Consumer complaint received 2017-09-21
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MD
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
I obtained school loans in XXXX. When I left school, I understood that I would be responsible for paying back my student loans 6 months after I left school. I never received, either through mail, email or phone call, information on the company that would administer my school loans. Frankly, I forgot about them. Until XX/XX/XXXX when I received a letter from a creditor ( XXXX ) stating that they were closing my credit account due to serious delinquencies reported on my credit report. I thought that it was a mistake and immediately pulled a free credit report online. There was a 6 month delinquency reported by Fedloan Servicing, along with a phone number. I called the number and after giving my information to the customer service rep, was informed that this was a student loan account and payments were 6 months in arrears. I immediately made a payment of {$1000.00} to bring the account up to date. I also went through the contact information that the company had on file for me and it was incorrect. They had an old email address and the wrong telephone number for me. I asked why I had never received information by mail from them and was told that someone logged into an online account and set up electronic billing. I informed them that was NOT me. I asked that the online billing be terminated, I wanted a paper bill, and I requested documentation laying out the terms of the loans. I also asked to speak with a manager to discuss the situation, as I was never contacted about this loan from the company directly. I never received anything in the mail and I did NOT create the online account. I was told that I had to submit a dispute form and could not speak to a manager. I have since submitted 2 dispute forms. FedLoan refuses to correct my credit report. This still have not sent me information on this loan - loan terms, late payment information, account information. I have not received information that my online account has not been closed, even though I have requested this by phone and twice by mail. I NEVER logged into FedLoan 's website and if they have a record that someone did, it was not me. Which means that someone logged into that account and set up paperless billing on my behalf. 

Prior to this incident, I had EXCELLENT credit. I never paid a late payment. I paid all of my accounts on time or early. I am financially stable and am able to make the payments on my student loans so I was not trying to ignore this. My credit has been destroyed and I have no recourse against this company. As a consumer, I have a right to be informed when a company is going to destroy my credit. I have a right to receive loan terms and bank information. And I have a right to have any online account that is in my name removed. Repeated requests to FedLoan have gone ignored. 

I am not a deadbeat and I always pay my bills. Had I known about this account it would have never been late. If FedLoan could not reach me by email or phone, why did n't they send me a letter or paper statement? If I had not received a letter from XXXX, I would still be ignorant regarding this account. 

I want to note that I made a {$1000.00} payment to this account over the phone, with absolutely no information about who they are or what I owed. I was panicked for 6 weeks until I received a paper statement for the next payment that I had been scammed. I deserved better information prior to having to make that payment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation