Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I reapplied for my income driven repayment plan on XX/XX/XXXX. As part of the application, I was asked whether I wanted to renew my existing plan or to apply for the lowest payment plan. I selected the latter, and the XXXX website indicated that I would be contacted by XX/XX/XXXX regarding my application. This did not, and as of XX/XX/XXXX has not, occurred. In mid-XX/XX/XXXX I received a bill for the full amount of my payment. After three calls to XXXX, one on XX/XX/XXXX and two more on XX/XX/XXXX, I learned that because I had selected the lowest payment option, I needed to make a qualifying exit payment before my IDR application would be processed. Although the qualifying exit payment could be reduced to XXXX dollars, it was then too late to process the request for XX/XX/XXXX. Thus, I forced to go into forbearance for XX/XX/XXXX, and make the exit payment in XX/XX/XXXX. As part of this process, I was instructed that I should suspend automatic payments, which I did. I telephoned XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX to confirm that there would be no further problems. At first, it appeared that the problems had indeed been resolved. I received the expected bill of XXXX dollars for XX/XX/XXXX. Since my automatic payments were suspended, I made the payment manually. Unfortunately, there was some problem with the bank, the exact nature of which has not been explained to me, and the payment had been rejected. Thus, on XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXX yet again and made the payment. The XXXX representative also told me that my IDR application would be processed in approximately twenty days. One week later, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email informing me that my loan application could not be processed, and that a letter would be sent with further details. As I was traveling, I was not able to call regarding this new issue. One day afterwards, this morning, I received another email informing me that my application has expired because, quote, we needed additional information from you to fully process your request, unquote. This statement is completely and unequivocally false. At no point in the past three months has XXXX requested any additional documentation or information, despite no less than five separate phone calls to their office. Indeed, XXXX representatives told me, repeatedly, that the delay in processing my application was solely the result of the need for the exit payment. XXXX representatives also told me, repeatedly, that the processing of the application would not even begin until the exit payment was made. That payment occurred on XX/XX/XXXX. There is no possibility that they required additional information prior to that date. As a result of XXXX 's incompetence, I have lost qualifying PSLF payment periods, for XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. I have no doubt that I will also be forced to go into forbearance in XX/XX/XXXX.
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 32757
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have had issues with XXXX customer service representatives since XX/XX/2018. Often times their representatives gave me false informations. For example ; 1. After consulting a federal loan specialist I was told I was in pay ahead status because of a payment I made when I was put in administrative forebearance ( a forebearance I was not told about when I switched from XXXX to XXXX ). When I called XXXX to report this I was repeatedly told by the customer service representative that I was NOT in pay ahead status. It wasnt until I spoke to a manager that I in fact was and they flagged my account as pay ahead. 2. I have requested a detailed payment tracker report since XX/XX/2018. I have followed up three times regarding the status of this report and have been told that they are working on it. They are unable to give me more information. Without this report I can not retroactively remove the pay ahead status. As per my loan advisor, PSLF can be nullified if I am in pay ahead status. Without my detailed payment tracker report, Im not sure if Ill qualify for PSLF program. I continue making payments on high interest loan with no end in sight.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 11554
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Information belongs to someone else
Consumer Complaint: Starting on XX/XX/2016 I started the process of Disputing debt through XXXX XXXX who was reporting XXXX accounts to my credit reports, all the same, account number but different amounts totaling {$41000.00}. I first sent a letter XX/XX/2016, XX/XX/2016 to XXXX XXXX and again on XX/XX/2016 to all 3 credit reporting agencies. I explained these accounts did not belong to me and were unverifiable. All accounts did not meet the XXXX XXXX compliance requirements for reporting accurate data. I included the FTC Advisory Opinion to XXXX ( XXXX ). In sum, it is our view that a CRA that always scrambles or truncates account ( or social security ) numbers does not technically comply with Section 609 because it does not provide accurate ( and perhaps not clear ) disclosure of all information in the file. They basically state that by not reporting the entire account number, they are not reporting 100 % accurate information as required by section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I provided copies of my 8 different letters addressing each line item on my credit bureaus and copies of the signature required service proof of delivery receipts via UPS along with evidence that both the FCRA and FDCPA were both violated by not addressing the dispute in accordance and within the allowed 30 days. I referenced the following, " I am maintaining a careful record of my communications with you for the purpose of filing a complaint with the FTC and the Attorney Generals office, should you continue in your non-compliance of federal laws under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. I further remind you that you may be liable for your willful non-compliance, as per FDCPA 807. False or misleading representations [ 15 USC 1962e ] As you have now violated federal law, by not properly investigating within the required timeframe, and I have evidence of such, via certified mail receipts, you must now remove the item. Any other action ( or in-action ) on your behalf will result in a small claims action against your company. ''
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29609
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-03-12
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Information belongs to someone else
Consumer Complaint: Starting on XX/XX/2016 I started the process of Disputing debt through XXXX XXXX who was reporting 10 accounts to my credit reports, all the same, account number but different amounts totaling {$570000.00}. I first sent a letter XX/XX/2016, XX/XX/2016 and again on XX/XX/2016 to all 3 credit reporting agencies. I explained these accounts did not belong to me and were unverifiable. All accounts did not meet the XXXX XXXX compliance requirements for reporting accurate data. I included the FTC Advisory Opinion to XXXX ( XXXX ). In sum, it is our view that a CRA that always scrambles or truncates account ( or social security ) numbers does not technically comply with Section 609 because it does not provide accurate ( and perhaps not clear ) disclosure of all information in the file. They basically state that by not reporting the entire account number, they are not reporting 100 % accurate information as required by section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I provided copies of my 20 different letters copy of my signature required service via XXXX and evidence that both the FCRA and FDCPA were both violated by not addressing the dispute in accordance within the allowed 30 days. " I am maintaining a careful record of my communications with you for the purpose of filing a complaint with the FTC and the Attorney Generals office, should you continue in your non-compliance of federal laws under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. I further remind you that you may be liable for your willful non-compliance, as per FDCPA 807. False or misleading representations [ 15 USC 1962e ] As you have now violated federal law, by not properly investigating within the required timeframe, and I have evidence of such, via certified mail receipts, you must now remove the item. Any other action ( or in-action ) on your behalf will result in a small claims action against your company. ''
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29609
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: XXXX was my loan servicer provider for almost 4 years, my loans were consolidated before I started to make payments, and Ive been making consecutive on time payments under an IDR plan ever since. I applied for PSLF ( Im a XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and I got into the program, so my loan was transferred to XXXX on XXXX, XXXX. As soon as my loans were transferred I received a letter welcoming me to XXXX and to let me know that I was going to be receiving a letter stating how many payments were going to count towards my forgiveness. I never got the letter, but I did noticed on my statements that my loan was showing in two parts, the subsidized and the unsubsidized portion. The subsidized portion showed 0 payments and the unsubsidized showed 44. I did not understand why was that happening so I called them and they were not able to tell me the reason, so they submitted a review for my account, I called them once a month for a whole year and they told me that it was taking longer than usual to review the accounts. I finally got a call from them on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX they wanted to let me know that the review was ready and that the number of payments remained the same, but they were not able to give me an explanation. I didnt got a letter or anything from them. I still dont understand what is happening, I have all my payment history and my bank statements showing all the payments and it makes no sense to me that if the loans are consolidated they have a different number of qualifying payments.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 79932
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/XXXX I sent 2 letters to XXXX XXXX in Pennsylvania requesting removal of XXXX late payments they recorded, XXXX for each account, reported at the beginning of my payment plan. My XXXX had gotten XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and required my full-time care. I explained that after she XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX, I have made on-time payments ever since. They denied my request on XX/XX/XXXX. All 3 credit bureaus still show me as having XXXX late payments which disqualifies me from work, housing, loans & any other simple background check. It has caused irreparable harm to my life.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 913XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-25
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I will try to be exact, but brief. I have dealt with XXXX XXXX for a long time. I have been in school or unemployed a long time. This year ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I was worse off than ever before. I had my electricity shut off, and was getting less income than in the past. In the past ( pre-XX/XX/XXXX ), I had a $ XXXX/month payment due to my situation. Yet this year ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I was expected to make ~20usd payment every month. Not awful, but didn't seem to reflect my financial situation in any way. I was worse off this year than in the past, and in the past made {$0.00} payments, so why did this year change? They kept asking me for IDR paperwork. I would submit it. They would wait roughly a month, then kick it back to me saying it wasn't correct, and to re-submit. I would re-submit the same thing because it WAS correct. This happened several times. I moved in XX/XX/XXXX, and changed my address. Yet they persist to this day, sending letter to my old address. Which adds more time. They send it overseas, it takes 2 weeks to get here, then it's routed to my old address, then re-routed to me. I have tried asking about the account mailing address, but they do no answer about this either. It's correct on the online profile, so I don't know why they keep sending it to my old address. Eventually they accepted my IDR. But not after several MONTHS had gone by. With me trying to get them to explain this. Why is this being rejected? It's correct paperwork. Of course I was tacked on to thousands of dollars in fees and late payment stuff etc. After finally having the IDR recalculated, and the demand for XXXXusd/month, I asked them why I had to pay anything if I had not had to in the past based on my income. If my income was worse, to the point I had my power shut off here. No reply. I repeatedly tried to get someone to look at it, or explain it, or explain why it was rejected originally, or to have these fees removed or addressed by them. No answer. After waiting for months, and asking repeatedly for help, and recieving none, I finally made a payment out of fear of defaulting, based on the increasingly aggressive auto-generated account letters they were sending. A month later, even though I had made a payment, they claim I have defaulted on my loan. I don't understand why, so of course I wrote them. No response in a month now. I would not have defaulted if I had gotten even a semblance of any kind of support or help in the last 9 months of trying to get anything on the account serviced. From my perspective, they have made the entire process a closed box. I can not get help. Period. It's like screaming into the wind.
Company Response:
State:
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-24
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem lowering your monthly payments
Consumer Complaint: I am on an IDR plan for my federal loans for my two XXXX degrees from 2 different universities. I have never missed or been late on a payment since establishing this payment plan 5 years ago. I am also on a Forgiveness Program due to my employment with a XXXX. XXXX is the servicer for my loans and I have had nothing but problems with them since they took over my loan. The most recent and most damaging issue is with reducing my payments after a loss of income. I received notification in XX/XX/XXXX that my recertification of my IDR was coming due by XX/XX/XXXX. I completed my recertification and sent it in electronically by XX/XX/XXXX. I am employed by 2 different organizations. As of XX/XX/XXXX my position at one of those organizations was eliminated and my employment there was reduced to 4 hours per week, thereby reducing my income by {$17000.00} per year. As required by XXXX for the recertification process, to indicate my reduction of income, I included my recent paystubs from both employers. The paystub from my employer that eliminated my position did reflect my reduction in pay. I also included a letter from that employer stating that my position had been eliminated and my salary greatly reduced. When I received my updated required monthly payment from XXXX, based on my recertification paperwork, my payment had gone up by {$1.00} even though I am now receiving {$17000.00} less per year. Thinking maybe I missed something in the process of completing the recertification paperwork I then went through the recertification process again and found in fine print that if your income is reduced suddenly you are required to mail in your paperwork to XXXX instead of uploading it electronically. So, I mailed to XXXX the exact same paperwork with the same information that I had uploaded electronically. When I received my updated payment it had gone up again and this time by {$160.00}. When I called XXXX to resolve this issue not only did I have to wait on hold for 20 minutes to actually speak to a representative I was then told by that representative that the payment was higher because I am making more money. When I challenged the XXXX representative about the paperwork I had sent in that clearly shows that I am making less money she proceeded to tell my that is not what it says on my tax return. I told her of course it does not say that on my XX/XX/XXXX tax return because that was last year and this sudden loss of income happened to me in XX/XX/XXXX. She said the only way she could help was to put me on Forbearance or postpone a month of my payment. I told her I do not want either of those options. I am more than happy to make payments on my loans I just need lower payments because based on my loss of income I can not afford a monthly payment of {$460.00}. I am a XXXX for a XXXX school and recently had a serious XXXX for which I now have medical bills to repay. Shockingly, I do not make an incredibly high income. I am thankful for my education and the opportunity it has given me to make a positive influence on my world. I am in no way trying to get out of paying my loans. I only want a monthly payment I can afford. XXXX touts itself as an organization willing to work with you on your payments, but in my experience they are only out to rake as much money out of you as they can no matter how it hurts your financial standing. I have worked very hard to maintain a good credit rating and am now in danger of losing that due to XXXX 's unwillingness to help its clients who actually want to do the right thing.
Company Response:
State: OH
Zip: 45211
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-23
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Investigation took more than 30 days
Consumer Complaint: I don't really know what section my issue goes under. I attended XXXX XXXX university online in XXXX into some of XXXX. During that time my father got sick and I told the school I needed to leave school to take care of him and the school said ok not a problem. Upon leaving school my student loans became immediately due which I paid my credit report show I paid. After I left school they still had me enrolled and kept automatically reapplying for financial aid without me knowing and I am now forced to pay these loans when I wasn't even attending the school anymore. Also I noticed on my credit report that my student loans show up more than once since they have since been sold at least at couple times. I paid off my student loans for the portion of school I actually attended and the rest is fraudulent as I was not attending school and did not reapply for financial assistance. The school received the funds and kept them without my permission or knowledge and because of my credit is shot I have lost job opportunities and cant even open a bank account or credit card.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 60160
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-02-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: My student loans are paid through XXXX XXXX XXXX. As a XXXX employee ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ), I tracking each of my payments in order per the terms of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) program. In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my annual PSLF employment certification. XXXX XXXX XXXX sent back acknowledgment of my federal employment status, along with a list of qualifying payments submitted since the beginning of my repayment plan. I noticed several discrepancies including, but not limited to, missing payments for entire months and missing payments for parts of the loans that are consolidated within the entirety of the loan package. I emailed XXXX XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX to notify them of the inaccuracies and request an updated list of qualifying payments. I did not receive any responses despite subsequent, monthly email and phone follow-ups. In XX/XX/XXXX I called and was told that my request had just begun processing. In XX/XX/XXXX I called again and was told that XXXX XXXX XXXX required more time. In XX/XX/XXXX I emailed again and did not receive any response at all. In XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I was told on the phone to continue to be patient. In XX/XX/XXXX, the representative I spoke with on the phone told me there was a backlog and to wait for an update via email - the representative said the longest outstanding request was from XX/XX/XXXX, so my XX/XX/XXXX request needed to wait longer. In XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed again and AGAIN received NO RESPONSE. In XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed and nearly two weeks later, I received a response stating that these reviews " take a great deal of time. '' It has nearly been a year of my patient requests for updates. This is absurd and the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I have gone through my records and can provide accounting of each payment processed with XXXX XXXX XXXX going back nearly 7 years. I have the bank records showing each payment and can provide these if needed. I am completely baffled and appalled as to why it has taken nearly a year to receive a response from this loan holder to a simple request for an updated review of my account. I am tired of dealing with the inconsiderate, and incredibly, sometimes non-responsiveness of this organization. How can I trust an organization to handle the processing of my student loan payments and, hopeful, future student loan forgiveness if they can not process a simple request?
Company Response:
State: VA
Zip: 223XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-02-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A