Consumer complaint received 2024-10-02
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: SOFI TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (NY)

I took out a personal loan from SoFi in XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, I unknowingly " refinanced '' the loan when I upsized it, which I later learned started the loan term over. I learned this information in XX/XX/XXXX when I called looking for help as I was in financial hardship, My father had passed suddenly and I was taking care of my mother, so was looking for some cooperation from SoFi to help me. They declined, as my loan was not " old enough '' despite me not receiving that direct disclosure in XXXX, and I accepted the response. 
In XX/XX/XXXX, when the loan was finally old enough, I called back asking for hardship help. I was approved for an " Interest Only '' payment modification plan, and as I enrolled, I flagged to the representative that I planned to pay my outstanding balance shortly thereafter, which she responded affirmatively to. I paid the " past due '' amount on XX/XX/XXXX, within the 30 days of the due date. My next " Interest Only '' payment was due XX/XX/XXXX. I was a bit behind on that payment ( again, within 30 days ) and was shocked when on XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at my XXXX report to find that my credit had dropped close to XXXX points. This is because I was marked 31 days late on my payment on my personal loan. I thought it had to be a mistake, so I called SoFi directly, only to find out that my XXXX payment that I had paid on XX/XX/XXXX had actually gone forward to my XXXX payment ( the interest portion only, to be clear ). That meant that my XXXX payment was sitting incomplete in the ether. 
I was very angry because this quirk about paying interest forward into the program rather than settling up a past due amount was never communicated to me directly, and when I made the payment on XX/XX/XXXX, I selected the option on my XXXX app to pay a " Past Due '' amount, not an amount due on XX/XX/XXXX. As angry as I was, on XX/XX/XXXX, I paid the {$280.00} by clicking " Pay Past Due Amount '' on my app. On Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, I went to pay my next payment and also took a peek into my XXXX report, and was shocked to see I was now marked 60 days late. I went into my SoFi app, selected, once again " Pay Past Due Amount '' and I called up immediately and was told that my payment that day had now been credited forward to my payment due on XX/XX/XXXX. The representative I spoke to explained the situation to me thoroughly and while I understood her stance, I noted that the website and XXXX app continually prompted me to pay a " Past Due '' amount, which I continued to select. I was not consenting to have these payments be reallocated behind the scenes to forward looking due dates. In addition, the Hardship Team continued to tell me that this was how the program worked but when I reviewed the document that I signed ( the Loan Modification Agreement ), all it says is that any amount due when enrolling in the program is still due. This is why I paid my full loan amount on XX/XX/XXXX- I was under the impression I could get my account current by paying the full amount and had no idea that the interest portion was going to be paid forward. 
I submitted a written dispute - a 15 page letter with screenshots of the app and the website showing that the issue was on both parties. Sure, SoFi can argue that I am " delinquent '' but I am delinquent because of the shortcomings of their platform. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I received confirmation of receipt of my dispute and almost instantly, recieved a decline stating in which it lazily quoted the passage in the Loan Agreement that only noted that the past due amounts are still past due upon enrollment.

In addition, SoFi provides no contact information for the Dispute Team - I am rendered totally helpless as a customer recieving rude responses to my very carefully thoughtout dispute letter and think there should be ways to escalate this because the individual who recieved my dispute did not address any of the issues I showed including those about SoFi 's own platform and my confusion.

I am filing a complaint because I feel that SoFi is conducting some shady activity as it relates to its customers- they withhold contact information and have opaque disclosures and overall do not give information proactively. It took me calling four separate times, for an hour and fifteen minutes each time to be heard. SoFi needs to be investigated as a financial instution.