Consumer complaint received 2020-11-05
Company: Granite Edvance Corporation
State: OR
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Don't agree with the fees charged

Complaint:
I have been incorrectly charged {$490.00} of student loan origination fees, and after more than 2 months or repeated phone calls and emails the charge has not been corrected. On XX/XX/2020, I received disbursements of two loans. The first was a direct unsubsidized loan in the amount of {$19000.00}. The second was a direct XXXX XXXX loan in the amount of {$6800.00}. My loan servicer for these loans is Granite State Management and Resources. The master promissory notes for both these loans provided for the cancellation of each loan and associated fees if the amount received in the disbursement was returned within 120 days. Pursuant to the 120-day provision, on XX/XX/2020, I made a payment of {$25000.00}. I made the payment by calling the GSMR customer service phone number, and requesting that the 120 day provision be applied. I specified that in my account {$18000.00} should be applied to Group A loan 3, and {$6600.00} should be applied to Group B loan 2. The customer service representative and I determined that the {$25000.00} payment reflected the full {$25000.00} balance of the loans minus {$490.00} of loan origination fees that would be canceled pursuant to the 120-day provision.

Although my account reflected the payment, the origination fees were never canceled on my account. The payment was incorrectly applied as a full payment of the {$6600.00} from Group B loan 2, and a partial payment on Group A loan 3 that left a {$490.00} balance. That remaining {$490.00} balance reflects origination fees from both loans that should have been canceled but were not. I have contacted GSMR customer service over phone approximately 10 times in the last two months with no resolution of this problem. Approximately 8 of these calls have been to a representative named XXXX ( extension # XXXX XXXX, who claims she has repeatedly tried to resolve my problem by working with other GSMR personnel with no success. In a call with XXXX on XX/XX/2020, XXXX said her manager XXXX said I should send an email describing the problem to the GSMR customer service email, and that I should expect the incorrect loan balance to be resolved in 3-5 business days. That same day, I sent the following email to XXXX : Hello, My GSMR account number is [ redacted ]. 

I made a payment of {$25000.00} on XX/XX/2020. Per the 120 day loan cancellation rule, I am requesting that you reapply my payment to fully pay off the principal of my Group A loan 3 loan, and my Group B loan 2 loan. Of the {$25000.00} payment I already made, {$18000.00} should be applied to Group A loan 3, and {$6600.00} should be applied to Group B loan 2. This will result in the full payment of the principal and the cancellation of the {$490.00} in origination fees that were accessed on the disbursement of those two loans. 

If you need any additional information from me, please let me know. 

Thank you, [ Signature redacted ] On XX/XX/2020 ( 8 business after my email ), I called XXXX again, who confirmed that the email had been received, that she had checked my email to confirm it had the necessary information, and that the request was being processed by the appropriate GSMR personnel. She said my account would likely be updated by XXXX XXXX. I informed her that if my incorrect loan balance was not fixed within the next week, I would send this complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Today is XXXX XXXX, and I am now submitting this complaint in the hope it will finally result in my problem being resolved.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation