Consumer complaint received 2016-10-21
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Having problems with customer service

Complaint:
Back in XXXX, I signed for a student loan for what is now my ex-wife. We divorced in XXXX. I have already surrendered everything to her and I have already paid my obligated spousal support dues. However, now that my ex-wife has stopped going to school, Wells Fargo is contacting me to collect money for the student loans that my ex-wife took out. 

I understand that I signed for my ex-wife back when we were married. However, Wells Fargo has been damaging my credit report and is refusing to do anything but try and collect money from me without providing a shred of decency. To explain my plight as well as what I feel is their breaking the law, I will describe the issue in detail. 

I have recently received a notice from Wells Fargo stating that the account is in delinquent status and that I need to start paying the account. The problem is, I do n't receive any notices about the debt until it 's already delinquent. Because I have no contact with my ex-wife, I do n't even know if and when she stopped going to school. I even called Wells Fargo to try and figure out why they do n't send me any notices or call me until it is delinquent and their response was, " She is the primary source so we send her all the notices first. '' Although this may seem logical from their point of view, this is causing them to report 30 day late payments to my credit report before I 'm even notified that there is a payment due! 

That 's not the only issue either. They say that they ca n't get a hold of her to collect payments but when I attempt to provide them with my ex-wife 's information so they can contact her about this debt they refuse to accept it! So not only are they not informing me about a payment until it 's past due, they refuse to accept information that would assist them in collecting this debt! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. 

It does n't stop there either. Because they are attempting to collect from me, and because they are refusing freely given information about my ex-wife so they can collect from the actual beneficiary of this debt, I have asked if they can close the account out so that no more debt can be accumulated therefore only obligating me to what has already been borrowed and they are refusing to do so. How can this be? So they wo n't notify me about a pending debt until it 's already past due, wo n't accept information on the beneficiary to collect from, and wo n't close the account out but still want to hold me liable indefinitely even though I 'm divorced from the beneficiary? This just does n't sound right and I 'm almost positive it is illegal. 

At this point I am placing this matter in your hands so you can hopefully talk some sense into Wells Fargo. Although with what 's been going on recently with their opening fraudulent accounts I 'm not sure if they care about what they are doing to me and how they are causing me actual harm. If you can not assist me I will be forced to call a lawyer so I can sue them because this just ca n't be right. I 've already done what needed to be done to separate myself from my ex-wife and I 've already had to file bankruptcy because of how she left me with all the debt. I refuse to let Wells Fargo do more damage to me because of their refusal to see reason.

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