Consumer complaint received 2017-03-18
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Need information about my balance/terms
Company: HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC (IL)

I writing because I believe that Heartland ESCI intentionally provides little and ineffective communication with borrowers that uses inappropriate messaging for their financial benefit. 

My XXXX student loans from XXXX University were sold to Heartland ESCI. They have been in deferment for the past 2 1/2 years because I was in XXXX school. Consequently, it has been 2 1/2 years since I completed the exit interview for my XXXX student loans -- a long time to remember the intricacy of loans details. Six month after my XXXX school graduation, I got emails from XXXX about my student loans from XXXX school and XXXX. I have since been up to date on all payment. Since I had loans from both institutions upwards on XXXX on XXXX, I was wrongfully under the impression those were all my loans. Because I never received a notice from XXXX and Heartland ESCI a payment was due and their was huge lapse ( 2 1/2 years ) since I signed my exit interviews, I believed all my loans were in my Navient account. 

Yesterday, I got an email from XXXX saying that I was past due on 2 months of payments of loans. This is the first time I received notification that I had payment due for those loans. I called the same day the email was sent. XXXX indicated the company ( Heartland ESCI ) they sold my loans to, had tried to reach me through email, phone, and mail. I only received one form of communication, email. I called Heartland ESCI to verify their records that those communications ( email/mail/phone ) were sent to me. Their were only records of dates for the mail ( XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX ) and email. I never received a phone call from them and they had no record they made any. As for mail, I moved in XX/XX/XXXX after graduation and had put a forwarding address. I am unsure why those correspondences did n't arrive to me, but supposedly they were sent. However, in the emails I received from Heartland ESCI, the subject line read 'Your electronic statement is ready ', but no mention in the entire email that a balance was due. I believe that Heartland ESCI did n't communicate the proper and clarifying information of what was needed of me to pay my loans because it in their interest for me to be delinquent in payment. 

My situation is n't unique ; students accrue XXXX and XXXX loans with years between when they sign student loan contracts. That time lapse and other pressures like securing a job, moving after graduation, bills, etc are competing for student 's attention. It is irresponsible of Heartland ESCI to not communicate effectively that a payment was due in the channel of most responsive communication. I got an email from my university with the subject line XXXX STUDENT LOANS and responded in a few hours, because the messaging was direct. Based on the pressures of recently graduated students, data of how students communicate that Heartland ESCI and other lenders have, its well-documented data emails are the most effective ways to communicate with student loan borrowers. 

What 's more, one can only start making payments on Heartland ESCI, if they make an account. If Heartland ESCI system recorded my payments were 'delinquent ' and that I had yet to make an account, why did n't they do their due diligence to send an email or notification to make this account like XXXX ? Also when trying to pay all balances due, Heartland ESCI tried to charge me a 6 % service fee! If I paid that every time, my student loan interest rates have effectively doubled. This does n't seem right and I know I am not alone on this! Consequently, Heartland ESCI proves itself to be predatorily set-up so that student loan borrower do n't get effective communication to stay on top of my student loans. 

Both XXXX and Heartland ESCI reported to the credit bureau that I was delinquent, but I do n't think they a full account of the situation.