Consumer complaint received 2023-09-19
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
I do not know who this lender is and do not recognize the account. Further, they keep reporting these accounts as being in good standing with payment terms met and/or that the loan is in deferral, but I have not requested any deferrals from this company, nor have I made any payments on these loans. We filed XXXX XXXX XXXX and it was discharged in XXXX. All private education loans were included in the bankruptcy ( as they were not qualifying bankruptcy exempt student loans ) and if these loans are mine ( which I also dispute since I don't have any record of having these loans with this lender ), they should have been discharged along with the other consumer loans that were included in the bankruptcy. Even if the loans were not qualified under the bankruptcy, the loan 's first date of delinquency would have been prior to filing the bankruptcy AND far more than 10 years have passed since that time ( the bankruptcy isn't even on our credit report anymore it has been so long ). For example, older copies of my credit report show the loan being 180 days past due and " charged off '' in XX/XX/XXXX, with a status note that the account would continue on record until XX/XX/XXXX. I have also disputed this several times with the credit bureaus, including in XX/XX/XXXX, at which time an account with MRU was deleted from our credit reports as a result of the dispute. I don't know when the loan was transferred to AES, as I have no record of that ever occurring, but clearly AES illegally put the loan back on our credit reports. 

I believe that this company is deliberately falsely reporting the loans as being in good standing to avoid the loans dropping off our credit reports and to circumvent the statute of limitations for collecting the debt. I have requested proof that the loans are indeed mine, along with proof that this lender owns the rights to collect the debt and proof that I requested deferment status on the loan/made payments as agreed since that is what they are reporting to the credit bureaus. The company never provided the information to me. I believe they are deliberately breaking the law by falsely reporting this debt and not providing any information I requested. While the status of the loan doesn't have a negative impact on my credit, the balance certainly does. It prevents us from qualifying for loans that use DTI ratios in their criteria and has caused significant financial harm from how it affects our credit scores and ability obtain credit. Similar companies have been subject to investigation/class action lawsuits for violating credit reporting laws and attempting to collect debts that were XXXX in bankruptcy ( for example there is a current settlement going on for a lawsuit against XXXX Solutions for this exact thing ). I believe XXXX/MRU and XXXX/CSLT are doing the same thing. Please investigate this matter further. I have tried disputing this with the credit bureaus and nothing is being done.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation