Consumer complaint received 2024-04-23
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (NC)

I refinanced my federal student loans privately with XXXX ( now Firstmark Services ) in XXXX. My loan was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for the amount of {$190000.00}. I consistently made my student loan payment of approximately {$2000.00} per month every month and in a timely manner. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I lost my job and was able to request forbearances with Firstmark in XXXX month intervals. I had no issue requesting these forbearances or getting them processed up until XXXX XXXX. 

In XXXX XXXX I requested a forbearance over the phone in the same process and manner I had done in the months prior. Yet, the forbearance for some reason did not post to my account " due to a computer error '' and the money was nevertheless taken out of my account via auto debit. As I was unemployed, my account was overdrawn. Firstmark literally took the last of my savings. When I called Firstmark they immediately recognized the forbearance should have been posted to my account and said they would issue me a refund. It took SEVERAL weeks and phone calls, but I finally received the money back in my account. At that time the forbearance still wasn't posted to my account ( despite meeting the qualifications for a forbearance and being told it should reflect the forbearance ), so I was advised by Firstmark to turn off auto debit to ensure the issue doesn't happen again while the issue with their computer system remained unresolved.I called several times to figure out when the problem would be fixed to no avail. 

Believing ( despite the computer issue ) that my issue with the forbearance was applied through XXXX during the appropriate 3-month interval, I did not make any payments to Firstmark during that time XXXX I was still unemployed. In the first week of XXXX I received a call from Firstmark 's payment/collections department. They told me my account was past due for the ENTIRE amount of the loan remaining. In other words, they believed I owed them ~ {$150000.00}. I explained the entire issue to someone there who could see the forbearance still was not applied to the account despite the fact that it should be. At this time, she suggested re-requesting a forbearance to see if she could get it processed and posted to the account this time. I went through the process of re-requesting a forbearance including having the relevant disclosures read to me and me acknowledging/agreeing I understood them.

I followed up about one month later in XXXX. I was trying to figure out the status of my forbearance, namely, if I needed to request a new XXXX ( I was not sure if the prior forbearance from XXXX was being applied forward or backward or if the term had expired ) and to figure out what was going on with my account. At this time I was told I did not need to worry about the forbearance issue because the account was now in an " administrative forbearance '' until the issues associated with it ( including the past due amount which should not exist ) is resolved. I was also told the account was being suppressed so the information would not be reported to a credit agency. 

I called again a few weeks later but was told the account still was not fixed and to just wait for them to resolve it. Unfortunately this was not the case. At the beginning of XXXX I received a call from Firstmark 's collections team saying my account was past due XXXX days - or with a due date of XX/XX/XXXX. As stated above, I did not refinance this loan with Firstmark until XXXX. I was still in school in XXXX and some of the federal loans had not even been taken out yet in XXXX. The collections team stated they would work on the issue and " escalate '' the tickets submitted on my behalf to get it fixed. When I called back and spoke with someone else, they said they followed up on the tickets but the " processing team '' does not view my issue as a " priority. '' To not be a priority even though I had been fielding calls from Firstmark 's COLLECTIONS team about an account improperly past due from a date XXXX YEARS BEFORE I EVER HAD A LOAN WITH THEM ... it is unacceptable. 

I have followed up numerous times with Firstmark since the issues first arose back in XXXX. Firstmark just continues to tell me they are " submitting tickets '' to get it fixed and have no timeline of when the problem will be resolved. I called again today and was on the phone for one hour, was transferred 3-4 times, and still no one could offer me anything more than " I'm sorry but we've submitted tickets. '' They are assuring me the suppression is protecting my credit, but I do not trust them AT ALL to not screw that up either. I have wasted so much time and energy just trying to get my account back to normal so I can resume making payments. I have probably spoken on the phone with them about this issue at least 20 times. I have explained that I can not make payments ( now that I have a job ) because instead of making my monthly payments ( and paying extra to lower the principal ) I would be attempting to pay off the past due amount of XXXX. I'd be paying their collections department. The account doesn't even reflect the monthly payment in some places. I am also concerned about the amount of interest being added to my account from XXXX through Present, given I have NO control over these issues. 

Firstmark refuses to take action and actually fix this and it is very frustrating when I just want to pay my student loans. Every complaint I make falls on deaf ears and the lender does not care AT ALL about its customers. I am also scared to death that due to their incompetence they will report this issue to a credit agency or " fix '' the account but still consider it past due in some way.