Consumer complaint received 2018-12-04
Company: Earnest Inc.
State: FL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
After seeking professional advice on how to best pay back my student loans during the summer of XX/XX/2018, it was recommended that I refinance my loans to a servicer with better interest rate and a better reputation than my current servicer, XXXX. 

After a thorough research process, discussions with customer service and a detailed evaluation of my financials, I was persuaded to refinance my student loan with Earnest. 

Earnest advertises features that bill it as a better alternative to " traditional '' and loan servicers such as XXXX. 

Features touted by Earnest included : - The ability to pay in bi-weekly installments, saving interest - Option to select a flexible payment date of my choice - Access to a modern, state-of-the-art online interface and mobile app to more easily manage payments. 
- Ability to control my payment amounts and see how extra payments or taking advantage of their " skip a payment '' feature would affect the life of my loan without having to arduously call a customer service representative to calculate, or use a less-specific outside calculator tool. 

Turns out, Earnest was bought-out by XXXX and, shortly after I refinanced ( XX/XX/2018 ) Earnest REMOVED all of the above attributes and more, becoming almost identical to XXXX  in terms of user experience ( or lack thereof. ) Worst yet, they sold my loan right back to XXXX and charged me interest on the sale! Talk about shady ... and a borrower 's nightmare! I went through all that trouble to refinance -- try to do the right thing and set myself up for success -- only to end up back with a company that I never liked in the first place! How is this legal?! 

Further, the new Earnest-XXXX hybrid still, as of XX/XX/2018, has advertising and publicity out there boasting about these features and claiming to be better than the " alternative. '' Below are some examples. Screenshots are also attached. 

1. Their XXXX profile, a review site, still advertises the above features as benefits 2. Their App ( which is no longer accessible ) is still being advertised on their website at https : //www.earnest.comXXXX with a visual rendering of their dashboard that no longer exists. Exact language being used : " Paying off your student loans is easy with our dashboard PAYMENT FLEXIBILITY, NO FEES, SMART DESIGN '' 3. Earnest is still using language that describes itself as offering a customized, personalized, flexible loan management experience -- which it no longer offers. 

From their current website : " ... we started Earnest to restore the trust that is sorely missing from the current system '' ; " ... a company that combines data science, streamlined design, and exceptional service to bring people a fast, low-cost, and hyper-personalized financial experience. '' ; " ... and allow them [ customers ] to customize their repayment plan to fit their needs. '' 3. Earnest has charged me interest on the sale of my loan back to XXXX. How can they make money off of borrowers by " switching '' their accounts to essentially the same company? Why was Earnest able to refinance XXXX loans in the first place if they knew the merger was taking place? 

I'm writing today to plead that the CFPB take the following actions : 1. Launch an official investigation into the merger between Earnest and XXXX to determine how it was designed to how it works against their customers 2. Enforce that Earnest either restore all functionality that was advertised to customers who refinanced with the company during the time that these features were offered -- or -- insist that they remove ALL mentions, instances, implications of their former features from their website, outside advertising, review sites, etc. to make their advertising more consistent with XXXX 's. 

3. Refund myself and others who switched their loans from XXXX to Earnest ( only to have it switched back ) the interest that was charged for the loan sale. They should NOT be able to make money off of students who were baited & switched by these practices. 

Bottom line, Earnest has now sold out and now engages in the same corporate greed that is rampant in the student loan industry. It's a shady world out there when it comes to the student loan industry and the amount of abuse that student loan borrowers have endured when trying to pay back their loans in good faith is an abomination to the values of freedom and pursuit of happiness that this country stands for. It's my hope with submitting this complaint that those who have the power to do so will say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and put an end to the corporate greed that has relentlessly burdened student loan borrowers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation