Consumer complaint received 2020-07-24
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Student Loan Financial Assistance (IN)

I had been researching loan consolidation ( through the XXXX  website, my previous loan servicer ). Some days later I was contacted by Student Loan Financial Assistance, a company that identified themselves as separate from the federal government, but as a non profit company that worked with them to reduce how much borrowers paid over the life of their loans. We reviewed the amount I still owed, what I was currently paying, other repayment options and my financial/income status. They then advised that if I consolidated and entered a specific repayment plan that I would have 2 loan payments of {$190.00} and then once the consolidation finalized and entered the repayment program, my payment would drop to {$55.00} for 12 months, at which point I would have to reverify my income information to continue that specific payment program. In mid to late XXXX, I before any money was taken I called to try to cancel the consolidation and program because of employment changes due to covid-19. However, XXXX XXXX reverified the above information, advised this was my best and most affordable option for my student loan repayment. I specified at that time that I was unable to make the payment and they pushed it out until Late XXXX, when someone was supposed to callback and verify I was able to make the payment before withdrawing it from my account. No one called me, and to be honest, I forgot to call them back as well. That being said, the money was withdrawn. I immediately noticed because it made my account negative. I called both SLFA and my bank to try to put a stop payment or cancellation on the charge since I did not have the funds. SLFA advised I would have to let the payment go through ( which would supposedly take 2-5 days ), request and have the refund approved ( 2-3 days ) and then the refund would take 7-14 days. At this time I was on unemployment and had to pay other bills late due to the overdraft, but I knew I had another unemployment check coming before 3 weeks ( the approximate amount of time for a refund ). So I took the overdraft fee and left it. I advised them however I would not immediately be able to make another payment in XXXX due to this, so they put the payment off until XXXX. The second payment in XXXX went through without issue. However, this time after the clearing of the payment I received an email stating I could request a refund that only took TWO days? Why only two days this time? At this point, I received a letter from my new servicer, XXXX. I was familiar with XXXX and their complaints from borrowers and expressed to SLFA that I did not want my loans to go to them. After calling SLFA, I was told that my loans USED to be with them, but would be moving over to the Department of Education from SLFA reps. Days later I received an approval letter from XXXX stated that my consolidation had went through and they were in fact my new servicer. I was upset and frustrated so I called XXXX and they verified the letter was correct, after explaining this to them, they stated I needed to contact FTC and Consumer Finance because they were marked a beware of scams company. After several attempts of trying to get a refund, they advised that the payments were service fees. However the explictly stated multiple times that it was my LOAN payment.