Consumer complaint received 2023-08-30
Company: EdFinancial Services
State: OH
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was under the assumption I could use a credit card, I did and it seemed to go through but I didn't get an email until days later ( XX/XX/XXXX ) that the payment method had bounced as it wasn't something they accepted. I called, put myself in a queue for them to call me back and they did hours later, I asked about the payment bouncing and they said it was because of the payment method and gave me other options. I complied saying I would then use my debit card since they assured me it was something I could use. The following day, I was busy with work and it was also the weekend so the office was closed but I had noticed that in my account, they said I still had {$50.00} left to pay, yet I was told by the letter and seeing my bank statement, that it had bounced so nothing was taken out. I called non-stop since the XXXX and put myself in countless queues in order to get a call back to ask them why their system hasn't reset the proper balance of {$2400.00}. They eventually did call me back, but as everyone else in the world, I missed the call due to being busy around the house and when I called back, they didn't leave me a voicemail to try to call the agent back directly or any options, they just made me requeue for 609 minutes. I got around to calling this morning at XXXX XXXX and promptly got off the phone at XXXX XXXX, being told I would be contacted in 2 hours and 55 minutes. At the time of writing this, it is XXXX, 5 hours later and 3 hours and 5 minutes PAST the time they said they would call me back. I believe this company is purposely not answering the phone or calling people back in time, or even having a way to call back a missed call because they are reaping the interest rates now. This is incredibly ridiculous as this is obstructing my right to pay the full price of what I owe WITHOUT having to pay interest seeing how it was done BEFORE XX/XX/XXXX. I wholeheartedly believe this is a way to push American 's into only paying interest and not being able to use the FULL grace period. 

The photos I will be attaching to this complaint are as followed- -Screenshot of the 1st payment method that failed. 
-Screenshot of my email list when searching for 'EdFinancial " showing the dates from when the 1st payment was made vs. the next email of when they decided to let me now ( DAYS LATER ) -A photo of my only account activity that shows the 1st payment method going through and then bouncing on the same day ( this clearly shows, they could've contacted my at least the next day with an email, but decided to send me the notifications days AFTER the bounce ) -A photo of my account now that the website can not detect the bounce back ( but also why is there {$50.00} left when I originally paid the full amount? So you guys only took what I paid for -50? How does this account balance even make a lick of sense compared to what I paid for ) -The second payment method confirmation #, date and ( again ) the full amount being paid. 

At the time of writing this, my debit is still pending the transaction and the money has not been transferred to their account yet but it has been on the way since last night.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation