Consumer complaint received 2017-09-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: TN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I have battled over private student loan debts ( AES, XXXX XXXX XXXX Now Navient ] ever since I became unexpectedly, suddenly, totally and permanently XXXX, effective per Social Security as of XXXX, XXXX. Until that happened, both my husband and I had near perfect credit scores. Still, the remaining combined total owed was somewhere around $ XXXX. After contacting you before, XXXX XXXX finally, after repeatedly telling me they had no way to forgive private student loans for any reason, including tXXXX XXXX of the borrower, sent me the paperwork to be submitted to their insurance company who would review my situation and make their own determination about whether their insurance company agreed with Social Security that I was too XXXX to work. Having heard nothing for about 3 months, I contacted XXXX 's insurance company : XXXX XXXX. I was told they had approved my XXXX claim, but my co-sponsor husband was still on the hook for the outstanding amount due to XXXX. First question : is it possible that XXXX XXXX reimbursed XXXX for any financial losses associated with the loss of payments from me, but despite having been reimbursed for those losses, are continuing to try and collect money they 've already been reimbursed for by XXXX XXXX, nut continue collecting from my co-signor, my husband? How could this be verified or not? 
As my husband and I share a life, share all expenses, etc., simply removing me from any remaining responsibility for the debt owed does nothing to lessen a financial burden neither of us can afford, if he is still expected to pay it? I understand co-signers do have a secondary responsibility for debts they did co-sign on, but please read on to see what other financial strains we have now also been beset with. 

So DID they collect an insurance based reimbursement loss from XXXX XXXX, likely the insurance provider they enlisted to obtain reimbursement for losses experienced. and are now ALSO STILL collecting payments from my husband too? If one ca n't afford the debt, in the case of husband and wife, NEITHER can! Another possibility I can not find out if this is what they are doing. Please help. 

As to AES, I continued to receive collection notices and calls almost immediately. Some being quite ominous -- like the time I again told the collection agent that while before taking out this loan, I had worked hard to be sure I could pay it back in 5 yrs, even if I saw no pay increase all that time. I told her I had diligently done what I could, but having a serious illness strike was not something I 'd given as much attention to. It just seemed too far fetched to be a valid consideration. So, I asked her : What now? Sounding like the Wicked Witvh of the West, she said " Oh, we have our ways ... '' Thanks, but on top of the illness, the bills from that, the near total loss of my savings in the XXXX profligate banker fiasco, AND trining to get used to going from a near {$68000.00} annual salary, to Social Security 's embarrassingly tiny monthly payment to me of {$1400.00}, when I needed the biweekly {$2200.00} I used to get, and STILL need to maintain my responsibilities, your cute little commments are no help to someone seriously sick, robbed as a faithful taxpayer by the banking industry of their own country -- a country that should puts its citizen majority FIRST on its list of responsibilities ; the rich are, and will continue to do well ( rembwe when they paid a 70-90 % tax rate? ) they did n't become paupers then and if you stop focusing on them now, they wo n't become paupers now either XXXX, but let me finish by saying my husband and I just might. It would be all because of our shameless, greedy, favoritist-player government. 

So having not heard anything from AES XXXX multiple past months you know, the student aid lender allowed to go bankrupt even though it 's loan recipients continued to pay a bankrupted company. I found AES too had removed all of my responsibility for repaying that debt. I guess it finally sunk in that when I said my pockets were empty, Social Security did not provide me enough to live on, my medical costs ( twice what the very same companies charge citizens in XXXX and XXXX XXXX were beyond my ability to pay -- they looked at where I 'd stood with credit before this major life change and saw I was n't simply trying not to pay what I could pay ... I really, really could n't pay it! So is someone reimbursing AES while they continue to also try to collect from my husband too? I think I have some right to know these things. Thank you!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation