Consumer complaint received 2017-04-07
Company: TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC
State: NJ
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint:
I have had an account with Transworld systems inc for years now to pay off my XXXX school loan and since the beginning have had nothing but a terrible experience. First of all, I 'm a XXXX, I do not make an hourly and when my account was open at XXXX years old - I did n't hAve the means to pay a XXXX $ debt over night. You 'd think they 'd have some compassion for a child, on her own working to take care of herself. No. From the beginning people were incorrectly charging me ( double charged me twice in a row ) and although they fixed it when I caught the double charges they never truly stayed on top of my account as they promised they would. Since then, we 've had tons of issues all due to miscommunication with the company. The number I 'd call to for schedualing my year round payments ( from there mailing letters ) was wrong and took me to a company who stated, " this happens a lot I 'm not sure why they have n't released a new number but we 'll email them to let them know you 've tried to get in contact. '' That company emailed them a total of three times for me. It took me months to Figure out how to get in contact with them to renew my year of payments ( since the pryer year was up and you can only book a years worth of payments at a time ) and when I finally did they said I accumulated more interest from the months of me not paying ( when they were literally no where to be found it took the old company emailing them and hunting them down to get a number for me to call ). So I bit the bullet, higher the amount I was paying a month to show initiative and kept making my payments on time as usual. For months now I 've been trying to pay my account in full to close the account at an attempt to settle. When I first tried I only owed about 2800 $ but they insisted I pay double that in interest plus my tuition left from the school loan. Of course I could n't afford that, so i paid my monthly amount instead. The second time I called because I notice my balance was getting higher not lower, they said it 's the interest and said if I paid in full they could waive it, at the time I was switching job and was n't able to pay the XXXX $ they said I 'd have to, so again I just made my monthly payment. All the while I was working with the same man, XXXX XXXX, with these settlements. So, using the number I had been calling for months, I tried again to see if my balance had lowered so I could pay in full and close the account. Teds number was n't working. That to me was very shady since I had already spoke to a lawyer who told me it was ridiculous they were n't trying to make a settlement with me since their job is to close the account and was I sure this was a legit debt collecter. I immediately called again and spoke to two reps and a " supervisor '' who just so happen " did n't have the authority to make any calls on accounts '', which I 'm sure was actually just a receptionist because obviously supervisors have authority to do such things. He sent me to about three different voicemails, all of which I left messages on. As a matter of fact, I 've probably left about XXXX messages in total this week alone all through out the company trying to speak with someone who would authorize me paying my now balance of XXXX. The " supervisor '' said I 'd have to pay XXXX , how could that be? What is my insterest at 40 %? How 's my interest more than the amount I owe? And how is the number larger than it was before now after I 've paid more into the loan? That 's when it hit me, they WANT me to stay on payment plans so that the interest accumulates and I 'm forced to continuing paying monthly for years which they make money on. I 'm so beyond tried with working with this shady, incompetent staff, tossing me from person to person, lying, not knowing anything about my account and taking advantage of a young girl trying to pay of her debt!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation