Consumer complaint received 2018-08-25
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (OH)

Our daughter secured several private student loans through XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX From her first semester, we agreed to have the interest payment automatically debited from out bank account. At that time, ( Fall of XX/XX/XXXX) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX acted as their own servicer. Interest payments were deducted from our checking account and we never incurred any problems. In XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX transferred the servicing of their student loans to XXXX XXXX. In the beginning, the interest payments were taken out of our checking account as they had been with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The total monthly amount was about {$100.00} taken out on two seperate dates each month. However, in XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed that the XXXX payment hasn't been deducted from our bank account. When I called XXXX, I was told it was because we had withdrawn from the auto debit program. I assured the customer service rep that we had not withdrawn and that I wanted to have the payment pulled once again. They payments were finally pulled on XX/XX/XXXX. Shortly thereafter, our daughter received a letter stating that we had once again withdrawn from the auto debit service. Again, I called to confirm that we did want to continue with auto debit. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX pulled a payment in the amount of {$400.00}. We have never paid this amount in the past so I immediately called XXXX. The customer service rep I spoke to ( XXXX ) told me that since our daughter had graduated from college in XX/XX/XXXX, that her loan status changed and she was in the repayment period. This would be her monthly payment for the next 10 years. I asked XXXX   where she had received her information that our daughter had graduated and she couldn't give me an answer. I told her our daughter was a senior and had not graduated. She told me I would need to get XXXX University to supply XXXX XXXX with a Declaration of Enrollment that must contain XXXX XXXX  Seal of Authenticity. We live in Ohio but made the trip to XXXX to get this document. It was mailed to XXXX but they claim they have never received it. Earlier this month XXXX  called and spoke to a customer service rep. He told me that our daughters student loans had been placed into what is called the 6-month interim repayment plan as directed by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. He claimed that XXXX is being directed by XXXX   to act as if students had graduated whenever they are on summer break. In other words, act as if the student has graduated and you can collect their full repayment amounts. However, when I called XXXX, I spoke with XXXX who assured me that XXXX was making up their own rules and that XXXX  had never directed XXXX to collect full payments. In fact, XXXX  stated that XXXX has was is called the XXXX XXXX Program whereby the interest only payments we had agreed to would only be pulled and there would never be any accelerated payments over the course of the loans as long as our daughter was a full time student. To date, XXXX  has been a wonderful company to work with. Their customer service is excellent. The service reps have always been helpful and very courteous. Our younger daughter is a freshman at XXXX University. We used XXXX for her first student loan but unfortunately because of the problems we've had with XXXX, it will be our last. We'll secure her loans elsewhere as long as they are not serviced with XXXX.