Consumer complaint received 2018-06-17
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Getting a loan — Problem with signing the paperwork
Company: Social Finance, Inc. (DE)

I began my initial application process with SoFi XX/XX/2017. My existing loan is a federal consolidation loan with XXXX XXXX. I applied with my father, a partially retired XXXX as my co-signer, as recommended by SoFi for help in approving a lower interest rate quoted initially at 4.95 %. The following documents were requested initially : recent pay stubs from employer, current loan billing statements, XXXX, and copies of personal identification documents. The process then became unwieldy with incessant requests for more documentation. One of the first requests was for my co-signer to upload his last 6 months of bank  statements as his recent retirement made his last pay stub unreliable to reflect his income. My co-signer and I were under the impression this would suffice to complete the application. Then again, I received another notification for additional documentation including my co-signers XXXX and statement of retirement income. And yet again, this did not suffice. My father and I began reaching out to customer service and spoke with various specialists assuring us that all that was needed was just a one more document. There was only one email early on in the application process which outlined the requested documentation ( see attached ). After this, there was no instruction about which documents were needed but rather I had to navigate through my account online and deduce which sections were missing an attached document. This resulted in time consuming calls to customer serve and with equivocal recommendations.

Eventually my application expired for incompleteness despite reassurance from an account specialist that application would not expire if I was actively working on completing the upload of additional documentation requested. I decided to re-apply and had to start the whole process over and a host of new documents were requested including new pay stubs, XXXX documents from co-signer, a new drivers license photo with better resolution, IRA statements, 401K information, deferred income statement from co-signer and co-signer tax returns from last 2 years. We thought we were finally complete with the new application when a request for both my co-signer and myself to contact our employers and have them complete these eight requests : name, job title, date of hire, confirmation of pay frequency, confirmation of salary, confirmation that the employee is employed, confirmation of job status, and validation of work contract ( see attached ). 

At this point I was fed up with the charade of requested documentation and the fact SoFi, a reputable name in the student loan refinance industry, would request my employer to get involved with my personal debts. This was an absurd request and it was very odd that this was not brought up at the beginning of the application process. I therefore requested to close my application and requested to talk with account specialist to ensure all my documentation was destroyed as SoFi had in their possession numerous private financial information. Given SoFis history of poor customer service, I was not surprised when I reached out to SoFi customer service and was told that all escalation specialists were busy but that one would return my call. I never received a call. I am extremely disappointed with the cumbersome nature of the SoFi application process and hope I can save others from this frustration. Furthermore, SoFi needs to be investigated for their inability to properly and truthfully explain the application for student loan refinancing.