Consumer complaint received 2018-04-05
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't temporarily delay making payments

Complaint:
American Education Services provided me with a health access loan in XX/XX/2007 for my first year of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX school ( I was ineligible for federal loans at the time because I had already completed a 4 year XXXX degree and the first year of XXXX   school was considered an XXXX year - This is another complaint I have and feel is unlawful. However, I will file separately for that complaint ). After graduation, I was hit with astronomical amount of monthly student loan debt payments from both my Federal loans and from my private loan from AES ; totaling upwards of $ 2500/month. I was unable to afford these payments and contacted AES multiple times asking for assistance in lowering my payments. I was told that there was nothing I could do about my payments because this was a private loan and not a federal loan. Because of this, I struggled for months to make payments and accrued many late fees. Finally after months of struggling and multiple calls to AES, I was able to lower my monthly payments by enrolling in a longer payoff term of 25 years. Since then, I have been making on time payments to AES until I went on XXXX   leave and was not getting paid. I asked for hardship or something to delay my payments for a few months. AES, again was not helpful and provided me no information or option on how to avoid late fees and credit reporting on monthly payments I was unable to make due to XXXX  leave. Since XXXX leave over 4 years ago now, I have made on time payments. However, the 2 months of missed payments from my XXXX leave still negatively affect my credit score in a significant way. Additionally, this loan was taken out as a joint loan with my mother as a cosigner. I was devastated by the fact that my moms credit would also be negatively affected. I contacted AES in hopes of relieving my mom from any financial responsibility and negative credit effects of this loan. I was told there was nothing I could do and this was after several years of on time payments after my late payments during XXXX leave. Finally, I am now ineligible for interest rate deductions due to late payments at the beginning of my repayment terms ( when I had multiple issues with obtaining help form AES ) even though I have made on time payments for 99 percent of my repayment tern thus far. My interest rate is variable and continues to rise. Over the last 6 years, I have paid {$21000.00} in interest and a mere XXXX on principle. I feel that AES with held information from me on how to attain lower monthly payments and steered me toward paying more than I had to on my loans, causing me to default my loan and making me ineligible for any interest rate deductions.. I also feel AES, withheld pertinent information of how to defer payments during a hardship, affecting my credit in a negative manner. Finally, I feel that AES withheld information on how to release a cosigner from responsibility of my loan, which has now affected my mothers credit in a negative way.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation