Consumer complaint received 2020-03-17
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't temporarily delay making payments
Company: Williams & Fudge, Inc (MS)

I graduated from the University XXXX XXXX, XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. At that time I didn't understand the difference between institutional and federally-backed loans, and then I ran into some financial hardships after suffering from a health condition that wasn't covered by insurance. I lived abroad and attempted to get in the Income Driven Repayment plan and was able to be on it for approximately a year, but after having lived out of the country, I was told to provide documents that only apply only to people who live in the United States. 

I constantly explained that these things don't exist and asked what provisions the U.S. Dept of Education has for borrowers who live in a foreign country, no one was able to help me but I provided the paperwork I could. It wasn't enough and that's where my problems began. I also continued to be in correspondence with XXXX XXXX about an institutional loan. At the time I was dealing with a health condition that prevented me from XXXX XXXX XXXX for 6 weeks and had no third party that could assist me. I had to take decisions while being unable to XXXX  properly and my loans went into default as I was dealing with this while under the stress of being unable to XXXX  for medical reasons, and living in a foreign country. 

Because I had three types of student loans, I needed to fill out different types of paperwork on a consistent basis all while making less than $ 15K per year in some cases. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I was offered the opportunity to rehabilitate two student loans that had been in default for some time with Williams and Fudge, a debt collection agency. From here on, I will refer to them as FEDERAL LOAN ( totaling approximately {$40000.00} ) and INSTITUTIONAL LOAN ( totaling approximately {$2600.00} ). 

In XX/XX/XXXX, my federal loan was switched to a servicer called XXXX XXXX and have been making {$5.00} payments per my IDR terms. 

However, my institutional loan was more expensive since it was much older. In XX/XX/XXXX I made a plan with Williams and Fudge to repay my institutional loan, which was 10 years old. I gave them a down payment of {$300.00} and agreed to pay the sum of {$200.00}. This was before the coronavirus began affecting the economy, and I assumed that things would stay normal and I would finally be able to pay my 10-year-old institutional loan by XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX. Unfortunately, my business has been affected and I can only assume others are also dealing with economic fallout and will have difficulty as the pandemic passes. 

I called the company and asked if they have a plan to help borrowers who may be affected by the coronavirus in some way and spoke to a rep called XXXX XXXX. 

I explained that I can maintain my current payment for XXXX, but I have already seen business decrease due to the virus and am worried about the possibility of being unable to make further payments as the pandemic increases. 

Mr. XXXX appeared not to understand the gravity of the coronavirus and I ended the call suggesting that he please talk to the company and ask them to come up with a plan for redress in case anyone should be affected through layoffs, firing, or even sickness due to the coronavirus that causes them to stay home with unpaid leave. 

He said that I have no business telling the company what to do. I'm filing this complaint because the CFPB should ask all student loan debt collectors, companies, and universities to address this situation and ask them to have a plan in place. 

I was told I *would* be able to suspend payment as long as it hasn't been processed, and said that if things go may I may have to decrease the amounts I'm paying, but frankly, everyone company that services debt that could take money away from essentials such as food, water, and even medication, should have a consumer-friendly plan for this pandemic given the extreme circumstances it will create. Mr. XXXX implied that Williams and Fudge haven't even discussed what they will do to help us.