Consumer complaint received 2025-09-24 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
As of XX/XX/XXXX my student loans were all marked paid as a grade on my credit. In the beginning of XXXX my credit score dropped by over XXXX points because XXXX credit report said that I was 120 days and 90 days past due with this company called Nelnet. 
I had never heard of Nelnet before. 
Upon researching I found out that they took over the servicing of my student loan formally handled by lake XXXX XXXX 
I had never received via phone call, mail, or email any correspondence from this company Nelnet. 
I looked them up and decided to call them and only then did I discover that they were my student loan servicer and had taken over the servicing of my student loan which I have never in the 12 years I've had this loan ever had to make any payments as I was in an income driven repayment of {$0.00} Upon speaking to one of the student advisors, I learned that Nelnet is now my loan servicer and that I am supposedly 120 days late on my account. 
I explained that I had no idea who now that was, and that Nelnet had never reached out to me at my address email or phone number or had any current information for me. Apparently they had some old information that was stored in their system from lake XXXX servicing from many years ago. 
I explained this to the advisor. I also explained to the advisor that I am the victim of three natural disasters in the last year. The first hurricane flooded my entire house and I lost absolutely everything, including the clothes on my back my vehicles absolutely everything was destroyed with the first hurricane. After I rebuilt and replaced what I could, a second hurricane came through and destroyed my home once again and everything that I had just purchased to replace my belongings including a new vehicle. We began to rebuild for a third time but quickly ran out of money as the third storm came and once again destroyed everything that we had rebuilt once again losing a vehicle I just replaced, all of the contents of the home all of my personal effects right down to my phone or destroyed again .. upon explained this to the advisor, she told me that she would apply the forbearance for a natural disaster to my account and update the information. I asked for the forbearance to include the entire year as every single day since XX/XX/XXXX my life was detrimentally affected by these three natural disasters that have destroyed my home my belongings absolutely everything. I asked for a retroactive forbearance to be applied to cover any late payments. I also made five payments upon learning I owed any money whatsoever. The company claims that they sent me bills etc. I have never once received any bill from this company, and only learned of who they were after they started marking negative on my credit. This is inaccurate information that they are reporting because they never sent me any correspondence to my home to my phone to my email. I would not be able to pay any bill if I didn't know I had to pay it. And I'm sure in the consumer Fair credit reporting act it states in there that you have to inform somebody that they owe a bill before they should be expected to pay something they know nothing about. I finally found a bank to allow me to refinance my house and pull some money out so I can once again for a third time rebuild my home, I was all set to close on this loan first week of XXXX, and the night before we were set to close I got a phone call from the loan officer stating that they would not be able to proceed with this loan due to the fact that I am 120 days and 90 days past due on student loans and my credit score had gone down over XXXX points due to this. No I don't know if you can imagine what it's like to have your home flooded and lose your vehicles your belongings right down to your clothes all of your memories everything washed away. If that's not bad enough imagine rebuilding and starting to replace everything that you would just lost all the work that it entails to do that all of the money all of the costs involved and imagine another storm comes through and destroys your entire house yet again claiming all of your belongings your vehicles everything. Now imagine struggling due to the fact that the storm also claimed your employment, and what did you want employed. Now imagine struggling for month after month day after day ready to absolutely give up and then finding a bank that is willing to loan you the money you need to rebuild the your life once again. Now imagine getting that phone call the night before you're supposed to close after everything you've been through and then telling you that they are not able to help you because of your credit. 
I have been the victim of three natural disasters from XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX and to this day I'm suffering. Nobody informed me that I owed any money and had they done so I would have promptly made my bills on time without incident. If you look on my credit you will see that I pay my bills. I am asking the company to remove these negative items so that I can move forward with my life, I did not intentionally not pay any bills I simply was not made aware that I owed any bills, the minute I found out I owe bills I paid five payments and ask for the forbearance a retroactive forbearance that would cover the entire year as I have been affected by these natural disasters all three of them for the entire year. The company claims that they sent me bills I have never received one bill from this company. Again I had no idea who they were until they started reporting negatively on my credit. If they don't remove these items from my credit I am not able to rebuild my home and will ultimately lose my home. I have until the end of XXXX to resolve these issues, and remove these items from my credit or I literally will be homeless due to a bill I had no idea I owed. I am pleading with them to understand my situation, and have some kind of compassion and realize that I did not just decided not to pay them, I simply was unaware that I had to due to the fact that nobody sent me any information. I'm sure it's because they did not have any current information for me, but I can't pay a bill that I'm not aware of. Please please apply a retroactive forbearance for all three of these disasters to clear up and take off the negative items on my credit, and please mark them paid through a retroactive deference or forbearance due to three natural disasters.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation