Consumer complaint received 2019-04-26
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
During late XXXX, I had to leave my home in Florida and help assist my mother with my XXXX father in New York. During that time, Nelnet failed to notify me that my loan repayment plan at the time was about to expire ( I had an income-driven repayment plan at the time, with no payments due to unemployment ). They claim they tried to contact me, but also admit that the mail was being returned to them. I can only guess they had the incorrect address on file. Regardless, due to the mail being returned, they are well aware I did not receive any notifications. Prior to that, I was making no payments due to being unemployed, and I was still unemployed while helping to care for my father before he passed away. 

Since they failed to notify me that I needed to refile, they defaulted into some kind of payments being due, even though I couldn't pay and was never even informed of this. So, from XXXX of XXXX to XXXX. of XXXX, I accrued five derogatory marks on 9 different loans I have with them for a total of 45 derogatory marks. This was all because I simply didn't refile paperwork for the loans because they never notified me that I needed to! While I was taking care of my XXXX father, this organization began placing derogatory marks on my credit scores for loans that I was financially unable to pay and was never warned that payments were going to be due! I couldn't pay because I had NO information on where to pay, how to pay, etc.! 

As soon as I finally saw it on my credit score and looked into it, I immediately refiled for an income-driven repayment plan, which again made it so that I didn't need to make payments once more. However, by that time, those 45 derogatory marks had already occurred. 

I explained the matter to the staff at Nelnet, but they blatantly lied to me by claiming there was " nothing they could do about it. '' They don't want to take the time to report it to the bureaus, which would take probably 10 minutes of one of their employee 's time, if that. They have attempted to justify their derogatory marks on my credit reports by hiding behind policies. However, I have seen no copies of any policies of theirs that I signed, never saw any evidence of a timeline that shows when my last class was in college to the point where they started expecting me to pay. Ethically, this should be a no-brainer due to the fact they are well aware they could not contact me and as such I received no forewarning they were going to maliciously attack my credit. Nelnet is using policy to justify unethical actions here by refusing to adjust the derogatory marks. 

I filed a complaint with the XXXX as well, but they are hiding behind the same excuse regarding policies with them as well, but without one single document with my signature on it that supports any of their claims. And regardless how much they try to justify their adherence to policy, considering the circumstances here, I feel an adjustment is well more than justifiable. 

Thanks to these derogatory marks on my credit, it is hindering my ability to provide for my family, as my field of work ( banking ) relies heavily on credit scores when it comes to employment. Considering I was not ever given any notifications payments were going to begin if I didn't refile, these derogatory marks need to be corrected to reflect the fact that I should not have owed any payments at that time, as I provided them evidence back then that I had no income. I even provided them with the death certificate of my father to show my circumstances at the time, but they STILL did nothing!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation