Consumer complaint received 2017-01-12
Company: GRANITE STATE MANAGEMENT & RESOURCES
State: GA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Having problems with customer service

Complaint:
Greetings, I am writing you as I have already made several phone calls and I feel that I am starting to exhaust every avenue available to me. 

I will get directly to the point. I have a student loan that was opened through Granite State Management Resources ( GSMR ) that I opened in XX/XX/XXXX. That loan is currently in Good Standing, and under the Income Driven Repayment Plan. However, I have a number of late payments that are showing up on my credit report from this loan. These late payments occurred because I had a family member kill herself by suicide in XX/XX/XXXX, after a long struggle of mental illness. As a result, I received custody of her XXXX year old son only 3 weeks after her death. Taking a child in who is from an abused and neglected home has been harder than I ever imagined. At the time I was completely unaware and was never educated on when these student loans came out of deferment, and I was never counseled on the options to keep the loan in deferment/forbearance while grieving and trying to care for a new child in our family. After several months of going back and forth with the collections department, I finally discovered the option to put the loan into the Income Driven Repayment plan. I still however, did not realize that the single payments I had been making were for XXXX different loans, and that each loan would show derogatory marks on my credit during my hardship. I was never advised on loan consolidation, therefore my credit was hit multiple times for the same late payment. 

I am not disputing the fact that these payments were late. I am simply writing this letter in hopes of receiving a good will gesture from GSMR. I have worked extremely hard to get back on my feet and repair my credit. I am at a point now where our family is growing and my husband and I are attempting to buy a house. Having these late payments on my credit report is making it very difficult for me to get financing for a home. As I said, I understand why these late payments are reporting, but I do not feel that they truly reflect my credit worthiness and my true payment pattern. Things would have been much different if I had been counseled and made aware of my repayment options and loan consolidation. 

I am asking, as a good will gesture, that these late payments please be removed from all three credit bureaus. I have taken the time to educate myself on how to avoid this from happening in the future, I have taken responsibility, and I have worked extremely hard at bringing all of my loans current and keeping up a steady pattern of positive payments after the Income Driven Repayment period ends in XX/XX/XXXX. I know a lot of borrowers have struggled immensely at making timely payments and settling on fair repayment agreements with lenders over the last few years, and I would like to think that I am in the minority of people who have taken the time and effort to straighten my situation out with little to no help from anyone but myself. Hopefully my efforts will be rewarded and you can see fit to remove these late payments from the three credit reports. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation