Consumer complaint received 2017-10-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: DE
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:
First problem arose with Fed Loan last year when my loan fell out of a income based payment period. I never received a call, letter, nor e-mail of this. It was only two months past when I noticed the issue on my account. So, I reapplied as soon as I noticed once I checked my account. Few months later however I realize they reported me on my credit being 90 days late on my payments on {$0.00}! I spoke to them and they refuse to remove the marks saying do n't worry it will come off in seven years! This was after they told me previously that they never reported it and then the next time I call on the same issue they said they could. Okay, so super annoyed I pay off one of my loans just so I can not deal with these people longer then I have to. I realize after my payment was received it still had the loan as showing XXXX XXXXXXXXs owed, I thought that was strange so I just pay it again. Still weeks later still showed open with XXXX owed. I called up and ask why and they tell me it was over payment? I said well I paid what it said to pay on the website. They tell me they now have to put in a request to change and have the over payment applied to the other loans and then I 'll get a paid in full status but it will be another month! The worker told me that next time I have to call first and request a pay off balance since the website would be wrong. I said okay well I want to pay off this other small loan right now. So she gives me an amount to pay and I pay it. I thought everything was fine until a few weeks go by and the same exact thing happens even though I did exactly what the employee told me to pay. So now I am stuck with two over payments that they need to fix. I wait the month they told me and still see no change. No pay-off, still the over payment! I ask to speak to a manager and she finally two months later has to escalate the issue to get this reported right! My credit goes up in the next two months from XXXX to XXXX. Then I get a letter from them stating paid in full for said loans almost three months after the fact. The very next day however I get a notification on my credit alert saying my credit dropped by XXXX points! So not only did I get hit for them reporting me as 90 days late but then I get another hit for paying the loans off! They told me they never heard such a thing happening and they have NO IDEA WHY!! On the same exact call the worker says that my income based payment is coming out of the policy period and I need to reapply and he would send me information how to do that on XXXX XXXX when the gentlemen sent me the inbox to my account. Then on XXXX XXXX I get a notice in my inbox that the income based repayment request was denied because it was sent in TO EARLY!!!!!!!!! I then call them back up asking why it was declined when I applied under direction of them to do so. The worker had no idea so he escalated the call to a manager. The manager acknowledges that in fact the worker put in notes that he told me to apply and she apologized for his misinformation. She then told me she was really sorry I was getting all of these false information noted on my account and that I would not have to reapply that it would go through just fine. Well now XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I get a message my application was denied because they never got it! I now owed {$44.00}. Not wanting to deal with any more chaos with these people I made two payments in total of {$100.00} targeted to my one loan. NOWHERE on this letter did it not say I could not target one specific loan nor does it on the payment screen. It just says {$44.00} due. Which I did! I call up to see why it still shows  money due on the three remaining loans and they tell me that it does not count because it was a " targeted loan payment ''!!! No where does it say anything about having to be that way in the first place! They give me to a manager and he apologizes and admits to no information being on the repayment paperwork as being specific. I mentioned that I should not even be in repayment because of the income based loan to begin with and told them about the previous call. Apparently the last manager again gave me false information that they acknowledge but say they ca n't fix any of this even though they admit to this being their fault! I now have to reapply again and still have to pay the additional {$44.00} in the mean time even though they already had well over that for this month! Every single time I talk to these people they give out false information and misleading information and can not help people at all. He told me this was one of a hundred people he has spoken with today with the same complaints! It deceptive and unfair!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation