Consumer complaint received 2016-10-05
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC (IL)

I have been having problems with the company that is collecting my XXXX loan since I entered in to repayment status. I have been given the run-around with how to make payments over and over. My account is being handled by Heartland ECSI. My account is billing with a {$90.00} installment due quarterly. I have been trying to pay this account monthly and each time I contact Heartland I 'm told something different on how to set this up. I tried setting up auto-withdraw installments to come out quarterly for the bill amount due of {$90.00} online. Everything seemed to be squared away, then {$90.00} started coming out of my account monthly and I was told I could n't be refunded for the extra payment and it could n't be applied to my next payment. I had to call several times to " correct '' this problem and eventually a customer service representative set my account to withdraw {$30.00} a month which would equal the {$90.00} quarterly installment. When the first installment did n't come out of my bank account I check my loan account and I had received an NSF fee and my payment came back as unpaid. I contacted my bank since I had money in my account for this payment and they said they never received a draft request. I tried to contact Heartland and was put on hold for over 45 minutes so I contacted my school, where the loan was distributed. They could not figure out what was going on at first and actually had to work on it and call me back. I was being charged extra fees by Heartland above what the NSF fee and late fee should have been and they could n't figure out why the draft did n't get paid. My school eventually discovered that the customer service person had entered my account info incorrectly and worked everything out taking off the NSF fee and letting me make a payment with them over the phone. I was never told why Heartland was trying to charge me extra fees in the first place but they had been taken care of so I was n't too concerned at this point. My school stated that Heartland was very difficult to work with and they were n't sure why they are using them as a collector. After receiving several other weird statements and bills and making several other phone calls with Heartland trying to set up a monthly payment that never really happened, I decided to try it again on my own online and go back to the {$30.00} a month plan that customer service had told me to do if I wanted to pay monthly. I had a payment due XXXX XXXX and missed the date to get an XXXX installment withdrew so set up for XXXX and figured I would just change to {$60.00} for XXXX XXXX withdraw and change back to {$30.00} after to make sure the {$90.00} was paid on XXXX XXXX. I logged back in to my account after the payment went through to change back to a {$30.00} installment and see that my account shows I have {$30.00} still due. I contacted Heartland to make sure this would be updated and was told that my {$30.00} would not be applied to by XXXX payment, that I still owed {$30.00}, and that no one had ever told me that it was OK to make {$30.00} a month payments. I asked for my payment to be returned then so I could " repay '' the {$30.00} due and it would be applied to my bill and was told I had to contact my school. I have not yet contacted my school but was told last time I had to contact them that they do not handle the payments and that Heartland has to offer me a monthly auto payment method and I am at a loss to how they can take my money but not apply it to my payment due???