Consumer complaint received 2018-01-11
Company: HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC
State: DC
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Federal student loan debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
I received a Perkins Loan from XXXX University in Spring XX/XX/XXXX. I graduated in XX/XX/XXXX and believed that I completed all of my student loan exit interviews. I subsequently started making payments on Federal Student loans in XX/XX/XXXX. I did not refinance my student loans. I believed that I was making payments on ALL of my student loans ( income based repayment via monthly auto-payment ), but apparently this was only for my subsidized, unsubsidized, and grad plus loans. I was unaware of a separate company through which the Perkins loan was being managed. Four days ago, I received an alert from my credit monitoring service notifying me of a " 30 days past due '' bill from " XXXX University '' which was reported to XXXX AND XXXX. I graduated from XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. The amount in the alert was almost identical to the Perkins loan amount I had accepted two years earlier ( plus {$100.00} of late fees ). I called XXXX University Student Account Services, and they stated that I did not owe money to the school, but rather, that this was an issue with Financial Aid and my student loans. I called the Financial Aid office and reached a recording which instructed me to call XXXX XXXX for issues of late payments on student loans. This was my first encounter with this company. I called Heartland and spoke with a representative who verified the following information ; name, telephone number, last four digits of my SSN, school/university attended, and mailing address. Each identifier was correctly recorded in the Heartland system, except for my address. I have n't lived at that address since XX/XX/XXXX. The correct address was on file at XXXX University during the time that I applied for the Perkins loan in XX/XX/XXXX.  I explained this to the Heartland representative. He stated that my repayment requirements began in XX/XX/XXXX and that I was past due on this payment by 30 days AND past due for the XX/XX/XXXX payment. Heartland had not yet reported this additional late bill to the credit bureaus. I asked the representative why I had not been contacted initially in XX/XX/XXXX ( or at any other point in XX/XX/XXXX ), at least by phone ( since the mailing address was incorrect ), and he stated that an agreement between XXXX University and Heartland stated that the Heartland company would not contact XXXX loan recipients until their accounts were 90 days past due. This was because of a fee which would be charged to XXXX by Heartland for contacting loan recipients within that 90 day window. 
But, Heartland was able to notify TWO credit bureaus within 30 days. 
I set up an online account today with Heartland, paid the amount which was owed, and created a monthly auto-payment to prevent future issues, but I still have the missed payment reflected on my credit report. The Heartland representative said that he could not assist me in filing a correction with the credit bureaus.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation