Consumer complaint received 2015-05-17
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MD
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about my loan

Complaint:
I would like to report a case of student loan fraud by Wells Fargo Student Services. I recently graduated from XXXX University XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

I took out a loan with Wells Fargo in XXXX 2014 and contacted representatives with questions several times during my loan process. I was informed on several occasions that my loan would not accrue interests and that I was not permitted to make any payment on my loan amount until my 6 month deferment period was over. Specifically, I contacted Wells Fargo representatives twice and was explicitly informed that I was " not permitted '' to make any payments on my student loan while I was still enrolled in school. 

I called on XXXX separate occasions to verify this statement and this claim was never contradicted. I also asked to receive a copy of my promissory agreement to verify this claim and never received one. 

I finally reached a representative last week who informed me that not only had my loan been accruing interest, but that I was able to submit payments on my loan the entire time. 

Since then, I have contacted Wells Fargo several times, and none of my requests have been met. I am yet to receive a copy of my promissory agreement. I was informed that Wells Fargo management can not accept responsibility for their employees poor information and I was told that I most likely misunderstood the difference between the phrases " do not have to make payments '' and " can not make payments ''. However, on XXXX separate occasions I was specifically told I was " not permitted '' to make a payment, suggesting that it was their representatives who may have been confused about the meaning of the standard Wells Fargo verbiage. 

During several conversations with Wells Fargo management, they emphasized that their loan specialists most likely informed me that I was not " obligated '' to pay back a loan but could do so at any time. This was not the case, although the phrase " do n't have to pay off the loan while you are enrolled in school '' frequently came up. Although I explicitly asked about concurrently paying off my loan, this frequently repeated expression is potentially -- and likely intentionally -- misleading. The manager I spoke with informed me that an internal complaint is the " best they could do '' for my situation ; in the meantime, their confusion has cost me approximately {$1500.00} in interest-related fees on my loan. 

Furthermore, I am still unable to access my online account despite multiple calls to Wells Fargo technical support. I conduct online banking for all my other accounts, and do not have an issue accessing my Wells Fargo Mortgage online account. Essentially, this is not user error- I am specifically unable to access my student loan portal and have not received any support from Wells Fargo in this regard. 

My husband and I are both XXXX ; I recently transferred over tot he XXXX XXXX. While we understand consumer responsibility, we sought clarification on written documents throughout the process and received none. Additionally, we explicitly asked for additional information that we never received. My attempts at contacting management were infructuous at best ; I am still waiting on an email containing our promissory agreement as an attachment or a way to defray our interest by transmitting my husband 's military orders. 

I believe that Wells Fargo 's loan department is intentionally misleading potential customers and withholding information about the terms of their loans and hope this report can coerce Wells Fargo to clarify their lending practices and information dissemination.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation