Consumer complaint received 2023-03-20
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: VT
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
Nelnet has been my student loan servicer for many years. I've been consistent with payments. On XX/XX/XXXX my account had been changed to forbearance status. And, it was erroneously marked as past due by {$660.00}. A simple review of my past payment history ( up to date ) would show that this is not true. There'd been no communication from Nelnet about any issues with my account. 

Other than accidentally skipping my XX/XX/XXXX payment of the customary amount of {$110.00}, I have been up to date. I did not request a forbearance at any point. 

When I called the Nelnet service center on XX/XX/XXXX about this discovery, the employee was just as baffled by this sudden change and could provide no information. 

Here, I confess Id flubbed and missed my XX/XX/XXXX payment. But that missed payment should not account for what had been done to my account. And, after consulting two supervisors, the employee could provide no further insights. She did acknowledge that the changes to my account did not make sense ( even in light of the missing XXXX payment ). 

Further, it was discovered that Nelnet had notified the national credit reporting agencies on or around XX/XX/XXXX about this alleged past-due status and told the agencies my account was 120 days delinquent. My credit scores immediately decreased. 

I was urged by Nelnet to wait at least a week to receive any response from Nelnet ( either a phone call or other correspondence ) as to how they would fix this. 

By XX/XX/XXXX I received no response from Nelnet. When I called Nelnet, I was transferred to an associate named XXXX ( Clock ID badge XXXX ) who admitted there was an error committed by Nelnet to my account. She indicated that shed request the forbearance to be removed from my account and that it would " take some time '' for the correction to be communicated to the credit reporting bureaus which are unacceptable. 

Further, my monthly loan payment amount had inexplicably been changed to {$85.00}. ( My payment has always been {$110.00}. ) No explanation could be given for why my payment was changed to that lesser amount. 

Again, I was urged to wait for some time to elapse while this count is addressed internally by Nelnet. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my account is still listed as in forbearance. Not correct. The amount due is still listed as {$85.00}. Also, not correct. When I called Nelnet on that day, I was told by yet another employee that the forbearance isnt there and it was implied that itd take days for the change to show up on my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my Nelnet account showed a message that a repayment plan application had been received from me on XX/XX/XXXX. I never entered such an application. 

This is not acceptable. Further, no info was available as to why these changes had happened to my account in the first place. And, I was told that the credit reporting agencies would not be notified of the correction until the end of the month. 

To add insult to injury, I've been contacted by credit counselors ( ECMC ) at Nelnet 's urging because my account is delinquent. This is, of course, not true. Even with all this chicanery, I'm still paying my loan. 

I am not a deadbeat. Im a XXXX XXXX thats diligently protected her credit score. Its very frustrating to have a spurious error committed by an unthinking agency suddenly unravel years of my hard work. Communication with Nelnet has been confusing and not very user-friendly. 

I've had to put forth considerable effort to try to rectify the issue. All of the communication to do so had to be initiated by me. No communication from Nelnet regarding these issues ever came. No one can tell me specifically why this error happened and what's being done to keep it from happening again. No one has at the very least offered a sincere apology or acknowledged the considerable inconvenience this has caused me, especially with the credit reports/scores. They've created a huge mess with my scores and now I have to spend an incredible amount of time fixing their error. It angers me that they can create this error and take zero responsibility for fixing it and that the onus is entirely on me to manage it. n

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation