AES Student Loan Lates Due to False/Faulty Information from CSR Reps.

[avh5252]

Below is the dispute letter that I have sent to my lender regaurding my issue. Unfortunately, they denied any fault in the situation and claim that they are not obligated to review call logs because the CSR never should have stated that I do not need to make payments until the situation is resolved.

My credit score is currently showing:

Acct 1: 1 30 day Late                                  Remarks: Dispute resolver; Customer Disagrees
Acct2: 1 30 day late and 1 60 day late     Remarks: Dispute resolver; Customer Disagrees

Is their any recourse I can take to get the lates off my credit score?

To whom it may concern,

My name is XXXXX XXXXXX (DOB: XX/XX/XXXX) and I have an existing student loan account. (Acct #XXXXXXXXX)

I believe that the negative reporting on this account, for 2 separate loans, from April and May of 2018 should be removed from my credit report. During this time, I was under the impression that my student loan accounts were in a grace period of 6 months, as advertised by the loan provider(PNC). Since my graduation date was in late December of 2017, my first loan payment should not have been due until June of 2018.

Once I discovered that there was an issue with my anticipated payment schedule, I contacted the loan servicer (AES) to figure out what steps I needed to take to remedy this issue. Through multiple phone calls to AES, I tried to have the situation figured out, only to get no accurate answer. I was told that I was not required to make a payment until the issue was clarified. It seemed that every time I called AES, I was connected with a new representative that had no notes on previous calls. The new representatives tried to do exactly what previous one’s did – providing the same unhelpful solutions from a script.

It took almost 2 months of phone calls and waiting for calls to be returned(that often never were) before I was able to get in contact with a specialist. This specialist was extremely helpful, and I was finally able to determine the reason that my grace period was not working as I had anticipated.

It turned out that my student loan had a maximum timeframe of a 5-year limit before payments were required – not mentioned anywhere besides a single line in the “fine print” of the loan contract. If this information was relayed to me early on, instead of being told that a payment was not required until the issue was resolved, there never would have been any missed payments.

I feel that the AES is responsible for these missed payments due to not accurately answering my many inquires during the timeframe of this unfortunate issue. If you look at my account, you will see that these are the only late payments with nearly a year having past. These 3 negative items are negatively affecting my ability to consolidate loans in order to pay them off more efficiently. I sincerely hope that we are able to get this reporting cleared up in an acceptable fashion.

                                                                                                                Thanks for your understanding,                

                                                                                                                                                                XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[gdale6]

You could write an appeal to the US Education department and explain what happened. Also could file a complaint with the CPFB if this doesnt get you satisfaction. Welcome to myFico

[avh5252]

Thanks for some next steps!

Given the circumstances, do you think it is likely to be removed from my report?

[Anonymous]

I'm am very sorry this happened to you and many of us learn the hard way how horrible the servicers can be. I've been there too.
That's why I hope you don't take what I'm about to at the wrong way. Yes, the servicer did the wrong thing in advising you not to make payments. However, unless you got that it in writing, it's hearsay. Telling your story moght be enough for them to take responsibility with the Ombudsman or a CFPB complaint, but there's not guarantee. The initial delinquency was your error. I would have likely thought the same thing about the 6 months, but that doesn't change the fact that we sign for these loans so we are responsible for knowing the fine print. It further complicates things because I got the impression you didn't check your account, which would have alerted you to a problem early on. The reason I mention all this is because when you do your complaint, if there's a reason you couldn't find out sooner, including hardship or having trouble accessing your account, it couldn't hurt your case to explain that briefly imo.
I would fight to have two months of lates removed. Of they tell you no, you haven't lost anything. (If you get them removed, what lates will remain?) I think that the servicers shouldn't be off the hook when all it takes is one helpful person in customer service to prevent it from getting this far.
My advice is to start with your servicer again. This time, don't accuse them of anything or tell them the whole story. They tend to deny wrongdoing in my experience. Your main goal is simply to create a paper trail. Call and ask for one thing at a time, and it's best to skip the useless first person that answers the phone. My servicer will transfer me to a specialist upon request. They have the ability to see deep into your account and to make corrections. Ask for your bills, correspondence (they keep a copy of all of it), customer service logs (they can give them to you, I just had to ask repeatedly and in print. They even state why you called). I usually wait a week them make the request by email or fax. Record dates, names, employee numbers. Download or save everything you can from your online account. You might even explain your story once to someone just to put down what their "official" answer is. You'll need all of this later.

Step two for me was going to the student loan Ombudsman. Some get a helpful resolution, some don't.
My last step was to go to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I filed a detailed complaint with the CFPB, and uploaded everything I had. They responded quickly, with a solution more than I asked for (and of course a manual correction that lead to another near disaster but that's servicers for you.) I don't think there is a limit on how many times you can do this until you get a reasonable result.
After you save their response and any attachments, if they don't fix it with the CRAs, you can just dispute the info.
Are you interested in consolidation into a new federal loan or a private loan?

[avh5252]

Hey Sabii, Thanks for the response. Here is a more in depth account of what happened.

As soon as the first bill was received I logged onto my account to try to see what was going on. Unfortunately, their website only shows that a payment was due, with no other information. That week I contacted the lender to see what was going on, as I was positive I was in my grace period(as all my other loans were). The CSR was not super helpful, but I assumed he was just reading from a script anyway. I asked to be contacted by someone who was able to look into the situation further. However, that call never came, so after a week I called back again.

This time I was told that I had used up all of my grace period time, in 2015. I told them that this had to be a mistake, as I was enrolled full time during this period. I then had to get proof of enrollment from my schools, which had to be signed, in person, by the Bursar's Office. A week later, I finally was able to get all the paperwork and signatures needed to prove that I was enrolled full time and that my grace period should have never been used up. I mailed this documentation in, along with all relevant information about my account. A week later, I called the servicer, only to be told that they had not received any paperwork from me, ever. I knew this was impossible, as I had sent previous documents in AND had conversations about those documents with other CSRs. Their solution was to get the forms again, with signatures in ink, from the Bursars. 

At this point, I asked for a case specialist. After an insanely long hold, I was finally connected to someone who was able to help. They immediately appologized for the issues I was having. They requested the same documents providing proof of enrollment during the time frame that my grace period was showing as used. I agreed that I would go get the documents a second time, but I would like to drop them off to the specialist in person at the AES HQ in Harrisburg Pa. She had to get permission for me to be able to do this, as apparently its against company policy to have any face-to-face contact with their customers. Permission was granted due to my specific circumstances. Around a week later, I was able to get the proof of enrollment to her. She said she would get the information put into the AES system and that hopefully the issue would be fixed. She said she would call me once everything was complete.

A few days later I received a call from the specialist. She said that the grace period use from 2015 had been corrected, however there was another issue. She had contacted multiple people within the servicing agency to figure out why my bill was still showing due. She finally was able to find out that there was a completely unexpected 5 year maximum loan period within the fine print of the loan contract. This was far from typical, as it is the first one she had ever seen with this issue. At this point, I was so fusturated I had given up and accepted that I was just going to have to make payments earlier than expected. Since then, I have not missed a payment in a year with them.

As to what will remain once these 3 missed payments are gone, I will only have 1 30 day late left on my otherwise spotless report.

I will try talking to a specialist again to see if I am able to get anywhere. Thanks for your advice.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I understand better now. I thought you meant that you discovered it after the grace period was over.
You should have an "easy" enough time getting them removed then. Just gather as much paperwork as you have copies of, and if you could try that customer service log, it would help. Once you also make PDFs of everything available on your account on the website, since you have so much information already, I think I would be done talking to them. They are likely not going to admit they did anything wrong and not going to fix it. Imo you've given them plenty of opportunity to do so.
The explanation you provided should cover why you didn't know about the contract details. Even if you had known, imo when we great something from our servicer we count on them giving us accurate information. If they had not done so, you likely would have just started paying.
The Ombudsman will take a bit of time. After you file the complaint it will just be a lot of waiting. While some do find solutions through them, I have personally experienced the bias of what is essentially the Dept of Education in charge of its own (contractor's) corrective action. I think you can only file the complaint once.
If you don't get a complete resolution from the CFPB later, you can always file a be complaint. You may have to file a second complaint for them to correct the lates with the credit bureaus. Maybe not; I didn't. CFPB didn't have any real power but the servicers tend to respond.
Don't forget to get a copy of your 3B reports before the changes if you haven't already. There should be some major changes in there once you get a solution. Unless you're good if Forgiveness, I'd seek for them to credit the interest back. That gets complicated, especially if it's capitalized.
One thing at a time though. Good luck on the Ombudsman complaint.