Consumer complaint received 2020-01-11
Company: TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC
State: VA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Lending Institution : XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX Loan Servicer : University Accounting Service , LLC Both the lending institution and loan servicer have been complicit in withholding funds that have been owed to me for nearly six months. 

I refinanced away from this lending institution, and a check was sent for the full amount of my loan. I paid off the loan in full and overpaid by an amount of {$290.00}. My account shows a negative balance that reflects that this is the amount owed back to me. 

The loan servicer indicated that refunds are processed in 8-10 weeks. I diligently followed up with both the loan servicer and lending institution around this time to see 1 ) when the amount would be refunded and 2 ) where the refund would be issued ( bank account, check mailed, etc. ) I followed up again at 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks, and 18 weeks  time, when no refund had been issued. Both the loan servicer and lending institution indicated the refund was the responsibility of the other company. The bank 's customer service is essentially nonexistent and the people I've interacted were either incompetent or intentionally evasive. The loan servicer customer service was more cordial - at least - but equally unable to resolve the issue. Most recently, the loan servicer said that they only had the ability to flag the issue to the bank, who would have to issue the refund themselves. The servicer said they flagged it to the bank more than two months ago. The bank has not issued a refund. The loan servicer now appears to be ignoring my written support requests, and their customer service line often boasts two-hour-long wait periods, making speaking to a representative difficult to do. I had to give up after 85 minutes holding on Week 20 of non-payments. And please note - I have spoken to them on five separate instances and no one has resolved this issue ... so my willingness to reach out is in decline.

WE ARE NOW 21 WEEKS REMOVED FROM MY OVERPAYMENT AND NO REFUND HAS BEEN ISSUED. Loan overpayment is not a uncommon occurrence - interest continues to accrue daily, so when people refinance, they try to get their new lender to issue the correct " payoff '' amount ( something which XXXX and UAS do not clearly provide ), but sometimes a slight under or overpayment occurs. 

If lenders continue to charge interest and expect on-time payment month in and month out, why are they unable to return funds to consumers when they are owed back? Are they incapable of paying their own debts? It's an abhorrent double standard and this lender has been completely negligent. The fact that there is no standardized system to return funds to consumers for a type of overpayment that happens often simply baffles me. Their predatory variable rate student loans are bad enough - hard to understand what you're getting into as an XXXX year old, but I was fortunate enough through refinance to rid myself of debt to this unethical organization, but they've apparently made it their mission not to honor their own debts. 

I am writing this to hopefully resolve the ongoing issue with both the lending institution and loan servicer, and hopefully highlight to others that this lender does not have students best interests in mind.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation