Consumer complaint received 2023-12-18
Company: EdFinancial Services
State: CO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
My complaint involves the federal student loan servicer, EdFinancial. 

Beginning in XX/XX/XXXX, as a benefit of employment with my current employer, I became eligible for monthly {$200.00} payments toward my federal student loans. These {$200.00} payments were made toward my federal student loans by a third-party organization called XXXX in the form of {$200.00} checks mailed to my student loan servicer, EdFinancial. From XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX, at which time my loan servicer was changed from EdFinancial to XXXX, BenefitEd mailed monthly {$200.00} checks to EdFinancial toward my student loan balance ( see attached image of my BenefitEd account payment records history ). According to my EdFinancial account payment history ( see attached image of my EdFinancial account payment history ), EdFinancial has only processed and accounted for XXXX {$200.00} payment from XXXX, which was the XX/XX/XXXX payment. 

My new loan servicer as of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, was not properly updated in XXXX 's payment system. Therefore, even after XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX continued to mail {$200.00} checks to EdFinancial, my previous loan servicer. In XX/XX/XXXX, EdFinancial returned a single {$200.00} check to BenefitEd and BenefitEd outreached me on XX/XX/XXXX regarding this returned payment, which is when BenefitEd and I discovered that there had been issues with EdFinancial 's processing of XXXX  's monthly {$200.00} checks. BenefitEd and I promptly updated all future {$200.00} student loan checks from XXXX to be mailed to XXXX, my current loan servicer. The representative I spoke with at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX stated they would promptly and directly reach out to their contacts at EdFinancial to request that these missing checks be processed and returned accordingly and ASAP. 

Representatives at BenefitEd and I discovered that in addition to EdFinancial not processing monthly {$200.00} payments and applying them to my balance between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX while EdFinancial was my loan servicer ( aside from {$200.00} in XX/XX/XXXX, which EdFinancial did process and record ), totaling what I believe to be {$1400.00} in payments from XXXX toward my student loans that EdFinancial is unable to account for, that EdFinancial is also currently still in possession of XXXX {$200.00} checks from BenefitEd mailed monthly in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX of XXXX that EdFinancial is unable to account for and has not yet returned to me, BenefitEd, or XXXX for processing. As you can see from the attached image of my XXXX account payment history, these missing payments from summer and autumn XXXX after XXXX became my loan servicer have not been returned from XXXX to XXXX for processing. 

I called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and representatives were unable to account for these missing checks and advised I submit a support ticket, requesting copies of the missing checks, which XXXX stated they would be unable to provide to me as they contain non-account-specific information that XXXX stated they are unable to share with me. ( BenefitEd reps told me they had already submitted these check image files to EdFinancial as part of their outreach attempts. ) EdFinancial was unable to support me any further than encouraging me to submit a support request. Representatives at EdFinancial were also unable to provide any information about the status of these missing payments that have not been processed and accounted for. I have followed up with XXXX, a representative at BenefitEd, numerous times and have been assured that BenefitEd has outreached their contacts at XXXX and still have not heard back as to the status of these missing payments despite over XXXX emails and outreach attempts made by BenefitEd, per XXXX, since XX/XX/XXXX when we discovered this issue. 

In summary : at this point, EdFinancial appears to be in possession of around {$2200.00} worth of monthly {$200.00} loan payments from XXXX over the past year that EdFinancial has not processed or accounted for. Most of these payments were sent to XXXX while they were still my loan servicer and were never processed and applied to my loan balance. EdFinancial is also in possession of multiple monthly {$200.00} payments made to EdFinancial in error after my loan servicer was changed that should have been immediately returned to XXXX or sent to XXXX, my new loan servicer, and EdFinancial has not yet been able to account for these missing payments either.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response