Consumer complaint received 2018-04-08
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: VA
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:
In XX/XX/XXXX I received a credit based student loan with Citibank for XXXX University at around 27,000.. 


I made payments of {$75.00} regularly until XX/XX/XXXX. 


I made attempts to work with Citibank to get a forbearance ( I am in good standing with all of my other student loan, whom had excellent student loan servicing in helping out during times of a tight budget ) in XX/XX/XXXX as the result of a tight budget in a few months in XX/XX/XXXX. Citibank were difficult to work with and they charged off my account then put me into collections. I asked for the name of the collection agency and phone number. However, the information they provided me was inaccurate. Thus, I waited for the collection agency to contact me and every year I would check my credit report waiting for the credit agency to report it to my credit report. In addition, I was in a custody battle that tightened my budget as the result of legal fees and other fees related to the custody battle for my daughter, of which I lost. As well, Citibank Student Loans became sued for misleading Student Loan service practices and were fined by the CFPB. XXXX : CFPB Takes Action Against Citibank For Student Loan Servicing Failures That Harmed Borrowers. Also, Citibank a couple of years ago off loaded some of their borrowers to XXXX XXXX as the result of similar issues with the CFPB. I did not pull my credit report at the end of XX/XX/XXXX, because at that time there were issues in the custody battle that retained my attention. At the end of XX/XX/XXXX I pulled my credit report and noticed a Citibank balance added to my credit report in XX/XX/XXXX and closed in XX/XX/XXXX, but it did not have a name of any collection agency. I went to the Citibank website and learned that they no longer service student loans from a lawsuit against them. The websites disclaimer read : Effective XX/XX/XXXX Citibank will no longer service student loans. If you received notification of the transfer of servicing of your private student loans from Citibank to XXXX XXXX, they can be reached at XXXX and by phone at XXXX. The website I went to was : studentloan.citibank.com. I called the phone number and they directed me to the phone number of two collection agencies. The first one I called did not have my debt, but the second one I called did have my debt. I informed the collection agency, XXXX, that I could give them a down payment and we could work out a monthly payment that they were agreeable with. On the other hand, I called the Consumer Protection hotline in Virginia and what other next steps I could take. They provided me general information that showed that my Citibank debt is outside the statute of limitations to be collected. Thus, I sought out an attorney that specialized in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) to get clarification, if my Citibank balance is outside the statute of limitations. I learned that the debt is outside the statute of limitations and as the result of Citibank 's poor handling of my account could affect my security clearance.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation