Consumer complaint received 06/28/2017 about Student loan (Federal student loan servicing) with GC Services Limited Partnership (LA).
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint: TIMELINE OF RECENT STUDENT LOAN COMMUNICATIONS WITH GC SERVICES XX/XX/XXXX - Date of Letter from Department of Treasury regarding offset of {$1900.00} applied to debt owed to US Department of Education. *Letter states the agency ( DOE ) previously sent a letter explaining the amount and type of debt and the rights available and that the agency intended to collect the debt by intercepting any federal payment. The letter also stated that the notice was sent to the last known address ( who knows what address they had on file ). If the DOE is able to offset an income tax refund it should be able to find your last known address easily, i.e. last tax return, ss #, etc. This letter was never received by debtor. Do not have exact date - Called GC Services asking for more information on the debt. Did receive verbal information the amount owed, interest rate, where to find where the payments that were made for many years were applied. I requested a copy of the Promissory Note which -- -- -- -- signed. GC Services referred me back to the Department of Education Offset Unit. Called DOE Offset Unit and spoke briefly to the agent about the loan and requested a copy of the promissory note. He agreed. Do not have exact date - Received copy in the mail of a partial Promissory Note signed by -- -- -- -- and dated XX/XX/XXXX. The Note does not state what -- -- -- -- -- actually agreed to, payment amount, amount of debt, etc., it appears we only received page 1 of the Note as it states the page is 1 of 3. The bottom paragraph also refers to consolidating jointly with spouse. At the time of execution, XXXX XXXX was not married. XX/XX/XXXX ( around this date ) Spoke to XXXX XXXX at GC Services regarding repayment of loan. She advised I needed to disclose our Tax Return from XX/XX/XXXX so that GC can come up with a monthly payment. I advised that I should not have to disclose my salary as I am not on the promissory note. I was transferred to another female agent, she asked how much we made per year, our expenses, etc. I gave her that information over the phone and she came up with a payment of around {$600.00} per month, when I balked at that amount she only used -- -- -- -- - salary and came up with {$5.00} a month. I made the first {$5.00} payment over the phone by giving her my debit card information. She advised we would receive forms via email for completion. XX/XX/XXXX - Date of Letter from GC services via email regarding forms related to the repayment program to get the loan out of default. The letter states that the forms must be returned no later than XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX - Emailed forms to apply for rehabilitation program. XX/XX/XXXX - Called GC Services no answer, so sent email to XXXX advising supporting documents for the rehabilitation program would be filled out and sent by end of that week. We also requested to only be contacted by email or mail. XX/XX/XXXX - Called and spoke to XXXX XXXX to negotiate settlement of debt. XXXX advised she can only settle the debt for {$15000.00}. I asked to speak with manager, transferred to XXXX XXXX, can only settle for {$14000.00}, cause at this point we already owe {$19000.00} due to continued added collection charges, interest, penalties, etc. I requested she ask the DOE if they would accept {$12000.00} as settlement in full. I am not sure if this was the call where she stated the DOE only accepted {$14000.00}. She also asked where we would be getting the money, I told her but did not feel that it was her business and that maybe because of this disclosure the settlement offer did not go down further. XX/XX/XXXX called XXXX, left voice mail regarding settlement questions. XX/XX/XXXX - Date of Letter received from GC Services, XXXX Texas regarding Notice of XXXX Settlement Agreement. *The settlement agreement did not apply to our circumstances ; it referenced a Notice of Wage Garnishment, which was not received. The agreement letter also stated that because of interest, late charges, and other charges that may vary from day to day, the amount may be greater. Hence if you pay the amount shown in the amount shown above, an adjustment may be necessary after we receive your check, in which event we will inform you. What? If you pay a settlement in full, shouldnt your debt be paid off with XXXX balance, with no added charges? XX/XX/XXXX called spoke to agent and cancelled {$5.00} a month payments due to account being settled. She advised settlement was approved onXX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX - Letter from GC Services regarding a received check in the amount of {$5.00} was previously received on XX/XX/XXXX. The letter is signed by XXXX XXXX, Collection Manager.  How can a letter be written before a check is actually received? XX/XX/XXXX - Called GC Services and spoke to XXXX XXXX and disputed the language in the settlement agreement letter dated XX/XX/XXXX and requested that a new agreement which applied to our circumstances ( a loan in default ) be sent. She said the letter was sent because the account had previously been in garnishment. I also referenced the verbiage used in the letter regarding the because of interestan adjustment be made. GC Services advised that that would be true, charges could be added after you paid the settlement agreement in full. GC Services agreed to send a revised Settlement Agreement. This phone call was very long as she had to continue putting me on hold to ask her manager for answers to my questions. XX/XX/XXXX - Date of Letter received from GC, XXXX, TN regarding our agreement to settle the debt in full for {$14000.00}. We only agreed to a settlement with a proper settle agreement executed by -- -- -- -- -- -- - and the Department of Education or someone acting on their behalf. The agreement sent was not an agreement but a letter stating what GC Services has agreed to, it is one sided. The second paragraph is what we have the most difficulty accepting. It states that if the offset is reversed for any reason, that the debt will be restored. We do have an offset that may be reversed and was brought to GC Services attention on this phone call. Therefore, if the offset would be reversed, that would mean that we would have to pay more money even though the GC Services acting on behalf of the Department of Education has accepted a compromise as settlement in full of the debt. Again the letter had the disclaimer on the bottom of the letter because of interest, late charges, and other charges that may vary from day to day, the amount may be greater. Hence if you pay the amount shown above, an adjustment may be necessary after we receive your check, in which event we will inform you. The letter is signed by XXXX XXXX, Deputy Contract Administrator. XX/XX/XXXX - Called and spoke to XXXX XXXX, manager. XXXX XXXX advised GC Services can not give us an agreement that we are looking for, exact terms, amount owed, signatures, dates, etc. and that the {$14000.00} would be accepted as settlement in full. I requested to speak to XXXX XXXX who is the Deputy Contract Administrator, but he said he is not on the floor and is not available but I could email him. XXXX XXXX advised that he can not guarantee that the offset will or will not be reversed and if reversed then -- -- -- -- -- would be liable for the amount reversed, if reversed. XXXX XXXX advised that based on the current information on file, XXXX XXXX would have to pay {$470.00} a month to stay on rehab program. I advised to leave account on settlement status to see if we receive anything indicating the offset was reversed. An Injured Spouse was filed with the IRS on my behalf. He advised the settlement would need to be paid by XX/XX/XXXX or it would be null and void. CONCLUSION We want to pay off the defaulted loan, but we want an agreement that indicates what is actually agreed to, the agreement should also state that we will not be contacted by the DOE or GC Services regarding additional charges for this account after the settlement amount has been paid. The Agreement should be signed and dated by both parties, in other words we want a true Settlement Agreement. We also would like renegotiate our settlement amount based on my time spent researching student loan information, an incomplete copy of the original promissory note, the inability to view payment history on the website, and the possibility of several violations of the FDCPA. As a side note, I was able to view payment history once at the inception of my communications with GC Services on myeddeb.ed.gov, and it appeared that -- -- -- -- - has paid a substantial amount every paycheck for many years and the principal hardly went down. He paid his student loan and child support on every paycheck, leaving him with little money to live off of and therefore requesting personal loans from his family. -- -- -- -- - and I have been together almost 7 years and I witnessed how much was taken from his checks to pay the student loan. The amounts were a percentage of each paycheck anywhere from {$200.00} 300  twice a month. This is an astronomical amount given that he was also paying child support. <P/>Please help rectify these issues to get the student loan out of default. <P/>END OF COMPLAINT

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation