Consumer complaint received 2023-09-18
Company: 16 Hands LLC. dba Fiducius
State: LA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Don't agree with the fees charged

Complaint:
Fiducius is supposed to be a service provided by the hospital that I work for to help its employees qualify for public service loan forgiveness. Fiducius charged me {$1100.00} to consolidate my student loans. I began this process in XXXX. The {$1100.00} was divided into 4 payments. The 4th and final payment that was due to be drafted automatically from my bank on XXXX XXXX  was blocked by my bank. I called my bank and Fiducius and emailed Fiducius on XX/XX/XXXX to try to figure out what was going on. My bank told me it could have been blocked because there was suspicious activity from Fiducius that the bank had been made aware of. My bank is investigating the matter too and suggested I close out my current debit card and they are mailing me a new debit card so Fiducius can't draft another payment. 
I have tried to contact Fiducius before this and they have never responded to me. On XX/XX/XXXX I also called XXXX and the Department of Education about my student loans. They both informed me that you never have to pay to consolidate student loans. It can be done free of charge through the Department of Education along with signing up for public service loan forgiveness. They said there are several 3rd party companies that will wrongfully charge people to consolidate their student loans. Also on XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted the XXXX XXXX XXXX about my situation. I saw several other Fiducius consumers had the same problem I had with the company. Fiducius charges an insane fee to consolidate loans, and they don't return your phone calls or e-mails after you pay this fee for their service. 
I was supposed to set up income-driven payments for my student loans as well. When I checked my account on XXXX, the income-driven repayment plan had been canceled. I contacted XXXX from Fiducius about this on XX/XX/XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX she e-mailed me back saying she wasn't sure why and forwarded my email to client services and they would get in touch with me about this. I never heard back from Fiducius. 
Fiducius is falsely charging people to consolidate their student loans. You do not have to pay to consolidate your student loans, but I found this out after Fiducius already drafted and scammed about {$820.00} from my checking account. 
On XX/XX/XXXX Fiducius was already asking me for a renewal fee and to upload my tax information again. I haven't even finished paying the consolidation fee and had just uploaded all tax documents in XXXX. When I e-mailed XXXX about this she said she would forward it to client services and have them get back to me. I never heard from anyone. 
My account has been locked with Fiducius so I can't upload any contract information from their website. 
When you pay a huge fee for services from a company you expect them to be more helpful. They have not tried to reach out, until today after they saw the better business bureau complaint I filed against them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief