Consumer complaint received 2018-08-17
Company: Immediate Credit Recovery
State: TX
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information is missing that should be on the report

Complaint:
My wife and I were attempting to purchase a home using my VA loan benifits. Everything looked good according to our Finance Officer ... nothing to indicate the loan would not go thru ... so it was sent to Processing before being submitted for underwriting. Processing got a hit on my wife on XXXX regarding my wife defaulting on her student loans. 

Backtrack a little ... ..In XXXX my wife defaulted on her student loan due to us having financial hardships. She was contacted in XXXX stating that her wages were going to be garnished and she acknowledge this. They were garnished from XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, my wife left her job working for XXXX XXXX XXXX in the State of Texas. She sent the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX notice to stop the garnishment of her wages due to being unemployed, to which they acknowledged receipt. About the same time, my wife and I were working with an outside 3rd party loan adviser, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXX, trying to see if there was any way to reduce our student loans ... .I attended XXXX XXXX and they were in trouble for being a 'For Profit ' school and they had escalated my student loan debt as well as used my entire XXXX GI Bill, and my wife, having been with the State of Texas for 10 years, was told that they could file a Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) tXXXX would remove her from having to pay back her student loan. 

Step forward a bit ... .We paid XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for their services ... my payments ended up increasing but we did not hear anything on my wife, however, we also no longer heard anything from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX nor from the company the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX had given her loan to. Additionally, there were no further reports on  my wife 's credit for delinquencies or whatnot. In fact, the last report on my wife 's credit was from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX where it stated that the highest balance on the subsidized loan was {$35000.00} and the current balance is {$0.00}, and her unsubsidized loan 's highest balance was {$40.00}, XXXX and the current balance is {$0.00}. It also states that both loans were closed and says that they were closed due to transfer. These reports were from when she originally defaulted on her loan. Nothing had or has been reported since. Apparently, after my wife had sent in the notification to stop wage garnishment, her loans were immediately placed in double default to which they 1 ) were reported to XXXX, thus blocking any chance of us ever using my VA loan or an FHA loan, and 2 ) have been accruing an interest of $ XXXXday that is has been in double default. 

Now, we had filed this paperwork for the PSLF, my wife had also informed the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to stop garnishment ( not that they can garnish nothing ), and the last report on her credit stated the balance owed was {$0.00}, had been closed and had been transferred. We naturally assumed that it had been actually forgiven and the transfer had meant it had been transferred to closing. 

Our complaint is this ... .after my wife sent in the request to stop wage garnishment due to her being unemployed, at no time EVER did either the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX nor whomever was holding the loan on their behalf after XXXX reach out to us to make payments separate from the wage garnishment, nor did either of them EVER report ANYTHING to any one of the 3 credit bureaus. As a result, we had no idea that her loan had in fact not been forgiven and we were still required to pay. As a result, we ended up getting blindsided after we had made an offer on a house, finding out that I will not be able to use my VA loan, and worse, my wife 's student loans are now in excess of {$110000.00} due to a $ 10.82/day fee/interest/penalty being charged over the span of 18 months, all because no one ever contacted us to let us know the debt still existed, nor to attempt to make payment arrangements with us. After all, we pay my student loans, so why would we not pay hers? 

We have reached out to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX about this matter and they automatically refer us to Immediate Credit Recovery ( ICR ), the current holder of her loans. 

When my wife called ICR, she was informed that her loan would not come out of default until she either 1 ) paid the entire debt in full, or 2 ) paid $ 115,000+ and made payment arrangements on the remainder, both of which we can not do. They then told my wife that they might be able to make payment arrangements of a lesser monthly amount upon receipt of proof of mine and my wife 's income ( last 2 pay stubs for each ) and proof of my student loan, to which we did, and that after 9 payments, they could remove the default loans from XXXX. When I called, I was pretty much told the same but instead was told that the loans could come off after making 6 payments. 

I reached out to XXXX XXXX and explained the situation to them and they replied for me to contact the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and request to have the XXXX report suppressed. My wife then called the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and eventually managed to talk to someone who told my wife that they could not suppress the report until she had made 3 payments, or else paid the debt off in full. She requested to speak to an administrator or supervisor and was denied. I asked my wife if she informed them of who it was that told us that we could request for the to suppress the report to which she replied that she did not think of doing so. I then contacted the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX requesting to have the report suppressed and was told that the report could not be suppressed until I had paid all but {$25.00} of the debt. If I could pay all but {$25.00}, why not pay that last bit and have it removed from being paid and forgo suppressing it? I was then told that there was no such thing as suppressing the record. I was also told that the loans would remain on the XXXX report until they were paid off. When I asked to speak to an administrator or supervisor, I too was denied. 

I reached back out to XXXX XXXX and was told that a suppression does exist but only an administator or supervisor has the authority to do so and to reach out to one of them. I informed him of what happened when we did and he stated again that they were the only ones who could do so. 

Now, can the report be removed from XXXX prior to being paid in full? If so, how many payments must be made ... ..3 months, 6 months, 9 months? Can the report be suppressed? If so, how can we get in touch with a supervisor to have it done? 

Immediate Credit Recovery has since informed us that the payments that they have decided we could make would equal just over {$450.00} per month. With a $ 10.82/day fee/penalty/interest being assessed, in a 30 day month, I calculated that we would only be making payments towards my wife 's student loans in the amount of exactly {$110.00}, all the rest would be going to pay this ridiculously high daily charge. 

We are on the XXXX  report due a series of unfortunately events but more so due to them not contacting us to inform us that payments still needed to be made. Had they done their job, in the very least, and reported the loans on my wife 's credit, we would have known the loans still existed and needed paying. Neither the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX nor ICS can explain to us the absence of reporting, why the last report was in XXXX of XXXX, nor why no one ever reached out to us via email, phone, or US Postal mail correspondence. 

ICS did however state that they sent a letter to us in XXXX of XXXX. The problem, according to one of the people I spoke with at ICS, the envelopes do not state the sender and only contain a XXXX XXXX address. Unfortunately, when I see mail in this format, I toss it as being junk as more than 90 % of junk mail I receive comes in this format. Had they had their name on the envelope, I might have opened it and addressed this issue sooner.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation