Consumer complaint received 2020-10-16
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: NC
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 borrowed {$10000.00} from XXXX, XXXX to help pay for XXXX XXXX. I knew the interest was going to accrue from the beginning, so I tried to make a few payments before my grace period ended. Unfortunately, I only have records of two such interest payments -- one for {$160.00} and another for {$100.00}. Beginning  XX/XX/XXXX, I began making regular monthly payments and continued to make payments every month, without missing a payment until XXXX, XXXX. The original monthly payment amount due was {$100.00}. Then in XXXX, XXXX, my payment due decreased to {$97.00}, then went up again to {$98.00} in XXXX, XXXX. I have no idea why. I received very little in the way of correspondence from XXXX. After the amount due decreased, I continued to pay {$100.00}, primarily because I signed up for automatic payments in order to get a decreased interest rate. In XXXX, XXXX, I started paying them {$150.00} every month so I could make a bigger dent towards the total. I requested that they take the extra I was paying and apply it towards the principal. I don't believe they ever did what I asked. I made the {$150.00} payments until XXXX, XXXX. At that time, Firstmark Services took over receiving payments, but XXXX XXXX still held onto the loan. I wasn't able to make a payment in XXXX, XXXX because I didn't know who to pay ; but once I found out, I made two {$100.00} payments in XXXX, XXXX. After that, I set up another automatic payment for {$120.00} a month and once again requested the extra be applied toward principal. When I received a statement a few months later, I noticed that the extra money I was paying was being applied towards the next month 's payment, and it had gotten to the point where they were showing no payment was due. I contacted them yet again about the extra money that was supposed to be applied towards principal. They assured me it would be taken care of. Right about this time, my life and my marriage started to fall apart. Because I had set up automatic payments, I didn't think much about it -- I had a lot of other stuff happening. In XXXX, my now ex-husband moved out and I was struggling to pick up the pieces, but those loan payments were still being made until I ran out of money in XXXX, XXXX. I contacted Firstmark immediately to try to figure out a way to put off making payments until I could figure something out. They were less than helpful. I believe they TRIED to be helpful, but nothing they said or did actually did anything for me except make me even more frustrated. The most useful answer I got was that I would need to make  a large payment and catch up before they could grant me a forbearance of any kind. I managed to do that, but I still got the runaround. Another 30 days went by and I had to make another payment to catch up yet again. My requests for a forbearance were never granted because the customer support people at Firstmark are  just incompetent. They are very friendly and willing to help, but I believe many of them honestly don't know what they're doing. After Covid hit, things got even more crazy for everybody. At some point, I was actually given a hardship forbearance specifically for Covid, but it  was only good for two months. In XXXX, XXXX, I contacted Firsmark again and requested a full printout of every payment I had ever made to them and to XXXX. The printout from XXXX is severely lacking in detail. It doesn't show the two interest payments ( that I have records for ) I made in XXXX & XXXX and it doesn't show how my payments were distributed -- how much to interest & principle. After adding up everything, I discovered that I had paid a total of {$10000.00} towards a {$10000.00} loan. To make matters worse, the balance owed on the loan as of XXXX, XXXX was a whopping {$11000.00}. I understand the interest aspect of it, but the interest rate was very low and I had made 58 consecutive payments of AT LEAST the minimum due. Naturally, I had questions about this ; specifically, how did I end up still owing over {$11000.00} after paying on this low-interest loan for almost five years? It isn't a high-interest credit card!!  Anyway, I started an email conversation with XXXX XXXX, a Firstmark Recovery Specialist. I had already been emailing with him to let him know that I was planning to pay off this debt once I got my divorce settlement money. But once I saw the problems with the payment history, the conversation took a different turn. Also, he told me that my payoff amount was over {$9000.00}. We shared a few  emails about the payments and the total. I offered to pay off the loan, but I made clear that I was not about to pay what they were asking because it just didn't add up, and I wanted explanations. He told me that his superiors said the amount was non-negotiable and to file a complaint if I needed to. I even offered them XXXX cents on the dollar and suggested that there was no way they would get that much if a collection agency bought the loan. They still refused. So here I am praying for some relief. I have managed to keep my credit rating from dipping too low after my divorce and with no job currently. When I got my divorce settlement, I paid off or paid way down every single credit card I have. I put money aside for this loan specifically, but they are not being honest or fair. I am going to attach copies of the payment histories, an old statement that shows money I paid in XXXX & XXXX that was never reflected on XXXX 's payment history, and the email exchanges I had with two different people who work for Firstmark. I  appreciate whatever you can do. I am not happy about this, and I feel for sure that they are doing this to other people as well, obviously.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation