Consumer complaint received 2018-10-26
Company: Ameritech Financial
State: MI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I signed on with Ameritech Financial in XX/XX/XXXX with understanding that they were taking over my student loans through XXXX, into the Graduated Student Loan Forgiveness Program, which would allow me a 1-year period of no payments. After that they would follow up with me to discuss a reasonable income-based monthly payment installment plan. Around XX/XX/XXXX, a company called XXXX - XXXX XXXX  XXXX - contacted me about a supposed past-due medical collections,  in which I arranged with them monthly repayments of {$88.00}. This collection billing continued until XX/XX/XXXX, when I received the courtesy letter from FTC concerning the Ameritech Financial lawsuit over the bogus Student Load Forgiveness scam. I signed on with Ameritech Financial in XX/XX/XXXX with understanding that they were overtaking my student loans through XXXX, into the Graduated Student Loan Forgiveness Program, which would allow me a 1-year period of no payments. After that Ameritech Financial would purportedly follow up with me to discuss a reasonable income-based monthly repayment installment plan. Around XX/XX/XXXX, a company called XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX - contacted me about a supposed past-due medical collections, in which I arranged with them monthly payment installments of {$88.00}, without suspicion. This medical-collection continued until I received the courtesy letter issued from FTC, in XX/XX/XXXX, concerning the Ameritech Financial lawsuit over the bogus Student Load Forgiveness scam. The letter stated that Ameritech Financial had been mishandling funds and misrepresenting themselves to millions of consumers nationwide as student loan forgiveness repayment program, for billing amounts between {$82.00} and {$90.00} per month, using possibly a 2nd or 3rd party administrator or service. Suddenly the light bulb went off in my head. The supposed medical billing payments I understood I was making to XXXX were actually bogus processing fees AF had been sneakily charging me, and millions of others. Never any mention of any these fees during the initial student loan forgiveness signup, of course. Nor anywhere found in any of the documentation disclosures they sent me. 

I called XXXX immediately to cancel all future payments, and naturally they swayed any responsibility, insisting the matter was strictly through AF, the party administrator. So I called AF to cancel the continued payments, calling them out on their fee scam. The  manager proceeded to " inform '' me that I knew all along they were charging a monthly processing fee, otherwise I wouldn't have qualified to sign up, blah blah blah. I responded that, obviously if I was being charged a monthly fee, I would indeed not have signed up with their bogus program. They were scammers and they knew it, and I was entitled to my money back. Once again, I requested a full refund and the manager then  blathered endless excuses and empty reasoning, while blaming and twisting around the FTC announcement. Es set, refusing to comply, in claim that their guaranteed loan forgiveness services were legit, before insisting I tear up my FTC letter. Then proceeded to drill me with nonsensical questions, which I ignored then interrupted that I was taking legal action against them. As of this day, Ameritech Financial owes me a full refund of {$1500.00}.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response