Consumer complaint received 2017-04-21
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Received bad information about my loan
Company: American Student Assistance (MA)

I have had long standing problems with my student loan servicers going back years. I do not have any documents from the origination of these loans and in fact do n't recall ever receiving any. I recently learned that all the loans are listed on   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   website www.nlds.ed.gov. so I looked them up and started researching.  One  of the loans is a   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  oan for {$1500.00}. disbursed on   XXXX  . Evidently it 's for " Financially Needy '' persons  ( See   generally 34 CFR 674.1 Purpose and identification of common provisions ). " ( a   ) The  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  provides low-interest loans to financially needy students attending institutions of higher education to help them pay their educational costs. '' I do not believe this is or ever was my loan for the following reasons  : 1. )  I was not " financially needy '' at the time. My husband and I were in the process of purchasing our first home at that time and we completed the purchase in   XXXX   XXXX      2. ) We were both employed and earning above average income combined ; and 3.  ) It 's unlikely I was enrolled for classes that semester because I was pregnant with my third child ( born  XX/XX/XXXX  ), my other children were age  XXXX  and  XXXX , all while working and buying a house.     The FSA reports that I defaulted on  XX/XX/XXXX  and paid it in full on   XXXX  . I have no recollection or record of this and in fact it looks like this amount was rolled into the consolidation loan I obtained and which is the subject of dispute with the servicers.     Also, I was surprised to find that my status on Federal Student Aid says " Withdrawn '' and has not been updated to " Graduated '' ( my graduation was on   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   ). Very odd.     Stranger still, as I look through the files the documents report my school name as " unknown '' ; and there are  multiple account number references. It appears that there is actually more than one " consolidation loan ''. Communications I have received from American Student Assistance Corp. references  at least  XXXX  different "  XXXX  ID # 's. The first is  XXXX , and it lists the servicer as "  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  '' whom I have never had any loan with and have never been contacted by. The second is  XXXX , the servicer is ACS who I had many problems with, and the third is  XXXX , also lists  XXXX  as the servicer. The original problem with the servicers started when I had a financial hardship and requested assistance. They never responded for months until after they notified me of " default '' and then I was 'approved ' for a " rehabilitated loan '' by  XXXX   XXXX  however the documents they sent were " consolidation loan '' documents. I have the original unsigned documents in my file still. I also found a document dated   XXXX   XXXX  rom  XXXX  that reports a consolidated loan was in forbearance for 73 months. I 'm pretty sure this exceeds the maximum allowed by the DOE regulations and it was my understanding that I was not in forbearance. Finally and importantly, many of the documents they send do not contain ANY account numbers so I have no way of knowing what account  ( s )  they are alleging I owe $ $ on. I suspect they are fabricating new loans and possibly using these loans to collect from the guarantor while never disclosing this to me. Essentially, its ' identify theft.