Consumer complaint received 2018-06-17
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC (CA)

I currently have two institutional loans that are being handled by XXXX XXXX. Both are in repayment. Loan A payments are due monthly, and I've paid off some of it. Loan B payments are due quarterly, and I'm nearly done with the repayment. 

My problems with XXXX are threefold : ( 1 ) They messed up the end of the repayment of Loan B, the quarterly loan, even after I called them specifically to make the last payment in an exact amount. ( 2 ) Their support is insufficient and poor in quality. ( 3 ) Their stated practices around loan repayment are poor, and the company seems to be intentionally misleading and predatory.

( 1 ) My second loan with XXXX, Loan B, requires quarterly payments. It turns out XXXX doesn't allow you to set up recurring quarterly payments on their website, so I had called and set one up, and by XX/XX/XXXX I was nearly done with repayment. I called XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to discuss the final payment of Loan B. I asked if their system would automatically handle the final payment in the amount of {$19.00} without my intervention -- would it recognize that I was done paying and only debit the {$19.00}? The rep said no, it would debit me the full amount, so it was up to me to call at the end of each loan and configure the final payment. ( What?! I think this is archaic, and if this is the case they should state that on the website -- not wait until I call them to tell me. ) On my XX/XX/XXXX call, I asked to just make the final payment of the loan ASAP. The rep verified that the payoff amount of the loan was {$19.00}, and if I paid the amount of {$19.00} that would payoff the loan. She said the only way to make this payment without a fee ( even though my account was enrolled in direct debit ) was to make the payment on XX/XX/XXXX, and adjust the payment date for my other loan to the XX/XX/XXXX of the month. Fine, I said. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my account was debited for {$19.00}. I check my loan balance, and it's {$0.00}. After digging into my statements, I see that the payoff amount for my loan is {$19.00}, and the balance amount is {$19.00}. It looks like the payoff amount has increased since I spoke to the rep in XX/XX/XXXX. I can not believe the rep did not tell me this would happen or account for the new payoff amount, even though I asked to : ( a ) Make the payment as soon as possible, and ( b ) Pay off the full remaining amount of the loan, and even verified the amount with her. 

In case CFPB removes the amounts to anonymize this comment -- readers, please note that this difference I'm taking about is UNDER TEN CENTS. So, all this time wasted, for less than a dime 's worth of payment. 

( 2 ) XXXX Support is only available XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX EST Monday through Friday, and XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX EST on Saturday. Even live chat is only during these hours. I live on the west coast. This means that I can only get support through XXXX XXXX PST on workdays. I can't contact them in the evenings, so I either have to call them before work ( unreliable, as wait times are long and variable and this could cut into my work schedule ). Or I can wait until Saturday to contact them -- which doesn't work for time sensitive financial matters. These hours might be okay for the east coast, but if XXXX is servicing loans for people across the country, they need to expand these hours. 

They also do not offer email/ online form submission for support. If they did this, it would allow people to initiate support cases outside of the restrictive hours. It would also allow people to have a written paper trail of what XXXX support has told them -- something that is sadly impossible to get today. It would create accountability from XXXX. 

( 3 ) Payment fees are ridiculous. Website configuration and wording is confusing. Not only is it hard to figure out what you owe and when you owe it, it's also difficult to set up automatic payments. Remember, I couldn't set up recurring direct debit on my quarterly loan without calling them. If I remember correctly, they also messed that up at the time and I had to call back and have them reconfigure. It took more than an hour on the phone. I've dealt with other loan servicers before and have never seen anything this bad. 

Also, a one time payment with credit or debit costs 3.95 % plus {$1.00}. The 3.95 % is significantly higher than the 2.5-2.9 % payment processors like XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX charge, so I can only assume that XXXX is making extra money off people paying with debit or credit. This seems wrong to me. What they're charging is beyond standard. 

A one time payment with direct debit costs {$1.00}. This was a problem for me when my loans were first transferred over to XXXX. The transfer was done just in time for my next bill to be due, so my choices were either to make the payment late with free recurring direct debit ( because I would have to get on the phone with them to do this, due to my quarterly loan ), or I could pay the {$1.00}. A customer shouldn't feel cornered like this -- I shouldn't have to pay extra to make my on-time loan payments due to limitations of XXXX 's system. Either fix your system or make the first payment fee-free. 


Overall, I am appalled by the lack of attention to detail the reps display, the few and insufficient customer support options, and the limitations of XXXX XXXX 's software. It's ridiculous. I've spent hours on the phone with their reps trying to figure out my account. Not only does it seem to take forever to get ahold of someone, but once I do, the rep often doesn't know how the system works or gives me incorrect information. 

I shouldn't have to waste my time managing my loan provider. Certainly not during work hours, which seems to be the only time their support is available. I've made every payment correctly and on-time but only because I've sunk hours into trying to get ahold of these folks and understand their poorly designed site.