Consumer complaint received 2017-06-04
Company: GREAT LAKES
State: TX
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
My U.S. Department of Education account ( acct #  XXXX   XXXX  reports late payments in  XXXX  which I dispute and disagree with. The student loans were in deferment after I graduated as I was unable to find full-time work at the income level i was accustomed to before the recession in  XXXX . This prompted me to go back to school and obtain an  XXXX  in the hopes it would make me more marketable and increase my earning potential, however the economy still had not fully recovered. In  XXXX  I with not other choice I filed for Chapter  XXXX  bankruptcy which alleviated a lot of debt and also enabled me to relocate to  XXXX , TX for a new job and more income in  XXXX . I moved  XXXX   XXXX  to  XXXX  and then again in  XXXX  once I was settled in TX. During this time my student loans were in deferment as I was not financially able to make the full payments. However in the time period between  XXXX  and  XXXX  the deferment ended and payments started, however I had not received any documentation informing me of this. Typically In the past I was notified the deferment was coming to an end and I would refile it, however this time I did not. It was not until  XXXX  or  XXXX  of  XXXX  I was finally called by the loan servicer and informed my account was delinquent and approaching charge off status. I told them the account was in deferment and that should n't be an issue, the person on the phone then said I see that tried to put the account back into deferment status, however now the balance needed to be current to do so. I asked how this happened and I could not get an answer, low and behold they did n't have my new contact information on hand even though I had filed with the postal service and informed my creditors. I asked why they never called me to notify me I could not get an answer. I then asked if this was reporting on my credit and affecting my credit, again I got the run around and could not get a straight answer other than we do not know what the bureaus report. How is that possible you 're the ones telling them what to report. Still no answer from the operator on the phone. I asked for confirmation on the credit reporting since this would incorrectly and negatively affect my credit rating. Finally, I was informed that the late payments would be reported but it was still not a direct answer the operator just stated that they were collecting the debt but that the original creditor would report the lates and they were not responsible for that. Again, I need to ask how you are not responsible for the error, the account is still with the original creditor, it has never been sold or changed. I offered to pull money from my  XXXX  and pay the account in-full if they would provide me a letter stating the account was never late and it was an error on their part so I could have the credit report corrected. I was informed they could not do that. In the end I had to make payment arrangements now that the account was in repayment status and I could not defer any payments or work out a payment arrangement at all until the account was current. Over the next few months I made double and triple payments to bring the account current. By the end of this time my new employment was stable and income was more inline with previous years so I have set the account up on a monthly autopayment. I would however still like the late payments to be removed, since the creditor failed to properly inform me the account entered into repayment status and never sent statements, letters or phone calls for almost   XXXX   months. I find this troublesome and disheartening that my credit can be impacted for their error. This has caused me to be declined for loans, and credit since this happened. All I would like is for the creditor to either correct the payment history with the credit agencies (   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   ) or just to send me a letter on their stating this was an error on their end and the account was never late and then I will send that to each agency to be updated and corrected.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation