Consumer complaint received 2024-02-03
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: EdFinancial Services (MI)

Ed Financial has been my student loan servicer for several years and I have had an online account with them for several years. Due to data limitations, the ED Financial website is unable to provide account history more than 12 months old ( which is absurd ) so I can not determine exactly when Ed Financial became my student loan servicer, but it was several years ago. 

Back in XX/XX/2023, I went to login to Ed Financial to confirm that my prior autopay information was up to date and discovered that I could not login, and also could not reset my password. Ed Financial 's website contains information on how to establish a new account, but this is targeted on the website for new borrowers or debtors who do not already have an Ed Financial account. As someone with an existing account and login, I did not believe that I needed to establish a new account ( since this would be totally redundant and nonsensical ). Although my browser and cell phone have retaineda saved login username and password ( which is evidence that I already have an established online account already ).

To fix this, I reached out to Ed Financial for assistance in accessing my account. I called them and had to wait XXXX hours on hold, before the phone line would be unilaterally disconnected. I requested a call back through the automated system that would save my place in line on XXXX separate days, and did not receive a single call back. Being desperate, on XX/XX/XXXX, I sent an email to them requesting a call back and specifically informed Ed Financial that my attempts to call them did not work because of the long hold times that result in disconnection, the failed attempts at receiving a call back, and my inability to login to be able to send them a message directly. I asked them in all capital letters to PLEASE CALL ME- and what did they do? On XX/XX/XXXX, they sent me a response in my online account without even attempting to contact me in any other manner, despite me telling them that I need their assistance logging in.Note that it took Ed Financial 6 weeks to respond to my message.

Without being able to reset my password, I was completely unable to contact Ed Financial through the student borrower portal, or through telephonic means.

Finally, on a total whim, I decided to " create an account '' ( despite already having had one for years ), and was able to login. When I logged in, I was SHOCKED to discover I was past due. During this time, I received email notices that I had messages available on the ED Financial inbox but due to my inability to login, I could not access my account or any of the messages. Once I was able to self-solution my login problem, I immediately made a payment and believed that my autopay would resume the following month ( I always pay my student loans on autopay and had no reason to think that Ed Financial would cancel my standing autopay instructions without communicating with me ). 

Note : I know they deleted my prior login information because I re-established my login using the same login credentials ( email and password ) that I previously used. 

Fast forward to the following month : the autopay that I previously established was no longer on my account and my payments that I expected to be made were not withdrawn by Ed Financial, as previously directed and authorized. I have since made payments to catch up, but now my perfect repayment history ( of almost 13 years ) has been damaged.

I am extremely upset and angry that what should be basic loan servicing functions are impossible with Ed Financial. It is completely counterintuitive that I would need to create a " new '' account to login to my existing account, and I did not receive ANY communication that informed me that Ed Financial canceled my autopay instructions.

It is completely unfair that there are this many roadblocks to make a payment. To be clear - I want to repay my student loans.

The information available on the website about creating an account does not say " If you previously had an account, you will still need to establish new credentials. '' The information also did not tell me that they cancelled my autopay instructions when they moved to a new servicing system. These errors in basic communication, as well as the complete madness of continuing to contact me through the website inbox despite my telling ED Financial that I can not access the website and requesting a call back, has led me to miss payments and caused extreme stress.

Ironically, the reason I reached out to Ed Financial to begin with is that I thought that my student loan repayments were miscalculated and failed to include my spouse 's student loans ( which are serviced by XXXX ). I have not had the emotional and logistical time capacity to deal with this, because the thought of attempting to contact Ed Financial is so discouraging.

I understand that many millions of people have student loan repayment resume, but that is why clear communication to borrowers is so critical.

If Ed Financial sent me a letter or email ( not a message in the portal ) saying " Your previous login credentials have been deleted, you need to create a new one. Your prior autopay instructions have also been deleted, you need to re-established reoccurring periodic transactions. '' I could have avoided all this.

If Ed Financial maintained an effective way to communicate with them via phone by having reasonable wait times and abiding by the call back instructions they provided, I could have avoided this.

If Ed Financial was responsive ( such as by communication in a channel other than the portal or having reasonable wait times or actually calling me back ) then I could have avoided this.

With respect to the question- have you contacted your servicer about this issue- of course not! This is the exact nature of my complaint- the inability to contact Ed Financial.