Consumer complaint received 2019-02-05
Company: GREAT LAKES
State: TN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
This problem relates to income driven repayments ( IDR ) and how my lender ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) has inadequately informed me about 1 ) reapplying for IDR and 2 ) interest capitalization as a consequence of not  reapplying for IDR. 

I reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX sometime in the fall of XXXX about entering IDR. I learned that after completing my application, my IDR would start sometime later that year and would need to be renewed yearly. They said they were unable to tell me when I would need to renew at that point since I had not yet entered into IDR, and that they would provide me a reminder at a later date. 

The following year, I started making IDR payments on XX/XX/XXXX. I was making these monthly with no issues. I received notifications every month about my monthly payments with no other communication from great lakes until XX/XX/XXXX when I was informed that I was no longer eligible for IDR and my new payment of $ XXXX/month would be due on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I contacted great great lakes approximately 2 weeks later to reapply for the IDR. They helped me submit documents to reapply for IDR. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an e-mail from great lakes that my loans capitalized because I missed the deadline for reapplying for IDR. 

I called great lakes again to understand why my loans capitalized. They said I missed my renewal date of XX/XX/XXXX for IDR, and this results in interest capitalization. I asked how I was supposed to know I needed to reapply by that date, and they stated that they sent an e-mail to me on XX/XX/XXXX to notify me that I needed to reapply for IDR. I checked my e-mail account, and I did not have any such e-mail from great lakes, only emails telling me my monthly payment would be made soon. I asked that they provide proof that they sent the e-mail to me, and they sent me a PDF via e-mail that said the following : " Hi _______, Thanks for contacting us about your student loans. 
According to our records, on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX  Central Time an email was sent to you confirming your Income-Driven Repayment ( IDR ) plan renewal date of XX/XX/XXXX for your Direct Stafford and Graduate PLUS Loan Accounts with U.S. 
Department of Education. 
We appreciate having been able to serve you and hope that your educational experience was a good one. Best wishes with all of your future endeavors.

Borrower Services Department '' To me, this is just a PDF form of what they had been telling me over the phone, and did not really prove that an e-mail had been sent to me. Regardless, I do not have the e-mail. I tried to contact XXXX to ask if there is anyway they could see whether this e-mail had been sent to me and was somehow filtered out of my inbox, but as you can imagine trying to contact XXXX about something like this is impossible. Anyway, the fact that all the other communications I have had with great lakes have entered my inbox, it seems highly unlikely that the e-mail went into my spam folder. I genuinely believe this e-mail did not reach my XXXX  account. 

Regardless, important information such as this can be communicated through other means. I asked why they rely on e-mail to notify the borrowers instead of using more reliable communication like a telephone call or mail, they simply said " that is all that is federally mandated. '' I spoke with three individuals at great lakes about this issue, one was a customer support representative, second person was her supervisor ( I think her name was XXXX, though I could be wrong ), and the third individual was an " account manager. '' All re-iterated the same lines, " we did what was federally mandated '' and " we can not un-capitalize your interest. '' In the end, conversations with great lakes were fruitless. They stated it wasn't there responsibility to prove they sent the email, or to remind me. They said " there would be no way to un-capitalize my interest anyway. '' I asked if it could be un-capitalized if they had made a mistake or were at fault. They said yes, if they were at fault then it could be. 

To summarize, I want to re-iterate my complaints concisely.

1. Great lakes borrowers services did not adequately inform me of when I would need to reapply for IDR.

- I was told I would need to apply yearly, but when I asked in XXXX when I would need to reapply, I was told that they did not know at that time because I had not yet entered into IDR. At that time they reassured me I would receive notice in advance of needing to reapply.

-As I explained above, I did not receive a reminder because I never received an e-mail they claim to have sent.

2. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX did not adequately inform me of interest capitalization as a consequence of not reapplying for IDR.

- If this information was properly emphasized, I would have taken steps up front to make sure not to miss the renewal date. Not being aware of this consequence, I relied on allowing great lakes to remind me as they stated they would.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation