Consumer complaint received 2016-08-03
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Don't agree with fees charged
Company: Texas Guaranteed (AZ)

This is a long detailed story that I can not easily sum in XXXX characters. I graduated from XXXX XXXX, my loan was then sold to Texas Guaranteed Student Loan ( TG ). I started a occupation that allowed me to live and pay my bills roughly a year after graduation. I contacted the lender and began a payment plan somewhere between $ XXXX {$350.00} per month. About 6 months to a year in ; I contacted TG to make my payment. They inform me that I need to play upwards of {$500.00} a month. I 'm informed the reason is they no longer offer the plan I was originally paying. They then inform me that if I were to make my regular payment that I would not even touch the accruing interest. 'Mind you, I have not signed a single document agreeing to anything '. I inform them I can not afford this and they ca n't force me out of paying my loan just to accrue interest. They do n't offer me a plan, or a payment arrangement, or any sort of empathy and just try to collect. They make periodic calls through the next few years, and I inform them I can not pay what they ask only to be informed that if I pay what I can afford it is just a waste of my money. During the interactions, they never offer any assistance or options, just that I pay what they want or just continue to accrue interest. A few years down the road, my credit score is trashed, and my interest has spiked over {$10000.00}. I contact them, and they inform me that they are offering debt consolidation. I speak with a rep, and am informed that I am on a consolidated plan and will need to pay {$180.00} first payment and {$210.00} every other month till the debt is paid. I think fair enough, for 6 months I make payments of {$210.00}. My balance is dropping my credit score is increasing. At the end of the year, I see my balance ; it 's higher then when I started paying. I figure it may be an interest spike and disregard it. I pay for another 6 months to a year, balance starts to drop again and credit score is slowly increasing. Then I get a balance recap form again, and low and behold my balance is higher then started. I contact TG and the representative informs me that whomever I spoke with did not send me the consolidation paperwork ; therefore I was not consolidated, and had been paying based on the previous terms that did not even touch the accrued interest. 'Basically just giving them money for no real reason '. Then, with as little empathy as possible the rep tells me she will send me the consolidation paperwork so I can get started. When I ask about the monies I already paid, I 'm pretty much told I 'm up a creek without a paddle. At this point, I contacted another debt consolidation student loan company, worked out them purchasing the loan from TG and now have a set plan that I 'm happy with ; however, this is not before dumping thousands of dollars for no benefit to TG and TG adding over {$10000.00} in interest to my loan. What was once a {$28000.00} dollar debt has become a {$39000.00} debt. I will have to pay interest based on the interest added by TG. TG are crooks! They stole my money, they added endless amounts of interest to my loan, and when I tried to pay them they tell me it 's not good enough. How is this legal? I feel they should return the money, or at least the balance remaining that they have been paid by the new debtor. Or at the very least, pay the interest they accrued onto my debt, and return the monies they stole from me for every cent. I 'm sure they still have my account, and ledgers to review this balance. Personally, I 'd rather see the CFPB shut this company down, or fine them a high dollar amount. I 'm sure I 'm not the only person who was dealt with under unethical terms. I 'm not asking for a hand out, I 'll pay my debt, but they should have to be held responsible for something. I do NOT wish for TG to purchase the debt back.