Ecsi review: Gouging charges to pay student loan 26

They'll send you a confirmation email for a payment that is titled "Payment Confirmation". But if you look about halfway into the email, sometimes it says "Payment declined..." I didn't notice this and got charged a late fee. Oh, but they didn't tell me about my late fee when I went to pay the next month's payment. Instead, they sent me a bill for $1.00 a month and a half later then proceeded to report me to the Credit Bureau for being 30 days past due. Did I say I tried to pay this online and over the phone? The customer service representative wouldn't help me with anything because as soon as you sign up to manage your account online, you sign away any right to receive phone aid. It's a real shame ECSI is used by universities. Especially because the loans they handle are usually federally awarded loans to lower-income students.

Online Direct Payment is a joke. In order to make a 1 time payment, you have to cancel scheduled payments.

I've been dealing with the continual headache of ECSI for the last year. At every turn their practices have been opaque, exasperating, and down right predatory. I echo the experiences posted above, and feel for anyone that is forced to deal with this terrible organization.

ECSI is the worst bill payment service in the world. Their web site is poor and difficult to read. It looks like they used out of date technology to service their clients. Even the information in help page is not consistent with the online bill. I make my son's tuition payment plan in every semester. However, they withdraw twice from my account in a month, and said I already paid all of the tuition. It looks like idiots are running this company. I don't why so many school choose ECSI. It's obvious that the school administration never pay bill through ECSI.

ECSI's website is 10 years outdated. I'll never take out another endowment loan for the sole reason that I never want to have to deal with them again. I sent payments on time every month and randomly got a letter saying my account was 127 days past due. They were applying my payments to the wrong account. I'm starting to wonder if ECSI is operated by trained chimpanzees. ECSI IS TERRIBLE!

I cancelled my tuition payment plan with them on the phone. Customer service rep. confirmed the cancellation and told me there will be no more charges. Guess what? They took out $300+ from my account this morning. Going to call and them ask them to put it back.

Good luck making a payment with these guys. I feel like their whole system is designed to trick you into making the wrong payment, so they can then charge you late fees. I signed up for auto pay, thinking, hey this will keep me from getting any late fees. Right? Wrong! I thought I checked the box to pay the full amount owed every quarter, well turns out they don't have that box. The box I checked was to pay the full principal every quarter, not interest. Which is great for all those people out there that like to pay only principal, and rack up late fees. So 4 monts later I get notice that I owe money and late fees since I've only been auto paying principal. Thanks a lot ESCI!
P.s. Their customer service rep was very nice, but only waived one late fee, not both.

I don't even know how I got a loan from these people. I consolidated all my loans, and much to my dismay, this one wasn't included. Apparently I accepted one term in my six-year college career. I was unemployed for a few months and put my federal loans into deferment, but still have to fill out the ECSI paperwork and send documentation that my federal have been deferred. Shouldn't they communicate? Same thing happened when I went back to school for a spell. It took forever for them to defer. I'd prefer to pay it off on a credit card with low interest and instead deal with Visa or AmEx or whatever, but that would cost me $70! Whatever. And yes, I haven't seen a site like this since I had dial-up.

my perkins loans are almost 10 years old...
Received grace period after graduating from graduate school...they sent me mutiple bills during my grace period I originally thought I had to pay, as there was no note saying otherwise...they website said nothing about a grace period I had to find out I had one by doing some research...then it happens that one of the many "bills" they sent me had a small statement on the bottom saying my grace period was ending...I completely missed this statement...as I received no notification of the end from them at all...all my other loan companies send letters preempting the end of a deferment/grace period...now I'm sure I'll have a late fee...I f**** hate this company and their joke of a website

STUDENT! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! !
Horrible Costumer service! i never got a bill when my loans ran out of deferment, and it wasn't until 2 month after that I checked to see when they were due. as soon as I saw it was over due by a few days i made the payment and called to explain my situation to avoid a late fee. They told me a manager was going to call me back within 2 days. I never received a called back. I called back again, same thing... no call back! now im tuck paying a late fee that is their fault for not sending any invoices... very annoying.
People are rude and useless.

NELNET = Awesome!
ECIS = HORRIBLEEE!

WOW, thanks everyone for posting comments. Just thought I'd google ECSI before using it when the UNC student loan page routed me there. I'll definitely keep dealing with the pain of mailing them a check then! You've probably kept many other people from having to deal with them who just don't bother saying so... anyway, THANKS

ECSI is terrible. Several attempts at setting up auto-withdrawl payments ended in late fees. Changing my bank info got me a NSF charge. Despite desperately correcting payments each month, they dinged my credit report. After a deferment period, a computer glitch set my new auto pay date to the year 9999, and again was charged a late fee. Then received a default notice for my payment being short $1 - a fee charged for the computer phone call telling me my payment was late! I've bitterly swallowed the fees; after all it's only a few more dollars to my student loan debt. But, considering the 1000s of students that are probably paying the same fees, ECSI is making quite a bit of extra money.

ECSI is the worst lending service. Auto withdrawal doesn't work, they charge you for their ineptitude and they are practically inaccessible if you work normal hours.

I really think we need to do a class action lawsuit. This payment plan is set up so I will pay as much as I borrowed. I have been mislead from
the beginning. Between unexplained payment increases and unequal principle/interest application of payments, I have all but
lost any hope for a true and accurate accounting of my payments. We have a case.

I am so glad I found this website. ECSI is downright horrible. I filed a complaint with the Ombudsman Group, which did nothing but waste my time. ECSI gives you wrong information when you call them and you end up paying for their mistakes. My story is too long to post so I will just copy and paste my complaint that I sent to the Ombudsman Group.
"On Tuesday, September 9, 2014, at 6:42 PM EST I Contacted ECSI re: a forbearance/ deferment on my Perkins. I spoke with a gentleman who confirmed my mailing address and advised that the forms will be mailed to me due to not being able to email them per US Department of Education policy. The notice I received stated that if they do not receive a request for deferment or forbearance within 30 days action will be taken. Well my other accounts are in forbearance so I knew this one should qualify as well. On Friday, September 26, 2014 at 10:45 AM EST I contacted ECSI again due to not receiving the requested form. I initially spoke with a female customer service representative who basically told me I didn’t qualify for a forbearance/deferment. I spoke with a Supervisor and explained to him the conversation I had with the male customer service representative on 09/09/2014. The Supervisor stated that he would have the call pulled and follow up with me on Tuesday, September 30, 2014, due to not being at work on Monday, September 29, 2014, to attend a funeral. During this call I was also advised that there were no notes on my account stating that I called in 09/09/2014. I gave the Supervisor my cell phone number due to it not being on my account. I never received that call. On December 2, 2014 at 1:32 PM EST I called and spoke with a female customer service representative who stated that there was not a Supervisor available to speak with me and that she did not see where there was ever a ticket created on my account for a Supervisor to call me back. I disconnected the call and contacted the US Department of Education Ombudsman Group. I spoke with a lady who gave me a case number (1-[protected]) and advised me to log onto consumerfinance.gov and file a complaint. Well that wasn’t helpful, it directed me back to the US Department of Education. ECSI emailed me (I gave my email address to the gentleman on 09/09/2014) on 12/08/2014 re: my past due payment, I replied with a request for a Supervisor call. I never received a call. "

Once again, the Ombudsman Group did nothing on my behalf. They just took ECSI's word for it and never had the calls pulled or anything. Jada Morrow was the Ombudsman person I dealt with regarding this matter.

This company is terrible. I cannot believe they are able to get away with what they have been for as long as they have. Not only have i been unfortunate enough to get conned into using them - in 3 years my principle balance has gone down a whopping $58. They also increased my payments by over $100/month without notifying me. Something is not right here. Not at all.

ECSI recently took over as lender for an old Perkins of mine and I agree...THEY ARE THE WORST! I feel fortunate that I have not gone through the payment hassles I've read about...I signed up for monthly direct debit and all was smooth. However, now that it is tax time no one can tell me how much interest I paid this past year in order to deduct it from my income taxes, I can't access a 1098-E, and the amount is not available on any of my past statements as it is on bills from my other lenders. COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT!

My student loan hadn't gone into repayment. You would think that it would be easy to pay off a student loan completely before it comes due. NOPE! First off, the website looks like something that would have been cutting edge in 1996. The information on it is not clearly laid out, it's confusing, and it's totally not clear what you should do. The first time, I didn't check the box saying that I wanted to make a payment in deferrment. Now mind you, I'm trying to GIVE THEM MONEY. Even though I checked "pay off balance, " they declined my payment because I didn't check that one box! Of course, because I'm paying it off before my deferrment is up, they probably want to gouge me for interest. If my payment is not accepted this second time, I am absolutely going to write to our state, and probably the University it was given at, not that they care, because they've long since gotten their money. Seriously, sell plasma before you deal with this company for a student loan.

ECSI has now been taken over by Hearland, and is called Heartland ECSI. I read the comments above and all of these things have happened to me. I am actually going to try to pay off my loan to the university, directly. If they won't allow this, I will put the money in an escrow account. I don't even care if my credit gets messed up. I JUST SIMPLY WILL NOT DEAL WITH HEARTLAND ECSI AGAIN! THEY WILL PRETEND TO LOSE MY PAYMENT AGAIN!

ECSI is indeed the worst, pray your loan doesn't get into their incompetent hands. I've got time to Google them since they've got me on hold with an estimated FORTY-SIX minute hold time. The 'jokes' about their ridiculous website are sincere, it's no joke. The site was constructed and copyrighted in 1997 and has had no significant update since. I suspect Y2k and the 64-bit age have really taken their toll on ECSI's IT department. To log in, you need to provide THREE fields of info. Got loans from different schools? Haha, separate logins, double the fun. A special notes section on the account page lets you know who you're dealing with. "As a result of American Express regulations, ECSI will no longer be accepting American Express credit card payments. But ECSI is pleased to announce that VISA has changed their stance on fixed fees and will soon be an option in the winter of 2013." Apparently they don't get along with financial service companies either.
Everything said in these comments has happened to us. My favorite is signing up for their auto payment system, having it run okay for 10 months, but then it decides to take a break for 3 months. So their system malfunctions, but YOU pay the fees and take the hits on your credit score. The fine print says so. We put it on autopay precisely so that we wouldn't have to babysit the thing.
Submitting your annual Perkins loan Cancellation/Deferment application(s) is such a chore with these guys, they only accept US Mail or FAX. I did get to show my 12-year-old what a fax machine was and how they were used in the business world before scan mail came along. Another fun feature of their antique accounting system is that if one of your loans that's supposed to be in cancellation/deferment comes out of deferment status, they start randomly applying part of payments to other loans to the Perkins loan, so you get BOTH loans past due. It's just too much fun with these guys.

Truth, ECSI is the worst student loan company ever (other than Sally Mae, of course). I have the displeasure of having had my loan sold to them by my ex-servicer. Every month I have to pay my bill it is a headache. Is your bill due on the 15th, like mine is? Okay, I must log in, agree to their "electronic invoicing" AGAIN (Literally, I say I consent every month yet whenever I log in it's the same thing), then I must navigate their million payment options to "Schedule a payment"- yes, you must schedule at least ONE DAY in advance to pay your loan. Otherwise, you have to do an "instant echeck" which charges you 1.00 the day of so you don't get at late fee. Clearly it takes them so much work for their automated system to process your payment the day of. In fact, I tried to pay my loan today, yet "their system is currently processing other payments". This is NOT my highest interest loan, but I am ready to pay off the whole thing just so I can save my health from the stress of dealing with this bleeping horrid company.

PLEASE, LAW FIRM SOMEWHERE, THIS IS CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT MATERIAL. I AM READY TO JUMP ON BOARD. LOL

THE WORST! Some how they had an automatic withdrawal on my account that said that I wanted the payment to get taken out 996 times! When I went online to check it out, somehow I didn't see anything and customer service told me that they had removed it after I complained. My bank then blocked the payment and sent it back and they continued to charge me $25 for it being returned when it was their fault anyway! After talking to customer service again, they said that it was just policy and they couldn't help me any further. SUCH HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND LOAN COMPANY ALL TOGEHER!

I have experienced almost all of the hardships described here with Hearland ECSI. I was on the phone for 1 hr 30 minutes waiting to speak to a customer service representative. Once I finally got through to someone, I was given conflicting excuses as to why their system didn't match up with my billing statements. According to their system I was "current" on my bills, but my last two bills state that I am past due and being charged late fees. When I told them that was fraud they suddenly came back with a story that their system shows I didn't pay two months from 2016. I have proof from my bank statements that shows I have made all payments for the past year. Does anyone know if anything can be done about this? They are clearly committing fraud in my mind and taking advantage of current and past students trying to navigate through the difficult process of paying off student loans. This can't continue!

This is the email I sent to ECSI, just for the record.

There is a huge mistake on my student loan balance. This week, the outstanding amount to be paid for my account was $2411.81.

I paid off the ENTIRE balance, and now I see that my zero balance, has overnight become $289.50.

I am tired of you [censored] (not the people that work there, but the [censored] that run your system) and I WILL fight and participate in any class action suite or anything that will take you down.

I would like my account to be returned to the ZERO Balance because I PAID MY WHOLE BILL IN FULL.

I read on the news that you mistakenly assigned someone a $4 million loan balance, so I know that your balance number is not trustworthy and your system has major glitches.
I will not be conned by your systematic and unprofessional errors.

Best Regards,