Consumer complaint received 2017-04-16
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan — Can't get flexible payment options
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (CT)

As every other american in this country who on a daily basis chases the American Dream, I went to a four-year university. After being promised all the financial aid in the world, unfortunately, I was forced to apply for all types of loans, especially private loans. After graduating and obtaining a XXXX in XXXX, One lender, Nelnet Educational Student Loans ( Private lender ) has been difficult to deal with for the past 10 years. For this 10-year period, this lender has reported the same account negatively on my credit report every month consistently. The first loan I took out with them was back in XX/XX/XXXX and since then, they have harrassed me, threatened me with all types of " legal activity '' and " wage garnishments '' and even some racial profiling in some instances with comments like " you people take out these loans and then complain about it later when you are stuck paying for it '' in order to claim the payment for the {$26.00}, xxx that is owed to them. 

Since graduating in XX/XX/XXXX, I have been through hard times which caused me to be in-consistent with paying back my debt. That being said, I have been dealing with several lenders which have in most cases accepted " settlement offers '' to close out the accounts. Nelnet on the other hand, has been calling me 40 times a day trying to collect payment. 

For the past two years, I have been more responsible than ever with getting my loans on track and paid accordingly in order to clean up my credit history and start on a clean slate. 

10 years later, Nelnet refuses to take any type of monthly payment that is not past {$600.00} a month ( which I can not afford to pay ). On top of the fact that since this account was initiated, the balance has never gone down. Is it even legal for Nelnet to report on to the main credit bureau after 10 years? Additionally, the interest rates on these loans is astronomical! I would be paying these loans off until I am 94 years old. 

This past week, I called Nelnet to ask for a settlement offer so I can stop all the calls, mail and annoying remarks on my credit report every XX/XX/XXXX. Unlike XXXX who I gladly worked out incredible settlements with, Nelnet does not initiate a settlement. Basically what they do is find out what the desperate consumer is willing to pay so then they counter offer that number with a 50-60 % increase so in the long run, the consumer sticks the nail in their own coffin. When speaking directly to management at Nelnet, they often say " we are a private lenders therefore abide by own rules - we are not XXXX or any of those guys '' etc. 
All I want is to settle my accounts being that I can not afford to pay them in full, clean my credit and live a healthy life with the little that I make/have. 

The interesting part of all this is that Nelnet has their own in-house collection company which also abides by their own rules. First Mark Services is the collection agency that calls, emails, harasses and preys on people like me. 

I guess this is how they add to the {$1.00} Trillion dollar student loan debt pot. I am not sure who enforces these private lending companies but they need to get investigated. Thousands of dollars and people are going through this issue daily, monthly, yearly and even more sadly, decades.