Consumer complaint received 2017-01-17
Company: GREAT LAKES
State: DE
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint:
I took out a student loan through Great Lakes to help fund my schooling a few semesters ago. I am still in school and did not expect my loans to start until after i graduated. I am presently looking to buy a home and when my credit was checked by a mortgage lender in XX/XX/XXXX he told me I had a XXXX credit which did not surprise me since I have never been late on a payment and I am also signed up with XXXX XXXX to allow me to keep up with my score. A couple months ago ( around XXXX XXXX I received an email from XXXX explaining to me that my credit score had drop drastically so I immediately looked to see what had happened and it showed that Great Lakes had reported that I was XXXX - 110 days late on my payment that had dragged my credit score down to a low XXXX score. I called Great Lakes and asked why they reported that I had not paid my payment when I had never received XXXX. They proceeded to tell me that they had started sending my bills around XX/XX/<YYYY> and I had not paid them. I then asked them to read me off the information they had for me in their system. They had an incorrect email address ( XXXXXXXXXXXX instead of XXXXXXXXXXXX ) I had never had the email address in their files since it was incorrect by XXXX number. They also had an invalid home address ( even though they claimed to have only billed me by email address anyway XXXX. I never received a phone call letting me know my bill was late they just reported me so I asked them to re-assess my credit score and I paid what I owed them. About a month later I received another email telling me I was a couple days late on another XXXX of their payments so I called Great Lakes again and asked them why they also had me late on my XX/XX/XXXX bill and the woman on the phone told me that had, yet again, that Great Lakes had sent the XX/XX/XXXX bill to the incorrect email address even after I had called XXXX plus days prior to correct it in their system. While I was on the phone I asked the woman about the credit re-assessment as well and she told me it was denied. I asked her why and she said " I do n't know that 's just what it says ''. I then went through XXXX XXXX and filed a dispute against the company reporting that I never received a bill and that they had incorrect information on file. About a month later the dispute had been completed and it said that my credit score would not be changed. The reason said " company being disputed against disagreed. '' I called XXXX XXXX to ask why they did not find Great Lakes in fault for the late payment and the woman on the phone told me that Great Lakes had informed them that none of my story was correct so XXXX XXXX pretty much took their word for it and completed the investigation. I then told XXXX XXXX my entire side of the story and asked them to re open the investigation. XXXX - 20 days later I received a letter in the mail saying that again they were not taking the late payment off. I do not even think they re opened the dispute. I looked over the detailed paperwork and it showed Great Lakes had " OK '' for the bill that was not even billed to me, according to Great Lakes, at the time under XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX and then reported me XXXX days late in XX/XX/XXXX when they claimed they did not even bill me until XX/XX/XXXX and I reached out to them in early XX/XX/XXXX so it again shows Great Lakes ' mistakes since it was impossible for me to be XXXX late on their bill in XX/XX/XXXX. None of these companies have helped me in anyway with this situation so I was hoping the CFPB could. I have had a perfect credit score until now and I would really appreciate if you could resolve this.

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