US Department of Education Direct Loans |
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Consumer reviews about US Department of Education Direct Loans |
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Gino123
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Jan 4, 2012
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Faulty loan records!
For some reason the department of treasury sent direct loans a payment that was actually supposed to go to ACS. Coincidently there was another account holder with the same name as me so they felt they should apply the payment to his account! Since then, or (9Months later) I have spoken to countless reps, 6 supervisors, 2 managers and the GM but I am definitely not getting anywhere. They say the only way they can contact the accounting department is with email, and they cannot contact them directly. Now I know they are full of crap but does anyone have any advice?
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fedup68
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Feb 10, 2012
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Faulty loan records!
I have just begun my nightmare with the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. I have made a total of 4 payments: October, November, December 2011, and January 2012. All have been applied to my account properly except my December 2011 payment. I mailed my December 2011 payment on December 16, 2011, the US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION cashed it (electronically - through Wells Fargo) on December 19, 2011 and cleared my bank account on December 20, 2011 but... has yet to be applied to my account through the US Department of Education!! I called and spoke with several customer service representatives and two managers. All of them have different stories, or should I say excuses!! They admitted to having my money (payment) but they just can't seem to apply it to my account. I am wondering if they applied it to the wrong account and just can't find their mistake or are they just out to sabotage my credit? All of them apologize and tried telling me it won't be held against me and it won't effect my credit. I think they are full of shit!! One of the customer service representatives tried to talk me into forbearance on my account. Are you kidding me???? This is not my problem...it is their problem! I have worked very hard and have excellent credit. I am not about to let this company ruin my credit! Get your act together US DEPARMENT OF EDUCATION!!! I will not let this rest! I am starting with my state representative. Any other advice???
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ejeffer2
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Feb 23, 2012
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Faulty loan records!
PSA Re: Direct Loans. They are an abysmal, incompetent bureaucracy that engages in regular acts of what may be (and at least what should be considered) consumer fraud. I have been assigned a federal case worker who now follows all my actions with them, I submit all correspondences through my Congressman's office, need delivery confirmation for all my postal mailings to them, make duplicate copies of everything, and have a call into the Attorney General's office as well as a major national newspaper because:
1.) Without any changes reported by me and without my annual proof of income being overdue, they arbitrarily increased my monthly income-based repayments without any justification or explanation to date. My payment amount was supposed to be permanent unless income change was reported. Not a single person at Direct Loans, including supervisors, could tell how the new number was calculated or why.
2.) Before this, they claimed to have "never received" ANY of 6 (that's right, SIX) successive communications from me all sent via different routes - fax, website, and postal mail. One of these was income-based documentation in October 2011 that should have actually decreased my payments. Their lack of "receiving" my income decrease forms allowed them to keep collecting payments from me that were at least double what they should have been under my new income. I gave up after the six failed communications for various matters and was still paying my same amount until recently when they increased my payment, demanded the annual update and claimed I was about to be overdue for my income reporting (see below.)
3.) In August 2011, Direct Loans sent me a letter with all my account and contact info on it, claiming I was overdue for sending in my "Income Contingent Repayment" income info. I was NOT and HAVE NEVER been on Income Contingent Repayment, only Income Based, which is a completely different repayment plan. When I called and asked, a rep told me it was entirely a system error that I was not due to send in Income Based documentation either - mine was completely up to date for another 5 months. 4-5 months later, when I called to check on it again, another rep told me it was "way overdue" and I should have updated it "back in 2009." Keep in mind, I didn't even have a Direct Loans Consolidation account until Feb. 2011 (which required sending in all the income-based documentation at that time in order to have the income-based repayment I've had since consolidating).
3.) Last year's consolidation debacle: multiple Direct Loans employees told me my Health Professions loans were left out of my consolidation without prior notification because they were "not eligible." They were listed right on the Direct Loan Consolidation website as being eligible. When I alerted them to this, they still insisted those loans could not be consolidated, without any explanation for what was written on their website. I called and fought with 17+ people over the course of three months, including supervisors and people in the Dept of Education, before I finally got one random rep that said, "Of course they're eligible." (Her name was Iris, I will never forget her, and she apparently had more brain power than all other reps there combined. She was the only effective one I ever got, and I've dealt with dozens of them by now.) My consolidation then had to be re-done.
4.) Right before that, Direct Loans kept claiming they "never received" payoff amounts from one of my original lenders, even though that lender had it documented in my record that they had sent it weeks earlier. They ended up sending it 3 (that's right, three) MORE times (including by fax) before Direct Loans finally claimed to receive it. The lender who kept having to re-send told me they had this same problem with Direct Loans (and only Direct Loans) very frequently. Because of this delay and the giant Health Professions error, my consolidation didn't go through until February 28, 2011 even though I submitted the complete application on Dec. 15, 2010. I would have saved literally thousands of dollars over those three months, had the application been processed without multiple errors.
5.) I did a (what could be simpler??) online update of my changed bank account # on the Direct Loans website in November 2011. The changed info showed up under myedaccount online instantly. But... a month later, no automatic debit occurred and I was consequently "late" on my payment. They insisted that "no one else" had reported ANY problems with their website and that I must not have signed the electronic promissory note, even though I knew I had...they recommended I repeat the online request. I did. A month later, again, nothing was debited. Direct Loans at that point claimed a.) it takes 45 days to process ( no process time I could find was ever listed on their website) and they WERE having problems with the website. A different rep that same day told me it takes 2 days to process. Both were apparently wrong anyway..."Processing" a simple updated bank account number took literally almost three months...my original submission was on Nov. 19, 2011 and the first automatic debit from that account occurred on Feb. 21, 2012.
5.) Just recently, on January 22, 2011, I got a letter from Direct Loans stating that if my income-based repayment documentation (the one I sent and they "never received" over three months prior in October 2011) was not "RECEIVED" within 30 days of the date of their letter, my account would revert to a standard (non-income based) repayment plan that would literally quadruple my monthly payments. Within about 2 weeks of receiving this, and after much consulting with the Congressman's office, I RE-SENT the forms via postal mail, and faxed 3 copies (one through the Congressman's office, one to a specific supervisor at Direct Loans, and one to their general fax as listed on the forms). A couple days later (which was still almost 2 weeks before the "deadline"), they claimed they HAD indeed received it. HOWEVER, a rep told me because it would likely take more than 2 weeks to "PROCESS" (note: NOT the same as "RECEIVED", which is what their letter stated), I might still get booted to the standard plan with the $2000+/month payments. I'm still waiting to see what happens, as it is completely out of my hands. And all the nasty, horrible rep told me snidely was "Well, I'm sorry you don't like the way our letter is worded." WOW.
6.) In general, through all of these INSANE DEBACLES, I've had "customer service" reps that were either a.) complete airheads ("Oh, really? Hmmmmmm, that's soooo weeeeird. I have NO idea why that happened...it might be because <insert invalid explanation here>) OR they've been downright obnoxious and nasty, INSISTING the problems are somehow (inexplicably, of course) my fault and taking no accountability for their over-the-top screw-ups. Iris was literally the only exception.
MORAL OF STORY: if Direct Loans gives you trouble, don't think twice about filing complaints against them. If enough people do it, maybe something will change. But it's beyond pathetic how they operate now...even the Congressman's office told me they are "at a loss" when it comes to Direct Loans. The worst part is that they're not just causing inconvenience and headaches. They are literally jerking the strings and impacting people's finances and lives with their ineptitude and misdeals. It is completely wrong.
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