Consumer complaint received 2025-09-29 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Stratus Financial LLC
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
Stratus Financial confirmed in writing on XX/XX/XXXX that I am owed a refund of over {$80000.00} from a private education loan I prepaid. They promised multiple times, both in writing and by phone, that the refund would be wired to me ; however, an entire month later, I have not received any funds. 

Despite their assurances, Stratus continues to ignore my emails and phone calls. On multiple occasions, representatives confirmed that the funds were being sent right away, but when I pressed for proof or further updates, they stalled, and as of the last few days, have stopped responding altogether. I have been provided several dates to expect the transfer, none of which have materialized. 

This is my second CFPB complaint against Stratus. In my original complaint ( CFPB XXXX # XXXX ), Stratus misrepresented that the matter was resolved and that a refund was being processed. In his written response, XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) repeatedly claimed that Stratus was not withholding funds, but simply working through the process. That is clearly false. Stratuss staff have admitted they have everything they need to process the refund, and I provided my wire details to them on XX/XX/year>. Yet as of today, no transfer has been made. 

Stratus also delayed the refund process by misrepresenting facts to the CFPB. XXXX XXXX implied that I was refusing to provide bank details, when in reality, it took eight days after his response for Stratus to offer me a secure method to share my wire information. Now that I have provided it, they have done nothing with it. 

Additionally, Stratus has continued to cause ongoing financial harm by reporting me late to TransUnion during this dispute. Even after promising that the negative reporting would be corrected, I was notified again in late XXXX that another 30-day late payment had been reported. This is inaccurate and damaging to my credit, especially given that I have already paid more than {$100000.00} against a loan where only about {$22000.00} was ever disbursed to the school. 

There is a troubling pattern here : Stratus ignores emails for days at a time, only responds when formal complaints or deadlines are filed, and uses partner schools to misrepresent students enrollment status to justify delays. Their initial finance charge of {$11000.00}, which is nonrefundable even if the loan is prepaid, is itself a highly questionable practice that suggests Stratus is exploiting borrowers through unfair loan structures. 

In total, Stratuss conduct is clearly abusive. Stratus has made false and misleading statements to both me and the CFPB. There are several contradictions between XXXX XXXX response and the companys actual behavior. I have faced repeated stalling despite the company having everything required to process my refund. Stratus has misused the CFPB closure of my initial complaint to delay further, and has provided improper credit reporting that continues to harm me in the meantime. 

I respectfully request that this complaint remain open until Stratus provides proof that the refund has been issued and received. Closing the case before that happens only enables further abuse, as already demonstrated by their handling of my prior complaint. 

I have attached my response to the closure of my initial CFPB complaint here for review, along with a copy of Stratus 's email confirming I would receive a refund on XX/XX/XXXX, a copy of Stratus 's email confirming the exact amount I would receive, a copy of the email confirming Stratus has my wire details as of XX/XX/XXXX, and one email example out of several dates I was told to expect to receive the wire transfer ( XX/XX/XXXX ), with no result.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation