Date Received: 2023-12-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I am writing to bring to your attention a major issue regarding the recent payment I made towards my Nelnet student loan account on XX/XX/XXXX of 2023. Upon reviewing my account statement, I noticed that the payment made on XX/XX/XXXX has not been correctly applied to the principal balance. Instead, it appears that the payment has not been allocated properly, as the interest continues to accrue despite the timely payment. I would appreciate your prompt attention to rectify this matter and ensure that my payment is correctly reflected in the principal balance. It is crucial for me to have accurate records of my payments and for them to be applied in a way that minimizes interest accrual.
Company Response:
State: OH
Zip: 43202
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-31
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone
Consumer Complaint: Nelnet sent a response that their information was correct and I was late on my payments. They sent payment records that did not include the previous payments that were made prior to the " late '' payment and how they were not appropriate applied to the past due amounts. I sent proof of the previous payments via email ( in reply to their email ) on two different occasions with no response. My credit score dropped by XXXX points because they reports 16 loans individually even though the payment was made. They are not responding to my email I sent with the proof or correcting the negative credit reporting.
Company Response:
State: MI
Zip: 48322
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-31
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account information incorrect
Consumer Complaint: To make it as easy as possible to get credit toward PSLF, I switched from the student loan servicer Nelnet to XXXX. This loan servicer change went into effect on XX/XX/XXXX I was notified on XX/XX/ that my credit score decreased rapidly. This decrease in my score was due to my credit report falsely showing that I have identical loans through both Nelnet and XXXX. Thinking it would take time for my credit report to accurately reflect the correct information, I waited until XX/XX/ to submit a dispute through XXXX. I received an email on XX/XX/ from XXXX stating that my dispute was " resolved. '' This is incorrect as my credit report still reflects that I have identical student loans through Nelnet and XXXX.
Company Response:
State: CO
Zip: 80010
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I am still a full-time doctoral student finishing up my XXXX. It was my understanding that my subsidized loans ( all of my remaining federal loans ) would not accrue any interest while I was in school, and that repayments and interest would begin 6 months after I graduated. But I will likely graduate in XXXX, and I just had interest accrue and loans auto-payed this week. This never happened with my previous servicer, but Nelnet seems incompetent. I am sure they are buried with loan repayments beginning again, but their system itself seems poorly designed. They are the only company I have heard of in the age of dedicated apps who actually discontinued theirs, when their website is not exactly good. I have no idea why the federal government would contract with such a XXXX company in the first place. I have heard many other horror stories.
Company Response:
State: NJ
Zip: 081XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I have been paying extra into my Nelnet student loan and interest is being taken out of the extra payments. These payments are paid after I pay my regular monthly payments. In one instance, I paid XXXX extra and XXXX dollars were put to interest. Another instance, I paid XXXX and XXXX dollars went to interest. I am trying to pay off the loan quickly but the servicer is XXXX majority of those extra payments to interest. Both in XXXX.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 91730
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-29
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: A payment was submitted to the loan servicer in XX/XX/2023 in the amount of {$170.00}. The loan was transferred from Great Lakes to Nelnet. In XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/2023 I contacted Nelnet asking for the credit of the XX/XX/2023 payment ( which of course impacts principal/interest allocation- this payment should have gone 100 % to principal due to Covid deferment ). Of course in XXXX when student loan payments resumed, this missing XXXX payment impacted the distribution of payment. On XX/XX/2023, during a phone call with Nelnet, the representative acknowledged that Nelnet had the money in a holding account and just has not had not yet credited account. It has been six months that this payment has not been credited to the debt.
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 018XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-29
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem lowering your monthly payments
Consumer Complaint: Throughout the loan, they have recapitalized the interest every time they have placed the loan in forbearance or deferment which has caused the loans to balloon to 289 % of the original value. I am still in school and the policies in place caused the size of my student loans to balloon to an unpayable level which seems predatory in that the loan provider knows that the student will end up paying multiple times what they borrowed. This started with the original loan provider XXXX XXXX and has continued with my current loan provider. The loans are being forced into repayment by XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX and I will not be graduating in my current program until the end of XXXX Without any type of income-based repayment options, I will be unable to make payments being a current XXXX student. These are only two of the loans I have that were taken out in XXXX and XXXX the first year of my XXXX program. With the compounded interest and required upcoming payments, these policies and practices are predatory and disrupt the ability of XXXX XXXX, like myself, to obtain the necessary education without additional financial strain. My cosigner and I are looking into refinancing options due to a lack of options and choices, however, it is still putting a great deal of undue financial and emotional hardship on us.
Company Response:
State: VA
Zip: 20170
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-29
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Called on XX/XX/XXXX asking why my payments since early XXXX have been getting deferred. I checked my banking info on the account and everything is correct and theres enough money in the account but even after receiving confirmations from Nelnet, they dont credit my payments. I have also been accruing over {$400.00} in interest during this time because their system wont take my payments. XXXX on the phone told me that this has happened to other clients as well and that there was no resolution for this issue but I could try autopay from my bank ; which I have already done. I will also not be refunded any of the {$400.00} and it will continue to grow unless I somehow fix this issue that I dont believe is something fixable on my end. I have emails showing my history of receiving confirmations of my payments even though they do not show on my nelnet account of actually processing. I have tried to submit well over {$6000.00} since XXXX of XXXX. I have always been someone who makes payments on time and was never late when I used XXXX. Unfortunately they are closed and they automatically switched me to Nelnet.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 92708
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-29
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: My student loan provider is currently Nelnet. I have been making my payments 1 month in advance to cut down on interest paid. On XX/XX/XXXX I made a payment to them for my loans that was not actually due until XXXX because I pay in advance. On XX/XX/XXXX I logged in to make a payment and it told me I had a past due balance. Impossible since the payment I was making in XXXX was actually XX/XX/XXXX payment. I called them XXXX and spent about 1 hour and 13 minutes on the phone. The lady said I had a total of 4 loans and that my payment in XXXX was applied to only 1 loan and the other 3 were not paid so that is why I had a past due balance. She said she would submit a request to fix this but that request would take about 3 weeks to process and then I would be able to make my XXXX payment before the due date and it would no longer reflect that I had a past due balance. Fast forward to today XX/XX/XXXX, I logged in to their website to make a payment and it still showed I had a past due balance. I called them XX/XX/XXXX and literally spent 2 hours and 53 minutes. It was an hour and 20 minutes before someone even picked up. The lady said that the original request sent in on XX/XX/XXXX was not done correctly and then proceeded to say she was submitting a new request for me. After that she proceeded to tell me processing times on these requests are now 7-8 weeks out. I said this was unacceptable and needed this fixed now so I can make my payment and no longer reflect I have a past due balance. I requested a supervisor and waiting on hold even longer. XXXX was the supervisor name and gave me the same information the customer service agent did. That they cant expedite these requests and that they take time. While all this is going on, my account will now reflect 60 days past due in XXXX and who knows if this will even be resolved until XXXX. I just want this fixed so I can pay them the money I owe. While I am not able to make a payment, I am being charged more interest on money that I technically should have already paid but cant until they fix the past due balance. It is unacceptable for them to be this far out on fixing issues. Please help!
Company Response:
State: IA
Zip: 50265
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-29
Issue: Improper use of your report
Subissue: Reporting company used your report improperly
Consumer Complaint: I am writing again in response to a letter that was constructed on XX/XX/XXXX. In the response letter it said you may not opt out of this sharing. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a welcome letter from Nelnet and in that welcome letter after Great Lakes Borrower transferred my account it said Within XXXX days of the transfer, these changes will be reflected on your credit report and Nelnet will continue to report on your federal student loan ( s ). Under 12 CFR 1016.7 ( a ) ( 1 ) states you are required to provide a clear and conspicuous notice to each of your consumers that accurately explains the right to opt out. The notice must state- ( ii ) That the consumer has the right to opt out of that disclosure; and ( iii ) A reasonable means by which the consumer may exercise the opt out right. I was not provided a clear and conspicuous notice that accurately explained my right to opt out. All I received in writing was that you notified me that you are reporting my account to the CRAs which excludes reasonable opt out means. Under 12 CFR 1016.7 ( 2 ) Examples it lists what are considered reasonable opt out means for consumers which none were provided to me. Since you have given me unreasonable opt out means in 12 CFR 1016.7 ( 2 ) ( iii ) the only means of opting out I have is writing my own letter which is attached to this complaint to exercise my right to opt out. By Law under 15 U.S. Code 6802 ( B ) states that the consumer is given the opportunity, before the time that such information is initially disclosed, to direct that such information not be disclosed to such third party ; and 15 U.S. Code 6802 ( C ) states that the consumer is given an explanation of how the consumer can exercise that non-disclosure option. Before you reported my account to third parties such as XXXX, XXXX and XXXX I was not given an explanation of how I the consumer could exercise the non-disclosure option. Not only have you disclosed my nonpublic personal information to third parties without consent and given me unreasonable means to opt out, you also havent protected my privacy as a student. In the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ( FERPA ) it states in ( 20 U.S.C. 1232g ; 34 CFR Part 99 ) that FERPA is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. You are violating that federal law by disclosing my account data to the CRAs. In FERPA it also states that the only information that may be disclosed is directory information which includes such as a student 's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. I have not received a letter about the reporting of my directory information or was allowed time to have an option not to disclose that information nor have I given written or verbal consent to disclose that information to consumer reporting agencies like XXXX, XXXX and XXXX who are credit bureaus that have my directory information. On top of that on XX/XX/XXXX there was an update reported by Nelnet to XXXX of a transaction ( attached is a copy ) which means there was transaction history reported to the CRAs. Reporting transaction history is illegal as it states in 15 U.S. Code 1681a ( 2 ) ( A ) ( i ) that a consumer report does not include report containing information solely as to transactions or experiences between the consumer and the person making the report. Directory information as well as transaction history were reported to XXXX and XXXX and I have copies attached to this complaint as well. In the Privacy Act of 1974 ( 5 U.S. Code 552a ( b ) under Conditions of Disclosure it states- No agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains, unless disclosure of the record would be. I have not given a written request or written consent to disclose my records to any agency. My records have not been kept between me and Nelnet and have been disclosed to other third party agencies without my consent. Although under ( 12 ) of Conditions of Disclosure it says a record may be disclosed to a consumer reporting agency in accordance with 3711 ( e ) of title 31. It needs to be in accordance with 3711 ( e ) of title 31. I have not received any notice of disclosing my nonpublic information to credit bureaus. Prior to the credit bureaus receiving my information you gave them, my written instruction of consent was not given to disclose that information therefore not only have you violated the Fair credit reporting act but also the Privacy Act of 1974. For all of these valid reasons it is my right to exercise opting out of your reporting services.
Company Response:
State: UT
Zip: 84047
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A