Consumer complaint received 2019-03-18
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NJ
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 a loan for my college career at XXXX University. I have received an XXXX degree, a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX degree, and finally, in XXXX of XXXX I concluded my XXXX XXXX where I received a successful XXXX   ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) specialization. I began working in XXXX of XXXX and began to pay back my student loans. In XXXX of XXXX, I made three payments to my account. I thought it would cover XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a USPS letter from Wells Fargo, my lending institution and also the bank where I have both a checking and savings account. The letter advised me that I was one month delinquent in my loan repayment. I was shocked and tried to contact the institution ( Wells Fargo ) immediately. They did not answer. 

I continued to call on the day and evening of XX/XX/XXXX and the phone number simply rang with no answer. Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, I got an answering service advising me that Wells Fargo student loan department was experiencing technical difficulties and I should try to call back at a later time. 

I went to the web site of Wells Fargo and tried to adjudicate the problem on the internet. To my surprise, I could not contact anyone regarding my student loan via the internet and I was not able to set up auto-pay. The popular auto-pay feature is not available for the student loan repayment process. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I still had not been able to contact the Well Fargo but I did get a notice from my credit card company advising me that they had lowered my credit availability from {$1000.00} to {$500.00} because of a negative credit rating advisory. Wells Fargo had sent a negative credit rating to the credit bureau as a result of XXXX " late '' payment. Their report lowered my credit score XXXX points. 

I know it was lowered XXXX points because I checked my credit rating immediately after I got the notice of credit reduction from my credit card company. I continued to try to contact Wells Fargo. Finally, I got in touch with the Wells Fargo student loan company and they advised me that they would review my request for delinquent forgiveness. I told them that my payment was not delinquent and that in XXXX I made three payments. 

The customer service person was quite rude and unhelpful. She admitted that they do not have auto-pay and that they were unavailable to be contacted XXXX because of a service outage. How can I be held responsible for not paying when Wells Fargo was unavailable? I have a checking and savings account with this bank for many years ( over 8 years ) and I feel I should be treated like a valuable and loyal customer. I have not been treated as such. 

The customer service person at Wells Fargo advised me that I would be receiving a hard copy of the bank 's decision to forgive the 'late ' payment or to enforce the XXXX point deduction of my credit score. 

Yesterday, ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I received a letter from Wells Fargo advising me that they would not give me a forgiveness for the late payment and that they would enforce the deduction of my credit rating of over XXXX points because I had one ( 1 ) late payment. I do not agree with such a draconian punishment especially since I have made more than the required monthly payment to this account since XXXX of last year. ( XXXX ) Please help me with this case. I have continued to make payments to my student loan at Wells Fargo and want to raise my credit score. I am an XXXX XXXX and have been working gainfully since graduation. I think racism is at the root of the way I have been treated by this institution. I have friends who have the same loan with Wells Fargo and they have been treated quite differently. 

Thank you, XXXX XXXX. XXXX, XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation