Consumer complaint received 2018-02-08
Company: HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENT ASSISTANCE AUTHORITY (HESAA)
State: NJ
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
I am writing in regards to an XXXX loan taken out to pay for the education of my daughter. For the past 6 years both myself and my daughter have struggled to make this loan 's necessary payments. My daughter 's business went bankrupt and my own XXXX XXXX fell on hard times and is not producing the same revenue as it once did. We have been unable to match the monthly payments of {$1300.00} since that time. For the past 6 years, I have explained to XXXX XXXX representatives that I am undergoing financial hardship and have requested assistance in lowering the monthly amount due or allowing me to refinance. Other than the option of deferment, no other financial assistance alternatives for economic hardship, no other avenue was offered by HESAA, but deferment. Ultimately deferment has not provided us with the ability to solve our financial crises. It has actually made payments even more difficult to make, as the amount due has not changed or lessened and interest has continued to accrue. Each time I have asked for better finance options, I have been told that they would not refinance with me and my only option has been deferment. 

In XXXX of XXXX, in desperation I borrowed money from a family member and managed to catch up and pay the past due amount, I phoned an XXXX representative and again begged for assistance in lowering my monthly payment. I was again, told to try and refinance the loan elsewhere. I was again told that no further assistance, no refinance option through HESAA and no income-based repayment plan were available. All of my requests for refinancing have been rejected by various companies, such as XXXX and XXXX XXXX, due to my home being dangerously close to foreclosure along with my financial hardship. My daughter 's credit has improved, but they will not allow me to put the loan into her name, so she is unable to refinance the loan. 

Since XXXX of XXXX, I've fallen behind on payments to XXXX and have since been in touch with representatives trying to get them to work with me to lower my monthly payment amount. I am unable to pay the current amount past due of {$9600.00}. I simply do not have the funds, nor does my daughter. Representatives are insisting the past due amount be paid in full. Furthermore I've been told that once the amount is paid, I may be eligible to apply for refinancing with HESAA ( a new option that the company apparently allowed sometime in XXXX-an option that was never mentioned to me before by any HESAA representatives until today, XX/XX/2017 ). 

So now I am writing to, once more, request some way of helping adjust the amount of my monthly payments to XXXX. Should I magically come up with the amount past due ( now totaling {$9600.00} ) and get caught up, I still may be denied a refinance option by HESAA, which would leave me right back where I started : with a monthly loan payment I can not afford. I want to try to pay back the loan that was given to me, that allowed my daughter to go to college, but with monthly payments I can not make and the inability to attain refinancing, I do not have a solution. Please help us in resolving this. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation