Consumer complaint received 2020-02-27
Company: Student Loan Financial Assistance
State: FL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
My Federal student loans covered my education at XXXX College and University of XXXX. I started making regular repayments upon graduation in XX/XX/XXXX,  no issues. I discussed consolidation with the DOE but was told I would lose all my loan forgiveness time so did not proceed. On XX/XX/XXXX Student Loan Financial Assistance LLC ( SLFA ) left me this unsolicited cold call voicemail : Hi this is XXXX XXXX calling in from the processing department ... it looks like there's been some significant changes to your federal student loan repayment options so if you could give me a call back as soon as possible today that would be great. My direct phone number is XXXX ... also if you could have your reference number ready that would be awesome your reference number is XXXX Worried I called and was told they could consolidate my loans not under loan forgiveness & lower my monthly payment w/o loss of any loan forgiveness time. They represented that they were affiliated with the Dept. of Ed ( DOE ), which I believed as they had access to all my records. I would have to pay {$200.00} a month for 4 moths for DOE to process the consolidation. They pressured me repeatedly to agree to terms saying I had to act quickly or my repayment options would be in jeopardy. I paid them {$200.00} a month, thought I was paying it to DOE, thought I had no choice if I wanted to consolidate. I sent them both requested documents by XX/XX/XXXX but they asked for the same docs again on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. SLFA lied that DOE was processing the app but it would take time so despite my concerns SLFA put me in forebearance for 2 months. In XX/XX/XXXX I called re status. No news, DOE was still processing paperwork. This time they said I could consolidate all my loans without losing forgiveness time. They put me on another 2 months of forbearance, again despite my concerns, DOE was still processing the app. All this was a lie as DOE says they didn't get the app from SLFA until XX/XX/XXXX. Then on XX/XX/XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX of SLFA emailed me asking for same docs I had already submitted. In XX/XX/XXXX I got a letter from DOE cautioning that if SLFA consolidated all my loans I would lose all my forgiveness time. I called SLFA. XXXX, who refused to give her last name, promised to correct my account, remove loans under loan forgiveness and call me on XX/XX/XXXX with an update. She never called. Now suspicious I asked her to verify affiliation with DOE and she said they were a 3rd party private company. I'd paid them {$600.00} by then. On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX from DOE who said my account was still in review as they only received paperwork from SLFA in XX/XX/XXXX. He said SLFA first moved me to a non-income-based plan that would result in monthly payments of about {$2000.00}. They then moved me to another income-based repayment plan that would still result in higher monthly payments, not the lower payments SLFA promised. I did not authorize SLFA to move me from my original plan. I had to pay {$88.00} to be put back on my original plan. XXXX suggested I file complaints against SLFA. 

On XX/XX/XXXX SLFA incomprehensibly left me this unsolicited cold call voicemail as though I were not already a customer : " Hello, this is XXXX from Student Loan Financial Assistance. At SLFA we are committed to ensure that your program is in great standings. As we were servicing your file, we have some important updates from the Department of Education that need your immediate attention. If this is not addressed as soon as possible, this could affect your Federal Student Aid repayment options. To reach a representative, please call XXXX. '' In XX/XX/XXXX I called SLFA again prior to filing my complaints in an attempt to reach a resolution. XXXX called me back on XX/XX/XXXX after i had filed the complaints but said she knew nothing about the complaints and would have someone else call me back about that. To date no one from SLFA has called me. 

SLFA misrepresented affiliation with the DOE, misrepresented that I had to use them to consolidate, lied to me about consolidation terms and monthly payment amounts, did not submit my paperwork to DOE for 4 months while claiming DOE was dragging its feet processing the paperwork, and submitted the app with so many errors that my account is still on hold while DOE tries to fix SLFA 's many errors. SLFA lied to the XXXX saying me they would contact me and issue a refund but they have not. I have supporting documentation of all statements I have made and am happy to provide it upon request.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief