I currently have 2 loans with my Great Lakes. I've been paying ahead and watching the due date get pushed into the future. It's a nice feeling to know that I don't owe anything got a few years so if there's every a time when I can't pay for awhile at least I won't be missing any payments with them.
Problem is they changed my payment schedule. Is that even legal? For simplicity's sake, let's say I'm paid ahead until 2018 and my my payments are $100/month, per each loan. They can't just decide to lower the monthly payment to $50 and make the payments due next month, can they? They literally took my remaining balance on both loans, spread it out for another 10 years with lower payments and made it due the next month.
"Federal regulations require a loan holder to push the next payment due date up for every multiple of the monthly payment they receive."
I've had this corrected, but now I'm extremely annoyed with Great Lakes' business practices. It was nothing less than horrible trying to get them to correct it. I constantly have to watch them to make sure they are doing what I want them to do. They've also taken it upon themselves to turn my auto pay off randomly a few times with no notice or change the autopay amount to $0.
Is there a way I can get them to stop doing this to my account? Has anyone had these issues with Great Lakes?
I was already on IBR. They were very odd when I called and questioned the changes. The lady was rude, refused to change anything, and kept insisting that I had requested the change. I asked her how I had requested it (I never requested it, but I was curious of how she'd claim I had since I don't think it's possible on their website) and she said that I had used a goverment website to request they reschedule it. I'm pretty sure I know the goverment website she's talking about, it's where you can go to view a list of all of your federal student loans and see what the totals were and what is left now, etc. I'm also pretty sure you can't even request that change on that website- it's just to view a list. I'm also totally unable to access my account on the goverment loan website because you need to use your ssn to login and mine is not recognized.
After being told repeatedly that I had requested the change, she kept insisting that there was no way she could change it back, and when I asked for my call to be transfered to someone else she kept saying "Why? *sigh* They'll just tell you the same thing I did". She finally transfered my call to a man who seemed totally uninterested, still insisted that I had requested the change (he told me he was unsure how I had requested it), then he promptly changed it back to normal.
I half-believe something is screwed up because another student enrolled at the same college at the same time with the same first and last name. Makes me wonder if she requested a change to her loans? Seems highly unlikely but I can't understand any other reason for it. I'll be so glad when I'm done dealing with Great Lakes.