Consumer complaint received 2019-10-22
Company: Student Loan Financial Assistance
State: TN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019, I received a call from XXXX processing department stating that there was a change with my student loan account and that I qualified for the pay-as-you-earn payment plan and to call XXXX with reference # XXXX. Which I thought was legit because I remember receiving a notification months ago stating that I did qualify for that plan from XXXX XXXX XXXX ( my loan provider ). So I called and gave my reference number and they got my information to confirm I was eligible for the plan, which included my employer and gross annual pay. As well as my email ( which I guess they assumed was my email associated with my fafsa account ). And then they reset my fafsa password which is where I assume they got my address, SSN and all personal information. The call actually dropped then and I went back to work and the representative called back with the number XXXXand gave me ANOTHER number to call in the voicemail, XXXX. So I called that one and asked for that specific rep. The reason why i thought everything was believable was because they had all of that information and they were repeating it back to me, but thinking about it, I dont believe a service provider would require for you to reset your FSA password. They sent me an email with a contract for me to sign, it was kind of sketchy because he was kind of rushing it, but I made sure I skimmed through it to make sure I wasnt signing anything that wasnt right. Which I did ask questions about the contract and the content and the operator did have well thought out answers for my questions so I thought it was no problem. One red flag was after I signed it, they told me to contact my bank and tell them to not allow XXXX XXXX XXXX to take money out of my account and to NOT contact my previous provider ( XXXX ). But I did because I was sketched out, and the information the SLFA company, which I believe it student loan financing assistance, was apparently incorrect when it came to the amount that I owed which I confirmed with XXXX. AlsoFLS assured me that third party consumers and scams would ask for a fee, but that was one thing SLFA did not mention. Upon further review of the contract, the {$190.00} a month for the next 3 months and the next {$47.00} for the next year are the fees, for them helping me, which it states in the contract. Now I believe have been scammed and with that contract they had me sign, I did give them my checking account number and routing number to my bank so they have my bank information with a set payment due for XX/XX/XXXX of {$190.00}. I tried contacting the company to revoke services but I got to someone, they referred me to someone else, then was transferred between 3 people then eventually got disconnected due to me being transferred to an extension that did not exist. Then called back again, same first guy answered and asked who I worked with before, I told him, and apparently the representative who helped me is always really busy. So the issue has not been resolved. Its always an inconvenient time. At this point, they have ALL of my personal information when all I have them myself was how and where I get my income, email, and a small confirmation code to open my fafsa account that was sent to my phone.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation