Consumer complaint received 2022-10-06
Company: EdFinancial Services
State: WI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
I requested a refund of loan payments made on my two outstanding student loans on XX/XX/XXXX. At this point in time my loan balance has been reinstated at both EdFinancial and with the Department of Education. However, I have not received any refund yet and have not been provided any status or visibility into the refund timing by the Servicer. They also are not able to confirm how I will receive the payment after telling me originally that I would receive it electronically as I had paid the loans off electronically from my checking account via their web site. I am anxious that I now have balances but do not have the refund that coincides with the balances and expect that the servicer will work to expedite the refund payment. Here is a snippet of the exchange I just had with an agent at EdFinancial, which in my estimation is not acceptable. 

XXXX XXXX has joined the conversation XXXX Thank you for contacting Edfinancial Live Chat, my name is XXXX XXXX How may I assist you today? 

XXXX, I am looking for some insight on the status of the refund payment I requested back on XX/XX/XXXX. It looks like my loan balances are reinstated both at EdFinancial and on the Federal FSA site. However I do not have the money back in my account. 

XXXX Thank you for confirming, I do see your refund request has been submitted and is processing. There is no time frame for refunds to be processed due to the volume of requests we receive. 

Is there a way to prioritize the refund? I am increasingly anxious about the situation. I did make the request almost XXXX weeks ago I was told at the time by the agent I spoke with that it would be returned to my checking account electronically. 

My sister made a similar request with her loans that were also paid in full during the CARES Act pause. Her loans were serviced by XXXX. She has received the refund and has had everything properly reinstated. 

XXXX XXXX this time we can not expedite request. Department of Education will be finalizing the refund, and at this time they have not confirmed how it will be sent. 

She made her request a day before I did and her refund came back almost XXXX weeks ago. 

Is there a contact at the Department of Education that can be reached about the refund timing? 

XXXX There is not at this time. 

Can you confirm that the request for refund has been submitted to the Department of Education? And on what date? 

XXXX XXXX! The request was submitted XX/XX/XXXX. 

Did they provide EdFinancial with an estimated turnaround time for processing the requests? 

XXXX They have not provided us with that information. 

I will continue to check every day but it would be helpful for know what to expect. 

what happens if they stop the forgiveness program and I still have not received my refund distributuion and now I have an outstanding loan balance that I have already paid off? 

It is extremely stressful having a loan balance that I worked hard to repay, but not having the funding to repay it. 

XXXX The department of education has not guaranteed who is eligible and how that process will work. More information will be available in the next few weeks. Studentaid.gov/debtrelief is the best place to go for these updates. 

I would like to escalate my concern about not having the refunded distribution back in my account. Who at EdFinancial can I address this with. 

XXXX We can not escalate refund request at this time. 


XXXX Unfortunately we can not confirm you will get your refund in the next XXXX business days. I do apologize for the delay! Is there anything else I can assist you with?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation