Consumer complaint received 2023-09-29
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (PA)

I've been going in circles with 3 organizations that are involved in my complaint : XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  ), and US Dept of Ed/Nelnet . 

I have major Issues/Discrepancies with my loan history record : ( SEE issues highlighted in XXXX ) which have NOT been resolved after 7 yrs of trying. Since XXXX  my loan servicer XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and loan guarantor XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) have failed to fix or adequately address my issues & inquiries. My loans were transferred to the Dept. of Ed / Nelnet  in XX/XX/XXXX. 

My greatest issue is how/why payments were inconsistently & incorrectly applied to interest & principal, AND the incorrect loan origination dates. XXXX records have gaps in loan origination dates when my daughter didn't have any gaps in college attendance. As a result, none of my loan payments that I made in XXXX  were applied to my XXXX  loan. Instead I received an interest capitalization for the period, and payments didn't begin to be applied until 6 months later in XXXX. There are many other issues, and unanswered questions. For example, at the beginning of loan # 1 in XXXX, I paid 100 % of the accrued interest ( XXXX XXXX  ), yet XXXX charged me capitalized interest on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  ( which is only supposed to be applied against accrued interest ). These issues MATTER because of capital compounding interest. 

Both my loan servicer XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( XXXX  ) were negligent & caused incorrect & wrongful application of interest charges/capitalization against my loans. 

WHY isn't there a class action suit like the XXXX student loan class action suit? What happened to me and many others with the capitalized interest & repurchasing the debt is the exact same as the XXXX case. 

During Covid-19 in XXXX  I was given nothing but misinformation concerning whether or not my loans are federal or private & whether or not I'm eligible to get the Covid benefit of interest & payment pause. It was mass confusion & it seemed that nobody knew the answer. All these years I thought I had a federal loan because that's what all of my documents say, yet during COVID I was told my loans are private & I didn't qualify for any Covid interest pause. When I inquired of XXXX as to who my private lender is since they said it's not the federal government, they couldn't explain/tell me clearly. XXXX acknowledged that they are the servicer ( which is what I thought ) yet XXXX could not tell me who my private lender is/who owns my loan. I never contracted with /borrowed from any private bank. 

In XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  My defaulted loans were transferred to Dept of Ed/Nelnet servicer when Covid benefits were about to end. I received XXXX  interest pause for Covid nor during my bankruptcy from XXXXXXXX  I contacted Dept of Ed several times. For months in XXXX  I was told by Dept of Ed that they could see I was being transferred but the transfer wasn't yet completed in their system. Later when transfer was completed they said they could see my accounts but my records are now with Nelnet & they can't help with any thing! Nelnet told me to contact Dept. of Ed to resolve! 

In XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  one Nelnet supervisor told me they'd look at my case to see what can be done concerning my unresolved issues, and whether I'm a candidate for loan forgiveness.. Later a different Nelnet supervisor said because my loans are almost XXXX  yrs old she didn't think anything could be done & advised me to consolidate my loans, which is now in the process. Most recently Nelnet told me that after I consolidate they could help. 

Nelnet has acknowledged that my loans were grossly mishandled & advised me to file a complaint at studentaid.org which I did on XX/XX/XXXX. To date I still have no response to my complaint besides an acknowledgement that the complaint was received & is being processed. 

I re-paid $ XXXX of a $ XXXX student loan before defaulting. My loan guarantor XXXX  paid {$39.00} at the end of my bankruptcy when they finally realized I was in bankruptcy.. XXXX REPURCHASED my loans immediately the hour I finished bankruptcy & Now they want me to start over and repay $ XXXX. I defaulted & my loans were transferred to the Dept of Ed. The bottom line is : I just gave the banks $ XXXX. The banks already received $ XXXX for a $ XXXX loan & if they received $ XXXX more that means they would be repaid $ XXXX for a $ XXXX loan. How is this legal? This is predatory & XXXX by design. I understand laws were passed making repurchasing a student loan & returning to borrower after bankruptcy illegal. Does this apply to me? 

My bankruptcy attorney refused to file an student loan adversary hearing on my behalf during my bankruptcy siting that it's a waste of time & money because " nobody in my court district can win unless they're dead or disabled  & even then it's very difficult '' I would like loan cancellation or at a minimum a major reduction in the loan balance. I've been wrongfully charged about $ XXXX in interest capitalization, and the lender has already been paid about $ XXXX for my $ XXXX loan.