Consumer complaint received 2024-10-08
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (SC)

Since XX/XX/XXXX, I have been fighting with customer service representatives from Firstmark Services about the inaccuracies of my current billing. No matter how many documents I try to share, any numbers I use, or math I share with them, no one will listen to my complaint and rectify the mistake. And this is truly such a simple, easy mistake to fix! Since making an installment and monthly payment arrangement with my original loan company ( Firstmark Services bought the debt in XXXX ), my monthly installment payments have ALWAYS been {$270.00}. For the XXXX loans that I have,XXXX ) First loan has a fixed interest rate of XXXX %, with XXXX installments remaining, XXXX ) Second loan has a XXXX % fixed interest rate, with XXXX installments remaining, and XXXX ) Third loan has a XXXX  % fixed interest rate, with XXXX installments remaining. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I needed to file for forbearance, due to my husband having major XXXX XXXX and we would be down to XXXX income for many months to come. I was on forbearance for XXXX months and returned to paying the loan for the months of XXXX and XXXX in XXXX. Both XXXX and XXXX 's statement reflected my original monthly payment amount of {$270.00}. I filed again for forbearance for the installment payments for the months of XXXX, XXXX and XXXX of XXXX. I received a billing statement for the month of XXXX, also reflecting my original monthly payment of {$270.00}, but still could not fully afford to make payments. I selected to do XXXX more round of forbearance. This last round lasted through XX/XX/XXXX. My next payment would have been for XX/XX/XXXX. 

All together, I had only been in forbearance for a total of 10 months. I do recognize that interest still accrues during these times so, naturally, I would have somewhat of an increase to my monthly payment that would reflect the accrued interest. In fact, every billing statement that I received while in forbearance would share an optional interest payment to keep my payment from increasing when I returned to regular monthly payments. The last statement I received, while in forbearance, was on XX/XX/XXXX. That statement reflected an " optional interest payment amount '' of {$580.00} : XXXX ) {$330.00} in interest for the first loan, XXXX ) {$170.00} in interest for the second loan, and XXXX ) {$72.00} in interest for the third loan. I chose not to make the optional interest payment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I returned to making monthly installment payments and received my first billing statement for that. However, the bill was completely wrong. In the section where it is marked " regular monthly payment '', the payment amount changed from {$270.00} to {$580.00}. That is the exact same amount that I was being charged for an optional interest payment. To help me verify this mistake, I checked the breakdown of each loan and sure enough : {$330.00} for loan XXXX, {$170.00} for loan XXXX, and {$72.00} for loan XXXX. Each number, to the XXXX, from the " optional interest payment '' amount from the XX/XX/XXXX statement. How can {$790.00} in capitalized interest cause my monthly payments to jump more than {$300.00} with fixed interest rates???? 

I called customer service and explained the issue. They shared that they would forward this complaint to the billing department and would have someone from billing reach out to me so we could get this resolved. Waited XXXX weeks and received nothing. No calls, no emails, nor any correspondence through my online account. I called again and another person told me that billing said the numbers were right and that I am now past due on my payment. I tried reasoning with the person but they would not budge. Again, I asked for information on how the numbers changed so drastically and was again told that someone from billing would speak to me. Again, I waited XXXX weeks and no one ever reached out. 

I then started the same process, all over again, but through email. I also met with an accountant in my bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ), spoke with a credit union, and used loan payments websites, to get a better idea of what my payments should truly be. I tried attaching pdf documents to an email with Firstmark Services, but they have yet to respond to that email. They will respond to emails sent through their online portal. However, they do not give an option to attach documents. Again, I kept being told that the payment amount was correct, but this time because I was past due. 

I have tried multiple times, using multiple avenues to rectify this issue. They refuse to work with me. Only help I was offered was to speak with someone about changing my loan terms to easy the burden of such high payments. There is NO WAY I will give up my fixed interest rates, being they are already so low and the original payment amount was always very affordable.