Consumer complaint received 2017-10-16
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern : I am writing with regard to the mishandling of my student loans by XXXX XXXX XXXX Their application of my payments extended the duration of the loans and therefore caused additional interest to accrue. When I noticed the error, I worked to resolve the overpayment on my loans. I was repeatedly misled with regard to the actions that were being taken to resolve this, and despite repeated requests for an accounting of how my payment were applied, I received no information. 
I held four loans with XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have two remaining. I numbered the loans based on the loan sequence numbers used by the customer service operators. 
Loan 1 was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$5500.00} at a fixed interest rate of 5.75 %. The website shows a balance of {$2400.00}.
Loan 2 was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2000.00} at a fixed interest rate of 6.55 %. I paid this loan in full from my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. The total loan payoff was {$900.00}.
Loan 3 was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$7000.00} at a fixed interest rate of 6.55 %. I paid this loan in full on XX/XX/XXXX. The total loan payoff was {$0.00}. This loan sat a balance of approximately {$0.00} to {$0.00} for 23 months. I paid a total of {$9100.00} toward this loan, which highest balance ( principal and interest ) owing was {$7800.00}. I have overpaid on this loan by {$1300.00}. During the 23 months that this loan sat at {$.00}, interest continued to accrue on all four loans, and my overpayment was not applied to any of the three other loans. This overpayment is the root of my concern.
Loan 4 was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$5500.00} at a fixed interest rate of 5.35 %. The website shows a balance of {$2200.00}.
In early XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX to ask why Loan 4 was showing a balance for nearly two years of {$0.00} and why my payment due was showing a negative number. I was informed that that I needed to select the Loan Payoff button on their website and make a payment outside the regular automatic payments and that this loan was in paid ahead status until XX/XX/XXXX. I stated that I didnt not want to be in pay ahead status and would like the full amount of my loan installment taken from my checking account each month. I followed the instruction given and clicked the loan payoff button. It instructed me to pay {$0.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX, the funds were taken from my checking account to pay off this loan. Between my transaction history from XXXX  website I viewed on XX/XX/XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX, there are strange discrepancies. Today, I can not pull this transaction history. The website reads that the loan is paid in full and directs me to contact customer service. 
After I paid off the .XXXX cents, the first operator asked if I would like to remove paid ahead status. I said yes, and she asked to put me on a brief hold at which she disconnected the call completely. I called back immediately and asked to be taken off paid ahead status. The operator stated that I was not in paid ahead status, and there was no overpayment on any of the loans. I was concerned as there were no changes to the other three loans and asked him to please email me a record of all transactions and the ammorization table for all my loans. He stated that he could not send transactions via e-mail and that my loan payment were not ammortized. I asked him to please mail me a summary of the transactions. At that time, I became even more concerned that this operator would not be able to assist me and asked to speak to a supervisor. I stated that I was concerned that if my loan payment were not applied properly that I would be paying more interest. He put me a on hold. Upon his return, he then offered to give me {$250.00} to apply to the balance of any of the loans I chose. I asked him where he got this figure and he stated he couldnt say. I stated that this didnt seem right. I paid the second loan off in full that evening as I wanted to shorthen the time I had to do business with this organization. I regret not recording the employee ID of this person. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I still had not received the Account Summary in the mail. I called and spoke with XXXX ( employee id : XXXX ) who stated that the statement of account would be emailed to me, not mailed. Since I continued to get a different and confusing answer each time that I called, I decided to contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In order to draft this complaint, I called back XXXX XXXX XXXX that day to ask if I was still in paid ahead status. I spoke with XXXX ( employee id : XXXX ), who stated it was beneficial to be in paid ahead status. She stated that she would assist me with correcting the account. I stated that I was paid ahead at the time of paying off Loans 2 and 3, and that I overpaid on loan 3 by at least {$1300.00}. She stated that she understood my problem and would ask the processing department to please review the accurracy of loans 2 and 3 for overpayment. I asked her what would happen if I paid off Loan 1 and 4 tomorrow. She stated that any overpayment would be applied in or refunded 30 days after overpayment. She also stated that she would mail be a statement of all my accounts. I still have never received any mail from XXXX XXXX XXXX. I verified the mailing address more than three times. On XX/XX/XXXX, there is still no resolution. 

I have only attached the loan with the overpayment but would be able to furnish any banking or additional loan information that may be helpful.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation