Consumer complaint received 2018-05-31
Company: ACS Education Services
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:
I reached out to The University of XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) financial aid department multiple times at least 4 over the early month of this year. Between XX/XX/2018- XX/XX/2018. After being out of school and working for six ( 6 ) month I realized that my grace period was up, and it was time to begin repaying my loans. I knew this because of small reminders and emails from XXXX about managing debt and tools to help. I immediately went to studentaid.gov and took a good look at all of my loans. I saw the Federal Perkins loan there among all the other typical subsidized and unsubsidized loans, but I did not think much of it at this time and followed steps to pay my loans which brought me to the Navient website where I made my first payment. 

The following month when I took a look at my loans again I noticed the Federal Perkins Loans I received from XXXX did not budge. I began to worry a bit and it hit me that I would probably need to pay that loan specifically to XXXX. When I was finally able to reach the Department of Financial Aid, the person on the phone I spoke with specifically told me that all I needed to do was continue making payments through XXXX  and that should cover all my loans. I felt uneasy by the statement because when I called the loan by name, Federal Perkins Loan, it was as if she had never heard of it or was unsure of what it was. But again, she assured me that was the way. After awhile it went out of my mind and it wasnt until I was making my second payment to XXXX that I began to feel uneasy again because the Federal Perkins Loan was not listed on my account on the Navient website. I called XXXX Financial Aid Department again and this time I recall speaking to a gentleman I told him my situation and my concern and voiced that I have not received any notifications and wasnt sure that I have been paying the loan. I also told him that when I go to the studentaid.gov website to view all my loans it shows that the loan is not yet in repayment or generating interest which did not seem accurate to me. The guy on the phone was able to pull up my account at XXXX and he was able to see the Perkins loan I was referring to. Even then he too was also a bit confused about the loan and the specifics on how to repay the loan. He did say that I should have received emails about payments or something of the sort. I told him I have never once received an email, a phone call or letter from XXXX or loan company. At the end of it, it did not seem like he had the information or was trained on how to deal with private loans. I am unsure how the conversation ended but he was not able to help me with finding out more information about the Perkins loan and repayment. 

This went one for another call. It was not until my 4th call in the second week of XXXX which I spoke to another gentlemen that I finally got the answers I was looking for. He told me there was a specific website. He also gave me a contact number of another lady I could speak with incase I needed further assistance. I do not have his name, but his initials are XXXX as his signature suggested from the email he sent me. 

When I went to the link in the email I saw that my account was just a few days from becoming 3 months overdue and I would need to pay the 3 months worth of payments. I called the number of the lady he gave me the next day during business hours but of course I got the voice mail. The next day I tried again and was able to reach her. I told her the predicament I was in and how the school never informed me or told me how to repay the loan. All she told me was that there is nothing she could do and if it has already been reported then thats that. There was nothing I could do but make the 3 months worth of payments which is did two days later. The lady on the phone did mentioned that she could put my account into forbearance which would bring it back to current however it would not fix that it was already delinquent and has been reported ... but that was not the issue, the issue was my above 700 credit score dropped 50+ points because the University of XXXX XXXX failed to provide accurate and timely information to me despite my efforts to reach out to them and get said information. The Financial Aid Department of XXXX failed to properly train their staff on the matter and because of that my credit score which we as consumers are so harshly judged on was severely damage. I have never missed payments before or have had any negative factors on my credit report. It takes a full seven ( 7 ) years for a delinquency to be fully removed off a report! Not once did I receive and email, phone call, or letter about this loan. I should not be treated unjustly because of inaccurate, inadequate, misinformation, and lack of information from XXXX!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation