I was completing a PhD and took two relatively small student loans in 2010 and 2012. In the past a state bank had serviced all of my loans, but with the privatization of student loans, Nelnet, unbeknownst to me, had been assigned the loans. I did not know this, as we changed residences about this time. I changed my address with the student aid office at my university, but evidently Nelnet didn't receive this information. When I graduated and the loans came out of deferrement in February, I never received any statements or correspondence from Nelnet and now I have a 90 day past due ding on my credit. I had a credit score of about 780 and now it's down to 640, at last check. I found out about this when I applied for a new mortgage and was denied a 30 year fixed.
I immediately called Nelnet. The "advisor" admitted that they had multiple pieces of mail returned and made phone calls to disconnected numbers. Even though I had my mother and sister listed on my promisory note, with contact info, they never bothered to contact them to see if I had died, moved, or what. A Nelnet supervisor suggested that I file disputes with the three big bureaus and that they wouldn't fight those disputes. They lied. The credit report now lists the loans as being current and paid as agreed, but the original 90 day negative was not removed.
I phoned Nelnet and went up one level and spoke with an unbelievably rude woman who sounded like a lawyer. The entire conversation was filled with reliance on technicalities with absolutely no human connection whatsoever. I was informed that I should have known better and that I should have provided address information to them. My arguement back was that I had no idea who "they" were in the first place! The woman basically had an answer to everything and informed me that they will never remove the 90 day past due. She also felt compelled to inform me that if I continued to dispute this, that it would adversly affect my credit. I filed a BBB complaint, but I'm sure it won't get me anywhere.
This is a bad, bad company with unscrupulous practices and terrible, robotic customer service. If you're looking for human beings, understanding, and compassion, you've come to the wrong place. I think I might contact my senators, but again, I'm sure it won't matter. One question I have is, if a company like Nelnet posts a 90 day past due on someone's credit and then later removes it, does it adversly effect them in some way? I guess I am just trying to figure out if there is potential damage to be done to Nelnet or if they are just total a-holes.
