Consumer complaint received 2023-01-12
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: CO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I mailed a {$5900.00} check to be applied to my daughter 's, XXXX XXXX, four student loans. I included an account statement listing all account information, as well as a document I typed up that included the loan number and the amount from this {$5900.00} that should be applied towards each loan. 

I, as well as my daughter, started to receive daily collection calls and text messages about the loan payments being past due. I called Sallie Mae to tell them the check had been mailed and spoke to more than one collection representative who called me and informed them of this as well. During the last week of XXXX, I was advised to wait until after the holidays to confirm the payment was received. In the meantime, Sallie Mae continued to call and text daily to collect their payment. 

When it was obvious the payment was lost, I sent an another check on XX/XX/XXXX via XXXX overnight mail which arrived at the Sallie Mae XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX pm and was " ready for pickup ''. I informed Sallie Mae that the check had been received at their po box and was told that mail was picked up daily and that my payment would be processed in 24-48 hours. On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked the status of my package via the tracking number I received and tracking information indicated that my package was still " ready for pickup ''. The representative I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX indicated that she would find the payment and would call me back with an update. I heard nothing. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Sallie Mae because my tracking information still indicated that my package was " ready for pickup ''. I was told that my issue would be resolved today. The issue was escalated to a manager who said she would try to find out who was responsible for picking up the mail. After spending more than an hour on the phone, we were told our account would be placed on a 10-day hold so we would not receive collection calls while they're were trying to figure out how to get the payment. While we're on the phone with Sallie Mae, we check the status of our package and see that the status has been updated to " package has been picked up ''. This happened at the same time we were on the phone with the manager. It is glaringly obvious that she sent someone over to collect the mail because we were adamant about getting to a solution today. 

Later in the evening we log into our Sallie Mae account to discover that our original check was actually applied to ONE loan on XX/XX/10. Sallie Mae has been charging me late fees and interest for the other three loans that they did not apply payments to. They applied the entire {$5900.00} to one loan so the others remained past due. At no time did a representative tell us that our large payment was already applied back in XXXX. Even after I indicated that amount of the check, they never disclosed that they could see the original payment had been applied to only one account. They did not follow the instructions on the statement or letter we sent instructing them on how to apply the payment. 

At the end of the day, our payment for four loans was received on XX/XX/10 and applied to only one loan while Sallie Mae continued to charge me late fees and interest. In addition, the late payment was reported to the credit bureaus and my credit scored dropped by XXXX points. I feel this oversight in how the payment was applied was deliberate so they could continue to charge late fees and interest on the other loans. I was even charged a late fee for the loan they applied the payment to ON the date they applied the payment and then again 8 days later.

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