearance time. Then I was erroneously told I would have an administrative forbearance. I agreed to use my general forbearance time because I really was given no choice in the matter, but was told I would use a MAX of 90 days with the rest being covered by a delinquency forbearance. I received correspondence dated XX/XX/2019 re my forbearance request approval, and it states XXXX, an extra 31 days of my forbearance time I was told I would not have to use any of. I have filed three internal complaints that I have been informed have no way of being tracked or shown their effectiveness.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 625XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-26
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: It says on there website that if we want to get a loan dismissed to provide proof via transcripts or a letter from the school. I provided Official transcripts from the XXXX XXXX XXXX School Board that shows that i never graduated high school and they keep saying that is not enough. There asking me to get a letter from my school that says i never graduated High school and after speaking with the high school they stated thats against the rules of the states and they can only provide a letter of my entry and exit with gpa the same my transcripts say, but the transcripts are more detail as to saying i never received a High School Diploma. I feel as if there really not trying to assist me at all.
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 33404
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Subissue: Debt was result of identity theft
Consumer Complaint: I am a victim of identity theft and this debt does not belong to me. Please see the identity theft report and legal affidavit attached.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29229
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: This complaint is being made against FedLoan Servicing/U.S. Department of Education/Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency ( hereinafter collectively referred to as " FedLoan '' ). I submitted a check to FedLoan in the amount of {$9300.00}, which was cashed on XX/XX/19. Said check was sent in an envelope with an accompanying note that explicitly stated how the payment was to be allocated between my nine outstanding loans. Specifically, the payment in question was to pay off the balance of three of my nine outstanding loans. These three loans were chosen because they have a substantially higher interest rates than the other six loans. Additionally, I wrote instructions on the physical check stating that payment was to be allocated between " Loans 1, 3 & 5 '' ( please see attached PDF file ). FedLoan disregarded both the instructions on the physical check as well as the instructions on the physical check and proceeded to allocate my {$9300.00} payment in a random fashion to all nine of my outstanding loans. If this mistake is not remedied, FedLoan has effectively stolen hundreds of dollars from me by negligently applying this payment to my other six loans with far lower interest rates. I contacted FedLoan by email on XX/XX/19 requesting that this issue be remedied but, to date, FedLoan has not responded.
Company Response:
State: CO
Zip: 80211
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: By my count I should have 115 qualifying payments towards my Public Service Loan Forgiveness. I have been enrolled in this since XXXX when my loans were serviced by XXXX XXXX. My loans were bought by XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX Something ) in XX/XX/XXXX. I re-sent my Employment Certification Form proving I was a federal employee and every year sent in my tax return to have my payment adjusted under the IBR plan. In XXXX I asked XXXX for a count of my qualifying payments. In an email dated XX/XX/XXXX I was told I had made 54 qualifying payments to XXXX and 17 to XXXX. In an email dated XX/XX/XXXX XXXX confirmed that I had made 101 payments but also said it would be up to FedLoan to come up with the final number and they transferred my loan to them. Up until I thought I was nearing my forgiveness date I had never heard of FedLoan before. I had to re-send all my Employment Certification Forms. I had had 3 different Fed jobs since starting to payback my loans and FedLoan had no record of any of them. When FedLoan finally calculated my qualifying payments ( XX/XX/XXXX ) they came up with 49 for one loan and 59 for another. Not only are these numbers ridiculous but my loans have been consolidated since my first PSLF/IBR payment so where they get two different numbers is another mystery. Writing to complain about their calculations, I got ( in part ) this answer : The months that did not count as qualifying payment months for public service loan forgiveness include XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX due to an administrative forbearance that was applied to your account, XX/XX/XXXX due to the months full installment amount not being full satisfied, XX/XX/XXXX due to a general forbearance, XX/XX/XXXX due to no bill being generated, XX/XX/XXXX due to an administrative forbearance that was applied to the account, from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX due to a general forbearance and XX/XX/XXXX due to the full installment amount not being fully satisfied. What? What a bunch of excuses and XXXX made up behind the scenes and after the fact. Never ever did XXXX or XXXX put my loan in administrative forbearance or did I pay during a general forbearance or any of the other stuff I am hearing about the first time ever. Ive read too many articles to count now on how awful and even fraudulent FedLoans is.But I do not know how to go about fixing this. I have never even made a single payment to FedLoan so how they came up with these numbers, I dont know.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 19125
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Subissue: Debt was result of identity theft
Consumer Complaint: I am a victim of identity theft and this debt does not belong to me. Please see the identity theft report and legal affidavit attached.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29229
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Subissue: Debt was result of identity theft
Consumer Complaint: I am a victim of identity theft and this debt does not belong to me. Please see the identity theft report and legal affidavit attached.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29229
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: This loan started with the US Department of Education as it is a federal student loan. The payment was {$50.00} a month which is very manageable. In XXXX of XXXX I bought a home and our broker at the time inquired about this loan because of the small payment amount of {$50.00}. Our broker, my wife, and I made a conference call to the department of education. The representative confirmed the {$50.00} per month payment and promised all of us that the amount would never raise. The amount would be {$50.00} forever. Not long after my loan was sent to XXXX where immediately my payment went up. At some points as high as {$800.00} per month. Immediately I have been lied to. Each year I have to recertify my Public Service Repayment Plan program because after 10 years my loan is forgiven. In XXXX I tried to recertify as I have every year and I was denied. They said I filled out my application incorrectly. So I completed the application again and again everytime denied because I filled it out wrong so they said. I had a representative walk me through how they wanted it filled out over the phone and still it was denied. Several months have gone by at this point. Frustrated I looked online to see where I can get help and I found out about the Ombudsman Department. I contacted them and immediately a representative responded. I started to feel good about this. The representative had me fill out the application and I did so just like I had every time before. I was immediately approved. I did nothing different. I don't know why I was denied as my ombudsman application was exactly the same as the 13-14 previous applications. I didn't know why they had denied me and they couldn't explain it to me either. Then when I received a statement I realized that they had charged me interest for the past year of applying to recertify my loan. They didn't take a payment but they charged me more interest than I would have paid. Now my loan is supposed to be forgiven after 10 years but What will happen now? Will I be payed back for that year I lost filling out applications? I asked them and I received no answer. I want to know if that year they took from me will apply to the 10 years of the loan or if I will now have to pay for 11 years. They took a year of my life. I am convinced they purposly denied my applications to get more money out of me. They only have 10 years to get money from me but if they hold my payments and make me fill out applications for a year thats another year of interest I have to pay. So instead of 10 years I pay 11 years of interest. Its an attempt to get more money from me. I know this. This loan which started at {$50.00} per month was at over {$800.00} per month but now at around {$580.00} this is too much money for me to handle. They take my wife 's income into account but they don't account for my other loans, my wifes loans, or any of our other financial obligations. I have no problem making a payment but I want it to be manageable.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 93446
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-22
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account information incorrect
Consumer Complaint: I scheduled a student loan payment to American Education Services on the XX/XX/XXXX for a draft date of XX/XX/2019. This payment would have covered my XX/XX/XXXX due date. My student loan is due on the 1st of each month and I should not have received a negative reporting until the XX/XX/XXXX. AES reported a 30 day late payment for the month of XX/XX/XXXX. I have reached out to AES to resolve this on the XX/XX/XXXX to inquire and spoke to a manager. He advised that I should not get a negative credit reporting and he would initiate an internal dispute. To date there has been no resolution and my credit has been impacted tremendously. AES payment confirmation states the payment date is the day that the payment will be applied.
Company Response:
State: ID
Zip: 83646
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-09-22
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Consumer Complaint: I was in an IDR plan last year and needed to recertify in XX/XX/XXXX. I have tried over and over to recertify. I do bot have access to my husband 's income or bank accounts and therefore i know i do not have to use his income. I have told them this for the last 8 years. Finally lady year was the first year someone listened and i was able to enter into an idr plan with a XXXX payment. For 8 years prior i was either in deferment or forbearance because they would not listen and did not offer the idr plan. They also didn't offer any assistance when i was on unemployment and XXXX in XXXX - XXXX. I could have had my loans paid off but now im at over XXXX mostly in finance charges. Now its set to come out of my bank and its a XXXX payment i only bring home XXXX each paycheck. I wont be able to make my bills this month. They don't listen and they don't respond.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 93422
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-09-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A