Date Received: 2015-12-29
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Subissue: Can't get flexible payment options
Consumer Complaint: I am behind on my student loan because I can not afford the payments. I contacted the servicer to see if they can offer me any assistance to bring the account current or at least get on a payment plan. They have no options for me. So although I am attempting to pay because I can not pay the past due balance in full there is nothing they can do. This is very frustrating because it seems that all I can do is have the account go to collections. I have been paying on this account for 7 years now and ran into financial difficulties. It seems that more options need to be available to help borrowers pay these loans.
Company Response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
State: MI
Zip: 48111
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2016-01-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-12-11
Issue: Communication tactics
Subissue: Frequent or repeated calls
Consumer Complaint: The private loan handler of Nelnet, First Mark services repeatedly calls at all times of the day and night. There are multiple phone calls all day long. XXXX phone call is all that is needed. They can leave a message and I will retrieve it but repeated phone calls on the same day are not warranted
Company Response:
State: NC
Zip: 28590
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-12-17
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: Yes
Date Received: 2015-11-27
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are handled
Consumer Complaint: I attended XXXX XXXX of XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXXI took out XXXX private student loans to finance my education. My loans were initially serviced by Nelnet with no problems. In 2014 my loans were service released to Firstmark Serviceswhich is a subsidiary of Nelnet. I remit payments through XXXX XXXX Online Bill Pay making one payment of {$420.00} monthly. The servicer would split the payment and apply funds to each loan. I made 10 payments to FirstMark with no issues. The 11th payment was only applied to XXXX of my loans. Reason being is that the payment processing computer now can not distinguish between due dates and my entire payment was applied to the first loan coming due. I was told by customer service that, due to the due dates being off by one day, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, that the payment was only applied to XXXX account and that she could not make the date the same for both loans due to different banks holding the notes to my loans. I was told to send my payment to a different address where a human would apply the payments to my individual loans. I did this for my XX/XX/XXXX payment, submitting it XXXX XXXX, and it mysteriously disappeared for over 2 weeks before it was miraculously discovered on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX and backdated to XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. I would like to add that the payment being found coincided with a rather nasty email I sent Firstmark on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. Since this date I have mailed XXXX additional payments to the address listed on my statement and thus far both payments have been applied only to the loan that is due on XX/XX/XXXX. I have called and emailed Firstmark and they have shown no interest in correcting this problem. It is my opinion that Firstmark created this problem in order to hinder myself and others in making loan payments. I believe this because the 10 prior payments the computer correctly and automatically split my payments among my XXXX accounts. Why would a servicer change this on purpose? To create more work on the student loan payer by making one have to call or email the servicer each month to have ones payment applied correctly? This is a major waste of my time and is causing undue stress in my life. I also believe, if I failed to call, this error would not be discovered within 30 days and then my credit would be irreparably damaged and thus I would be damaged monetarily.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29715
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-12-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-10-30
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Having problems with customer service
Consumer Complaint: The loan was provided by XXXX and is services by Firstmark Services. It was applied to my education at XXXX University between XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. Prior to attending graduate school between XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, I applied XXXX to set up automatic payments. Both times, the loan servicer reported never having received the required documents leading me to miss payments. After I completed graduate school and began to make payments again, I attempted for a XXXX time to set up automatic payments of {$200.00} a month. Again, the loan servicer reported not having received the request and resulted in my missing several payments. Additionally, they made no attempt to contact me via phone or email within the federally required time to rectify the situation, the first notification I received was this afternoon from the small loan provider I first dealt with when the account was 148 day past due. I set up automatic payments for the XXXX today but was informed that it would take 20 days to set up and the representative would not be able to see anything related to that request prior to that time. It is my belief that Firstmark Services intentionally " loses '' automatic payment requests in order to receive more money in late fees.
Company Response:
State: VA
Zip: 22304
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-11-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-10-29
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Subissue: Can't get flexible payment options
Consumer Complaint: I have been paying on my private loans for 8 years now without ever missing a payment. According to my financial history as provided by XXXX XXXX XXXX, I graduated with {$26000.00} in private student loan debt. To this day I still owe {$25000.00} on my private student loans. According to those numbers I have only paid off less than {$1000.00} on my private loans in 8 years of on time payments. How are they calculating interest on these loans? I am having a very hard time believing that I 've only paid {$990.00} on these loans in 96 months of paying on them. This is clear fraud!!
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 33321
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-10-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-09-29
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Don't agree with fees charged
Consumer Complaint: I have these private student loans from a fraudulent for profit college. The loan documents say school name is unavailable and my graduation year is XXXX. I believe that these loans are fraudulent and invalid. I am asking for forgiveness on all of these fraudulent loans.
Company Response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
State: FL
Zip: 33321
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-09-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: Yes
Date Received: 2015-09-09
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about my loan
Consumer Complaint: Firstmark Services is an unethical business that charges hidden fees and extorts money from their customers. They take out a huge " finder 's fee '' from the loan disbursement right off the bat. Also, if you go into deferment they add the balance to your principal without informing you. On a {$7500.00} loan, they added roughly {$6500.00} in " fees ''. As a very young college student desperate to finish school ( at XXXX XXXX college ), I naively decided to work with these people, and the Firstmark employees are the most incompetent people I have ever had the misfortune to communicate with. If you add up all my payments ( {$86.00} a month for ten years ) it more than finishes off the whole principal along with interest. No one at this " company '' has any idea what is going on, and when you call them out on their extremely unethical practices they can provide no explanation to why these hidden fees were not communicated. I am contacting my attorney and the XXXX regarding these unethical business practices.
Company Response:
State: WA
Zip: 98122
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-09-15
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-08-28
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Keep getting calls about my loan
Consumer Complaint: Firstmark Services, a division of Nelnet, has an automated calls system set up to notify a borrower when his or her account is delinquent. I paid my account yesterday. I received a receipt via email from them. The money was taken out of my bank account yesterday. Despite all of this, I still received an automated call today. This has now happened to me twice. I called to complain and was told that it had not yet been " noted, '' even though the customer service representative told me that I did not owe anything until XX/XX/XXXX. If they have ( a ) taken money out of my account, ( b ) plus I have received a receipt from them via email of the transaction, and ( c ) then been informed by a customer service representative that my account is up-to-date and I owe nothing until the next month, why am I still being harassed by automated calls? This is an embarrassment - it makes me feel that even if I do pay, I am still delinquent. Furthermore, they should NOT be allowed to call you over and over again in this manner, especially if your account has been paid.
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 20852
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-09-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-08-10
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are handled
Consumer Complaint: I currently attend the University XXXX at XXXX. Last academic year ( XXXX ) I was enrolled as a full-time student and as such was given an in-school deferment. I am planning to return to school as a full-time student for the next academic year ( XXXX ). However, this summer I was notified recently that my FirstMark student loans were 60-days late and that they had reported this to the credit bureaus. In my surprise, I called and spoke with a XXXX XXXX. I thought that like my federal loans, if I was to be returning as a full-time student the summer months would be included in my in-school deferment. XXXX XXXX rudely informed me that FirstMark requires payment during the summer months. Had I known this, I would have been happy to pay my monthly bills, but because I was never informed of their specific rules I am being penalized on my credit reports. What is very surprising, is that I was in contact with them all summer and no one ever mentioned this to me. When I asked XXXX to remove the blemishes from my credit reports, she refused. I do not think that this is fair and I would like to make sure my credit report accurately reflects my intentions. I do not have any other blemishes on my credit report and I would like to keep it that way. I would like to submit this complaint to not only require FirstMark to inform their borrowers of such rules, but also I would like to have these blemishes removed from my credit report.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 60628
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-08-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No
Date Received: 2015-07-21
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Subissue: Don't agree with fees charged
Consumer Complaint: I do n't understand how I can make a XXXX monthly payment and only {$20.00} gets applied towards the interest. I have federal loans as well but at least {$90.00} will pay the principal down. I make my payments 2 weeks before the due date and yet almost all of my monthly payments are going towards interest. Is this correct or am I being ripped off? The amounts every month are really inconsistent even though I pay around the same time every month. It just does n't add up.
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 33321
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2015-07-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: No