Consumer complaint received 2023-10-19
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: EdFinancial Services (DC)

Summary : I work for the XX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXXt and my employer makes student loan payments directly to EdFinancial on my behalf each month. Each month, the payment from my employer is twice the amount of my monthly payment obligation. EdFinancial has repeatedly failed to redistribute these payments across my loans in a way that ensures that I do not owe a residual balance each month, even after multiple calls where I was assured this was done. As a result of their incorrect assurances, I am delinquent on one of my loans. EdFinancial also outright refuses to automatically apply payments from my employer in a way that ensures that I do not owe additional money each month. They have told me I must call each month and request a redistribution. It is extremely difficult and time consuming to get in touch with a representative. 

Full Description of Problem : After student loan payments were restarted last month, I noticed that the payment from my employer was not applied to my loans evenly, and as a consequence, I owed a balance on my loan payments. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXXdfinancial to ask that my loan payment be spread evenly so that I do not have to pay extra each month. I received a callback 24 hours later. I was assured by an Edfinancial Representative that they would redistribute the payment from my employer to be applied to ensure no residual balance, and then the representative dropped off of the call. I had planned to also ask EdFinancial to please distribute future payments in a way that ensures no residual balance, but was unable due to the dropped call. When I checked a few days later, I learned that the payment was redistributed to all but one of my loans and leaving an ( approx ) {$21.00} balance. 

I called a second time on XX/XX/XXXX and received no call back. 

I called again on XX/XX/XXXX and received a callback on the XXXX. I asked again that the payment be spread to the final loan so that I did not have a balance. I was again assured that that was completed. I also asked if it was possible to please distribute future payments in a way that ensured that I did not owe a residual balance. The representative told me that they would not do that and that I would have to call each month to ask EdFinancial to redistribute the funds. I asked for a supervisor to please call me back to discuss what options are available. 

I called again on XX/XX/XXXX after not receiving a callback from a supervisor and received a call back from a representative on XX/XX/XXXX. I was assured that the money had been redistributed as requested and that a supervisor would called me back. I received a callback from a Supervisor on XX/XX/XXXX but was not able to answer as I was in a meeting. The Supervisor left me a message with a phone number that was supposed to enable me to call her directly, but the number only went to the main line and I was required to begin the entire process of requesting a supervisor callback all over again. 

Today I checked my account and not only was the payment not distributed to my final loan as promised, but that I am now delinquent ( approx {$21.00} ) in my loan payment as a consequence. 

I have called again but will be required to wait for a callback. I have also emailed XXXX to ask that they take the three actions requested below. Unfortunately, given my past experience, I am not hopeful that they will be responsive to my concerns.