Consumer complaint received 2018-01-08
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MI
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 originally had an in school deferment with my school loan providers. I was enrolled in school for the summer of XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ), but due to low enrollment for that particular course, the course was dropped and I was n't able to take that class in the summer. Due to this, all of my loans went back into repayment. I contacted some of my providers and they stated that once I enrolled back into school in the fall, my accounts would be brought current and back into deferment. Once fall XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) came, the majority of my loans were brought current and were put back into repayment, all except for AES. Once I contacted them, they informed me that my loan was no longer eligible for in school forbearance, and that I was a couple of months behind on my payments and that they reported to the credit bureau after 30 days of delinquency. 

I was able to make the minimum payment to bring my account under 30 days, but I was not able to pay the entire amount to bring the account current since it was such a large amount that was due ( > {$600.00} ). Once I made the payment, since I get paid once a month, I asked for them to change my due date to the day after I got paid. They refused and said it was against the rules since the account was n't current. Because of this, I 'm ALWAYS behind and late on my payments and AES calls me multiple times per week to make a payment. This continued from XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, & XX/XX/XXXX. When AES called, either the last week of the month or the first week of the month, I would pay them the minimum again in order to stay under the 30 day delinquency period. 

After my minimum payment XX/XX/XXXX, I received another call for payment XX/XX/XXXX because ( as already stated ) the account is always late. After that, to this day, I 've never received a call from AES requesting payment, when this is the way I 've been paying them for the past 4 months. I received no calls from AES for 5-6 weeks, but then I get a call the collection agency on XX/XX/XXXX and two negative citations on my credit report for a missed payment in XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called AES on XX/XX/XXXX to make the minimum payment to put me under the 30 day limit and to also request for them to change the due date to after the day I get paid. They refused again. I asked for them to remove the negative credit reporting since I had n't been called by them in about 6 weeks, especially since this was the precedence set by them for my payments over the past 4 months. They again refused. 

I 'm in the middle of selling my house in order to get a more affordable one in order to get out of debt and pay off all of my student loans as quickly as possible. This negative credit reporting by AES is affecting my ability to get a good interest rate that will help me to achieve that goal of lowering my monthly mortgage payments in order to pay off my overall student loan debt even quicker as planned. 

I need help. I tried to work out a plan/agreement with AES, but they WILL NOT work with me at all! Their mentality is " I ca n't do anything for you until you get the account current ''. They wo n't even change the due date. I 'm not trying to get out of the payments, I 'm trying to make them more feasible for myself to pay ... Someone help me please ...

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief