Consumer complaint received 2019-11-21
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: OH
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
To whom it may concern, Id like to report my current student loan lender, AES, of unfair practices and creating a false narrative in order to make me pay more money than what is actually owed. Originally this loan should have been settled along with my other private student loans back in XXXX. 

Around mid-late XX/XX/XXXX, I started receiving phone calls from AES. They told me I owed around {$600.00} as payment for a student loan. I explained that all of my loans were settled through the courts and Ive been faithfully making monthly payments since the settlement. Their representative stated my school, XXXX XXXX University, had contacted them directly and personally on XX/XX/XXXX to inform them my estimated graduation date had changed to XX/XX/XXXX for this particular loan. She also mentioned a website called XXXX XXXX XXXX had me listed on there with the same estimated graduation date of XX/XX/XXXX. From there I asked the AES representative questions to which I could not get a direct answer. 
These questions consisted of If my graduation date was XX/XX/XXXX, why would my school directly contact you XX/XX/XXXX to say my estimated graduation was XX/XX/XXXX?, How can AES grant me a forbearance I didnt request?, Why did my school contact you only in reference to that particular loan and not the others who were taken out within that same school year by the same company?, Why was this not apart of the original settlement since all the private loans were taken out within the same school year, what made this loan different from the others?, etc. I also asked why was I just now being notified by phone. The representative stated AES has been sending me notifications to a paperless inbox on their website. I told them I never opted for paperless communication, I always received letters in the mail for updates and request, and my phone never changed since I first had it back in XXXX. 

As a matter of fact, the paper letters stopped coming way before I settled my case with National Collegiate Trust XXXX whom AES gave my loans too for collections ). As for AES, I always made sure they had up to date information so I could be notified of any changes. I asked the representative if I could have an extension on the billing due date since I didnt have the immediate funds. She stated I was not eligible. I was then advised to contact the original lender, XXXX XXXX to see what could be done for payment. I asked for a contact number, she would not give it to me. XX/XX/XXXX, I looked up my original loan information, called around, and was finally able to get in touch with XXXX XXXX  student loan department. The only help they could offer was another forbearance, which I turned town. From there, I was sent to my local XXXXXXXX XXXX branch where I set up a one on one meeting to discuss my issue with the loan and possible repayment options. 
The bank representative was unable to help me with repayment options due to the loan being in forbearance even though that was a mistake on AESs behalf. He gave me a number to their student loan investigation department and stated I would be eligible for refinancing within 3 months of payments in full. He also calculated the amount of additional interest accrued rom the forbearance from XXXX. This came up to over {$12000.00}. 

The way this loan was handled was and is very unprofessional. Someone along the line made a huge mistake that is physically costing me additional money. I would like this investigated. 

FYI, a brief loan history background : During the academic year XXXX, I took out a series of private loans during my freshman year at XXXX XXXX University due to me not being eligible for financial aid. All private loans originated from XXXX XXXX XXXX whose guarantor was XXXX. Once the recession hit, my private loans were all sold off to AES. AES did not abide by XXXX original contract and came after me for payments ( for all loans ) during my last year in college ( XXXX ). I graduated XX/XX/XXXX. I was working low level jobs and cold not make adequate payments. This forced my loans into default. From there the loans were given to National Collegiate Trust who sued me. I originally hired a lawyer through XXXX. I turned in all my loan documentation, including the one included in this letter. She ended up getting a new job while working with me and left the company in the middle of my case. From there, I located another lawyer who helped me settle. The debtor who I make my monthly payments too is XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX. Since the settlement, Ive made payments faithfully. Attached is my personal documentation, XXXX XXXX XXXX documentation, and documentation directly from AES. 
In reference to this loan XX/XX/XXXX the loan went into repayment status, XX/XX/XXXX the loan went into deferrement, XX/XX/XXXX the grace period ended.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief