U.S. Department of Education review: Faulty loan records! 34

How much did you pay in full (PIF) account? Was there two US Department of Education loans? Did you settle in full (SIF)? Are you sure you didn't PIF the wrong amount? You and your lawyer need to contact customer service and express that you have proof where you PIF (or SIF whichever is the case). And why wouldn't you see on your credit file that it was unpaid? Don't you run your report EVERY year? I'm not saying it's your fault, but if you caught it earlier then it could have been resolved way back then. I would make sure that the Department of Education corrects the error as soon as possible.

Pablo.

I processed paperwork with Direct Loans for a POSSIBLE consolidation - because they refused to give me accurate numbers without an application. As it turned out, Citibank was willing to give me a better deal if I stayed with them. Though I called Direct Loans to stop the consolidation, they processed it anyway. I received a letter from them stating that the consolidation would go through within 10 days of the date of the letter sent - only I received it 3 days too late. When I called them, they showed no record of my phone call (though my phone records prove that I did call) and refused to stop payment on the check that they had sent. I will now end up paying them $8, 000 more than I would have paid Citibank by the end. Their business practices are deceiving and illegal - but is it worth the cost and headache of a legal battle? I'm still undecided on that, but I can tell you this: ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CONSOLIDATE WITH DIRECT LOANS!

same thing happened to me. they used phoney names as reference, and told me I had to sign. when I refused, they made my paid bill into 14, 000. the loan has been paid, and it is 30 years since I took out 4, 000. again, it is paid, and they applied interest on what I didnt owe.
I will retire this year, and my s.s. check is below what they can take. finally I will be rid of them. I did contemplate suicide at one point as I have no money for medical bill, so what is th epoint of living.

I to was forced to sign or go to jail is what they told me in 2003. Admitted the original student loan one for $2, 500 was supposed to be dismissed in 1988 due to me being homeless, no income, zero. Lawyer filed it incorrectly, though the judge approved under my hardship. In 2003, again phoney names, I was in a domestic violence relationship and anything they said I would have signed, to save the fall out with my ex at the time; most of all, I was trying to get out and find a place for my kids. NOW, they want me to make payments and do not base it on my living expenses, eg: my rent and three children, nope, strictly off the gross. I cannot afford this and they will not listen. Every time I get off the phone I am so distraught that I truly feel like quitting my job and living in my car, again; with my children and collecting food stamps; than to attempt to make things right, and they do not make them right.

Their customer service quite frankly, sucks. In fact they are anything but customer service. I mailed a payment to them that was improperly credited and I get treated like a villian. I asked the lady for her name and she said Mercedes, I then asked for her last name it all I got was an H. Mercedes H. I then asked for her supervisor's name, and she was not allowed to give that out, I then asked for an employee number or badge number and again, nothing. Pathetic.

The same thing has hapened to me, constant threats of garnishment. when i offered to pat 250 per month they demanded 500.

Asked for a loan consolidation, I now owe three times the value of my loan, the consolidation was done without my written consent.

I have been dealing with the misplacing my payment for 4 months now. I provided them proof of payment from their own merchant bank and they continue to tell me they are still investigating. I would really like to know what recourse we have since talking to them doesn't work.

Gosh after reading the post. I am scared. I have had my share of run in with the customer service reps. They hang up on you, you can't question them and everything on the computer that sits in front of them is correct and can not possibly be wrong. Just today I called about the consolidation loan and the servicer hung up on me because I was questioning her and she couldn't answer my questions. When i called back the new rep said there were no notes that I had called. I asked to speak to a supervisor and I was put into a voice mail. lol I bet though that no servicer is good. I know AES gave my information to a lender I had nothing to do with and claims it was a mistake but they never sent a letter or anything apologizing. I could go on and on. I thought the democrats would have restored full consumer protection but I don't think they care as they (republicans too) are in bed with the student loan industry. I believe that if full consumer protection rights were restored that these companies would be better to do deal as they could be sued if they violated consumer protection laws. As it stands now these companies have cart blanche to threaten and do anything it takes to get blood from a turnip. I think the only thing they can't do is send someone to beat you up. But, if they could they would not blink twice to send someone to rough you up. sigh...

OMG, wish I had seen this before I started my consolidation nightmare with them. I've been trying to consolidate my loan with Direct Loans since July 1st when the new interest rates came out. The process was only supposed to take a couple weeks I was told but Direct Loans kept sending payoff requests or whatever to my original lender (ACS) at a wrong address. After calling between the two lenders for weeks, I finally got Direct Loans to fax whatever they had to to ACS so I could consolidate. Direct Loans says they mailed off the payment amount September 14th but ACS never received it. I'm afraid Direct Loans mailed the pay off amount to a wrong address again. Now both lenders are claiming they have my loan and I need to pay them. Both have agreed to put my loan into forbearance until this is figured out. I asked Direct Loan customer service if they could try and figure this out. They said no! Is it really my responsibility to hold everyone's hands through this? I filed the paperwork and they should do the rest. That's how I feel. So I don't have a loan to pay for the month of October and with the incompetence Direct Loans has shown I doubt I have to pay anyone for a while.

Also, Direct Loan customer services is the worst! While I've been talking to them about how long it should take ACS to acknowledge that they received the payment I've been told 3 different times. First it was 7-10 days, I then told them it's been over that so they said 15 instead. I change customer service reps and was then told it could take 30 days!

I paid off my loans years ago. Since then I cleaned out my files. Several days ago my sister recieved an overdue payment letter at my old address. Direct Loans claim I had an outstanding balance of 1350, interest of nearly 300 and collection payments of more than 400. They claim they have corresponded with my sisters address. First they claimed ten times, later they said three times, however, they only sent a letter in June this year followed by a further two. If I owed so much money, why didn't they contact me sooner, expecially as my last payment was in 2006. When I phone direct loans they only process my call to a voicemail which says I must deal with the collection agency. The agency says that only direct loans can give me a history of the repayments. I have been asked to tender prorf which I foolishly threw out. As I have lived overseas for years I made my repayments via interenational money orders. I really don't what to do. Can alnyone help me and can I say to anyone thinking about a lend from direct loan. DON"T DO IT!

If you remember the movie "Beetlejuice" and the hellish bureaucrat, this is the US Department of Education. It is a hellish beast that devours anything and everyone. For those that haven't taken out a student loan, RUN, don't walk, but run as far as you can from the student loan business.

I firmly believe that anyone that works there has already died; and this is THEIR hell, to make life hell for the rest of us.

I am dealing with them now. I make regular payments ahead of schedule and they do not apply them correctly. With other lending institutions they apply my payments first to the unsubsidized loans then to the others only after it is paid off. With Direct Loan, they apply my payment so it best benefits them and I continue to rack up interest. I have to call them now after each payment and request it to be reapplied to the unsubsidized loans. This is such a huge waste of my time. It also goes to show you how two-faced they can be. Pretending like they really care about us students then stabbing us in the back. If my wife and I didn't keep these companies in check we would be throwing our money out the window.

I agree w/ Donnie 1987 - DL does not want you to pay off your loans early and they do everything they can to stop you from paying off the unsubsidized part first. I took out the full loan amount for school. I would take the extra and apply it back towards the unsubsidized loan portion and then continue to pay monthly payments. I tried posting electronically and they would take half off of the unsubsidized portion and half from the subsidized. Why would I want to pay that part off if I'm still in school! I called and they told me to e-mail after the payment went through and tell them where to direct the payment. I did this every time and it worked for a while. Then the payments stopped getting applied correctly. So then, I started sending in a check w/ a very specific letter wrapped around it (which is what DL customer service told me to do!) that said to apply it to the unsubsidized portion only. I noticed that wasn't working either and when I called in - they told me this time that, no that way doesn't always work either and I would have to call in every single time. So this means if I want to make a monthly payment I have to remember to call in every month after the payment has been processed. So much for their "easy" online payment system. This is just a way to trick students into paying more interest in the long run. I completely agree that Direct Loans is just another way to scam a vulnerable population in the name of "helping students". And, like others have advised, keep records/track of everything!

Emil Georgi I have had the SAME problems between ACS and Direct Loans. DL sent me a letter on 5/21 that my loan had been paid off at ACS and to start paying them. I got a letter from ACS saying I was 119 days late recently and I hit the roof. Apparently Direct Loans was sending my consolidation check to a different department of ACS, so ACS was sending it back . Then they had to re-send it and them meantime BOTH places were saying the other was wrong and I needed to pay them. They wanted me to get a deferment or a forebearance and I refused. Those are for hardship problems, and if I truly need one some day because of a hardship, I want to be able to use it then.

Due to accounting error between the two of them, this has damaged my credit. I was told by ACS that they could do nothing about it because they never received the money in May, so they couldn't undue the damage to my credit. My best advice to you, is what I intend on doing which is contacting the Ombudsman at the Department of Education. They are not an advocate for anyone, they are there to hear both sides of the story and make a fair assessment of the situation and suggestions on what should be done. Kind of like a mediator. I have attached their website http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/

So how do we sue these [censor]? I think a class action lawsuit is in order! I called and told them I DID NOT WANT TO CONSOLIDATE with them and was told I'd have to call back once my paperwork was finalized! I told them to notate my account and the person said they would. I then called my lender and told them to notate my account. They said they would. I just got the letter...too late! While it was delivered about 7 days prior to the deadline, I was in bed sick and didn't get my mail. I checked online and it said they consolidated on Oct. 21st. It's Oct. 24 (Sunday). I sent an email to them and to my lender in hopes of stopping this CRAZY game! I checked my lender's account and it doesn't show ANY PAYMENT AT ALL! Sooooooo, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best! Say a prayer!

I just went thought the process of trying to consolidate my loans from Mohela to Direct loans. I filled my application and Mohela sent Direct Loans my paperwork for payoff the two weeks later. Direct Loans said they never received anything more than a month after Mohela sent it. I requested it sent again. Well my loan was never process and dropped they my application. I called repeatedly and they refused to let me speak with a manger. The government has taken over the student loan business and they are screwing everyone over. They are never wrong and get an attitude with you on the phone. I can’t wait to pay off the one Direct Loan I have and never deal with them again. I have sent emails to all my Congress and Senate members about my ordeal with Direct Loans. After reviewing this I’m so glad I didn't consolidate with Direct Loans.
Please send all you Congress and Senate your problems. If they do not hear you they will figure everything is work well.

This have not happen to me yet but, I have the same loan from my school.. So I know what to look ahead for.

I am a former analyst (for 7 years) for Direct Loans, and even though there are quite a few idiots that take phone calls at the call centers there I feel the need to clarify a few things in regards to some of the comments on here. If I was the one who received any of these complaints, I honestly wouldn't have taken most of these seriously due to the fact that it was something that YOU did, simply do not agree with, or may not even be possible in the first place. Also, don't bother attacking my credibility or saying any of this is wrong because I don't care. I'm not trying to flame anyone or start a debate, just to state the facts so some of you might get a better understanding of things.

First of all, forget anything you know about other lenders when dealing with Direct Loans... any other federal loans are under the FFEL (Federal Family Education Loans) program. These loans are federally guaranteed loans underwritten by a private bank. Direct Loans are loans that are borrowed directly from the US Government, hence the name. Because of this, Direct Loans has no incentive to rack up extra interest charges for you because they don't see a penny of that money - it is basically numbers on a screen since Direct Loans is actually a student loan SERVICER, meaning they maintain the accounts on behalf of the government and is only paid a flat fee government contract. The money is lent from and repaid to the US Treasury. This is also the reason it takes a while to get a refund... Direct Loans cannot automatically refund it back, they have to send a specific request to the US Treasury. This is also the reason any refunded payment is issued as a US Treasury check (the same type of check you would receive for a federal tax refund.) Direct Loans also has no power to set any policies regarding the loans... every single policy is handed down from the US Department of Education and approved by Congress. Feel free to start that letter writing campaign informing your congressmen about the policies they voted to approve. FYI, this is the same congress who tried to eliminate the corporate welfare aspect of student loans and actually ELIMINATED the FFEL program effective with the [protected] school year. Yep, that means any new federal student loans taken out are Direct Loans and have the same terms and conditions.

Kayla - there is no such thing as a "possible consolidation." If you filled out paperwork, what you filled out was a consolidation application that you obviously didn't read. Also, to the people saying that Direct Loans is sending payments to the wrong address.. the payment address that consolidation payoff checks are sent to is also obtained directly from the borrower when you submit the consolidation application so if it was sent to the wrong address it is your fault for entering incorrect information in the first place. If you want to dispute fraud, feel free to call the customer service department and ask for a copy of your Promissory Note that has your signature on it and they will gladly send it out. If you submitted an application online, you can even view it at www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov and look at the information you submitted and agreed to along with the timestamp of exactly when it was submitted.

There is also no such thing as a "forced consolidation." What it sounds like several of you are referring to is consolidating a loan out of default, meaning that your loan was with a collection agency, just as it would be if you didn't pay any other bill. When you do this, there are collection costs and a default fee charged by the original lender (up to 20% in some cases). To get a loan out of default you can either pay it in full or do one of two things. The first would be to rehabilitate the loan, which means you make a certain number of consecutive on time monthly payments (usually 9). These payments can be high, but the only reason you defaulted in the first place is because you chose to ignore the loan for at least one year. If you do rehab your loan, all collection costs and fees are removed from the account and it is reinstated to the loan balance as of the day it defaulted. The other option is to consolidate the loan out of default, which basically means that you refinance the loan and Direct Loans buys it from the collection agency for the current balance (including the collection costs). This would explain why there was a significant increase in your balance.

Donnie - see above about FFEL loans vs. Direct Loans. Direct Loans policy is to apply any payments first to interest, then divided among active loans based on the balance of each loan. You can request any amount that has been applied to principle to be applied to the unsubsidized portion of one loan, but you do have to request this each time. I'll admit this is an outdated system to apply payments, but the reasoning behind this is that a student loan has disbursements for each semester you are enrolled in school (some unsubsidized, some subsidized) and it is not uncommon for one student loan to have 20-30 disbursements. If you mail in a payment with your normal payment coupon, that payment coupon is saying to apply it to your account in general. If you attach a specific request to have it applied to the unsub balance it will be, but it takes about 7-10 days to process. PLEASE DON'T BE IGNORANT AND SEND IN BOTH A PAYMENT COUPON AND A LETTER. When you do this, you are giving conflicting instructions and your payment will likely only be applied to the entire account.

To the people complaining about missing payments I am really not that surprised. We would receive well over 1000 checks/money orders/electronic bank bill payments every single day that didn't include a statement or enough information to apply them to an account, or it was sent to the wrong address (HINT - YOU SHOULD ONLY BE SENDING PAYMENTS TO ATLANTA, GA.) This is especially sad because we can find any account with the just the borrowers name and zip code within about 30 seconds. Therefore, if you change your address or name, update us with the correct information and don't use checks that have an address printed on them from 10 years ago. If you send a check from the account of a person with a different last name than the borrower and no other account information, the chances of that being applied to the correct account are slim. Per federal regulations, these checks are cashed whether we can find the account or not. If we can't find it, the funds are placed on hold at the US Treasury waiting for someone to call in and claim the payment. If you are missing the payment, call customer service with your checking account number/routing number, the name on the checking account, the check number, amount of the check, and the date the check cleared your bank. The phone rep should then submit a request to find a missing payment to another department. If we have that information, it takes about a minute to find any payment ever received by the US Treasury for Direct Loans. If it isn't found by this request, then we weren't the ones who cashed it.

Another thing, don't bother [censor]ing about your payment amounts or interest accruing because there isn't much Direct Loans can do. The average middle school student can probably explain how a loan works (you get money to pay for something now, you pay it back later with interest), but many college educated people can't or just feel like the basic principles of finance do not apply to them. A regular payment is calculated based on what it will take to pay your loan off in a certain time frame, including the interest that accrues. This information is available before you even sign for the loans by calling and getting an estimate or being doing a little math yourself. Still, if you can't afford your payment as calculated this way, you can switch to a plan based on your income. These plans max out at 15% of the difference between your adjusted gross income and 150% of the federal poverty guidelines based on your family size. After 25 years, if it still isn't paid off the remaining balance is forgiven. If you can't afford this payment, then you aren't living within your means in the eyes of the government and gives you the alternative of forbearance, which means that your payments are put on hold for up to a year at a time but interest still accrues. The government currently allows you to do this an unlimited number of times, so under the current regulations you really don't have to pay your loan back if you feel you can't.

That is all.. hopefully a few people are a little less ignorant now...

Brandon

Received a bill yesterday from Direct Loans saying that I was 3 payments behind. I pulled up my bank's online history of their bill pay service (thank GOD for this!) and verefied that DL people are, in fact, high.
The first computer mule I spoke with told me that I was 8 days late for November (they withdrew funds over a week ago... so no, I'm not 8 days late). Then she told me that I owed 2 payments, not 3. I counted the transactions on my bank account. It's November. I counted 11 payments made to Direct Loans this year. So...no, that wasn't it. Then she told me that I had just skipped August all together. Again, I have made every payment this year on time. Clearly, this person couldn't even read the computer screen in front of her and couldn't give me a solid, substantiated answer to save her life as to why I owed her 3 payments (or was it 2? She just couldn't decide on a final answer, except to state that she was right). I asked for her supervisor. The supervisor hopped on the line and I read the date of every single payment that had posted to them this year, but she refused to back down. Upon going back further, we realized that I had missed a payment 16 MONTHS ago (for $50). I was fuming at this point. A) It's a clerical error on my part that I'm happy to rectify. B) This lady had the nerve to tell me that I should be more responsible in responding to their correspondence.

First of all, I called them the minute I opened that letter. Second of all, all their contact info (address, email, phone #) was correctly verified when I first called, yet they had some random address that I had never lived at where they were sending mail (mind you, I updated my billing address when I bought my house over a year and a half ago... like a RESPONSIBLE PERSON and that letter seemed to magically appear in my mailbox out of nowhere yesterday). None of this makes sense. I did not appreciate being berrated over something so stupid that took them 16 months, an idiot at a call center, and a supervisor to figure out.

I am honoring my obligations to the loan I took out and do not deserve that kind of "customer service" from some bureaucratic science experiment gone awry.

Direct Loans, train your call center people to give basic, CORRECT information. Here's a start: "Ma'am, it appears that you have missed a payment in July of '09. How would you like to take care of this?" Make sure your automated system states WHY you want money from me (not just "you owe us 3 payments. Thanks", which was incorrect.). Make sure that when someone updates billing information with you guys, you send mail to that updated address (which you CLEARLY had on file because that's the address you provided me when I first called. Idiots.). It's sad that you people have to be babysat like this just to get my $50 a month. What a PIA.

On the other hand, this just further re-inforces what a great idea bill pay services through your bank are. I can clearly see that I in fact missed a payment. I caught this before the computer mules at the call center did.

But telling someone they owe 1, 2, or 3 payments (and not knowing exactly how many) without an explanation and calling them irresponsible? Get it together.

Well, I see what I am in for. This is not good, I can not believe how these people are just out to take money like this, this [censor] is none sense to me. Well, GOOD LUCK to you, because by hearing what just happen to you about your loans, I do not have a FREAKING CLUE about what will happen to me. I guess the best thing to do is stay on top of your game with this kind of [censor], because if you don't you are in for a big problem.

I have just begun loan repayment with Direct Loans and from the get go it has been a MESS. they sent me a bill for 4, 000 dollars which was the original amount in the summer. In October (during grace period) I start getting almost over 20 statements saying I owe different amounts and that my loan is being adjusted-the statements went from 4, 000 to 4, 343 I called to get this fixed--it comes back with a statement of 4, 569 and now as I made my first payment they balooned it to 4, 600! on an subsidized loan! I have callled REPEATED times everytime they send it in to "fix" this [censor] it comes back with a higher amount! The financial aid officer at my university even called to tell them this is a false amount! I feeel like I need to sue someone now because this is ridiculous! they are the freaking government shouldn't they have set records of this?! I don't even have money for a lawyer and how am I supposed to sue for 600-they better fix this [censor] because I don't have free money to give away!

I completely agree with you all. Getting funding for school is an absolute joke anymore. Consolidating doesn't get a better interest rate either. I have also been burned by direct student loans. I called this morning to let them know that I didn't want two of my loans listed in there because I have a 2.47 percent on them and when it consolidated it was 6.25. Total increase and too much in interest that I want to pay back. The letter was dated on 12/20, when did I get it? 12/31 after their office closed for a long weekend due to the New Year. So I am sol because there were too incompetent to either one send the letter out earlier or two give people more than ten days to make changes. I have never been more disgusted with a money managing organization. Shame on them and I will never refer them to handle any one else's schooling finances.

I am trying to consolidate some sub loans in order to release more funding so I can continue going to school, but my plans were ruined when I found out the US Dept of ED has the Monopoly on consolidation now. Even the lender I consolidated some of my loans with can't add any loans now. I have to contact US Dept of ED instead. The reality of all this is I don't want to consolidate with them, I had some loans with them and the interest rate are too high. I was told by financial aid at the school I am trying to go to that my sub loans are at 26000 if I can get that to 23000 or under by consolidating some sub loan(s) then some funding would be available. Don't know what to do!

During the latter years of the 80's I heard of USA Training Academy out of Pensacola, Florida which is/was a truck driving school. The times I was driving cross country, the type of license required was a class D. However, after hearing of them, I phoned them. They mailed me some trial lessons, and told me I was under no financial obligation. The lessons was sent to me for trial purposes only. Later, I recieved a check from a lending institution out of some part of Maryland. After holding the check for a while the school phoned daily, many of times 2, 3, or even 4 times a day urging me to sign the check and mail it back to them. After doing some investigative work on my own, I deemed not to leave my home in Louisiana to go to Florida to end up virtually homeless. I politely placed the unsigned check in an envelope they had sent me and mailed it back to them. Shortly after, I begun to recieve letter after letter from the U.S. Department of Education saying how much money I owed them. I've done everything in my powers to inform them that I did not pursue the class USA Training Academy offered and returned the check back to them. The collector for the U.S. Department of Education just wasn't trying to hear it. In fact he became quite rude over the phone. I'm requesting information on how to relinquish this matter without having to pay monies I didn't use.

Thanking you in advance, Nel

Agree with these complaints. In exchange for the money to pay off my loan in a lump sum, I committed the rest of my life to a thankless unpaid servitude. That is how much I took responsibility for my debt. The lump sum was huge and I sent it to ConServe in NY after they assured me they contacted US Dept of Ed to get a final payoff for ALL my loans. That amount by the way is hidden on the US Direct Loan website, The people at ConServe made it seem very official by connecting me with various ever-higher levels of supervisors. The final supervisor over Ms. Holmes assured me I would owe nothing more to the US Direct Loan or Dept. Of Education. A year after paying the debt i got a notice from ACT saying my payoff didn't pay the entire debt to US Direct Loan. They don't realize they have killed me. Persons with good, honest intentions are being hood-winked.

I've just recently gone through Direct Loan to consolidate my loans I had serviced through Great Lakes (who are amazing and I'm looking into moving my consolidated loan back to them!). I got confirmation that they had received the information from GLs and my loan information and what payments would be, etc. The document from Direct Loan said that when my loan was paid off to Great Lakes and consolidation complete I would receive information on what my loan payments would be and when they would be due. I never received this, nor any emails or phone calls. But yesterday I got a statement saying I was one month late and owed them the previous months payment and the next month. I double checked all of the notices I've received in the mail, the emails Great Lakes sent me with their end of the process (they have such great customer service, I wish I hadn't left them...) and I never received my final billing/payment information. I am afraid of my loans defaulting and therefore eliminating me from qualifying for the re-payment scheme if I ever get a job that offers it. So far, my relationship with Direct Loans has started off rocky, and I'm afraid this is just a glimpse of what the next 20 years will be them.

I am going through similar situation with Department of Education. Attended school over 20 yrs ago. Received 1 ($4, 000.00) student loan and paid it off. School assured me they will reactivate my Vietnam ERA G.I. Bil to offset loan and espenses. Later dropped to part time and worked for Norfolk & Southern RailRoad and American Red Cross who reimbursed the school. Conclusion: 20 years later Department of Education says I owe $23, 000.00. They have seized my tax refund of $10, 000.00. What a mess. Agencies spread across country who are contacting me which I think it is set up that way so we cannot ever resolve the matter. Pls, if this type of situation is happening to you contact me (zmoses@comcast.net). I am writing 100 letters per month, posted Youtube and sent every agency a link so they could view how they destroy people's lives. If you need help with Department of Education's addresses pls contact me, have them all. I have found it a waste of time to deal with collection agencies the Department of Education hires. Go straight to the source DOE.

For some reason the department of treasury sent direct loans a payment that was actually supposed to go to ACS. Coincidently there was another account holder with the same name as me so they felt they should apply the payment to his account! Since then, or (9Months later) I have spoken to countless reps, 6 supervisors, 2 managers and the GM but I am definitely not getting anywhere. They say the only way they can contact the accounting department is with email, and they cannot contact them directly. Now I know they are full of crap but does anyone have any advice?

I have just begun my nightmare with the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. I have made a total of 4 payments: October, November, December 2011, and January 2012. All have been applied to my account properly except my December 2011 payment. I mailed my December 2011 payment on December 16, 2011, the US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION cashed it (electronically - through Wells Fargo) on December 19, 2011 and cleared my bank account on December 20, 2011 but... has yet to be applied to my account through the US Department of Education! I called and spoke with several customer service representatives and two managers. All of them have different stories, or should I say excuses! They admitted to having my money (payment) but they just can't seem to apply it to my account. I am wondering if they applied it to the wrong account and just can't find their mistake or are they just out to sabotage my credit? All of them apologize and tried telling me it won't be held against me and it won't effect my credit. I think they are full of ###! One of the customer service representatives tried to talk me into forbearance on my account. Are you kidding me? This is not my problem...it is their problem! I have worked very hard and have excellent credit. I am not about to let this company ruin my credit! Get your act together US DEPARMENT OF EDUCATION! I will not let this rest! I am starting with my state representative. Any other advice?

PSA Re: Direct Loans. They are an abysmal, incompetent bureaucracy that engages in regular acts of what may be (and at least what should be considered) consumer fraud. I have been assigned a federal case worker who now follows all my actions with them, I submit all correspondences through my Congressman's office, need delivery confirmation for all my postal mailings to them, make duplicate copies of everything, and have a call into the Attorney General's office as well as a major national newspaper because:

1.) Without any changes reported by me and without my annual proof of income being overdue, they arbitrarily increased my monthly income-based repayments without any justification or explanation to date. My payment amount was supposed to be permanent unless income change was reported. Not a single person at Direct Loans, including supervisors, could tell how the new number was calculated or why.

2.) Before this, they claimed to have "never received" ANY of 6 (that's right, SIX) successive communications from me all sent via different routes - fax, website, and postal mail. One of these was income-based documentation in October 2011 that should have actually decreased my payments. Their lack of "receiving" my income decrease forms allowed them to keep collecting payments from me that were at least double what they should have been under my new income. I gave up after the six failed communications for various matters and was still paying my same amount until recently when they increased my payment, demanded the annual update and claimed I was about to be overdue for my income reporting (see below.)

3.) In August 2011, Direct Loans sent me a letter with all my account and contact info on it, claiming I was overdue for sending in my "Income Contingent Repayment" income info. I was NOT and HAVE NEVER been on Income Contingent Repayment, only Income Based, which is a completely different repayment plan. When I called and asked, a rep told me it was entirely a system error that I was not due to send in Income Based documentation either - mine was completely up to date for another 5 months. 4-5 months later, when I called to check on it again, another rep told me it was "way overdue" and I should have updated it "back in 2009." Keep in mind, I didn't even have a Direct Loans Consolidation account until Feb. 2011 (which required sending in all the income-based documentation at that time in order to have the income-based repayment I've had since consolidating).

3.) Last year's consolidation debacle: multiple Direct Loans employees told me my Health Professions loans were left out of my consolidation without prior notification because they were "not eligible." They were listed right on the Direct Loan Consolidation website as being eligible. When I alerted them to this, they still insisted those loans could not be consolidated, without any explanation for what was written on their website. I called and fought with 17+ people over the course of three months, including supervisors and people in the Dept of Education, before I finally got one random rep that said, "Of course they're eligible." (Her name was Iris, I will never forget her, and she apparently had more brain power than all other reps there combined. She was the only effective one I ever got, and I've dealt with dozens of them by now.) My consolidation then had to be re-done.

4.) Right before that, Direct Loans kept claiming they "never received" payoff amounts from one of my original lenders, even though that lender had it documented in my record that they had sent it weeks earlier. They ended up sending it 3 (that's right, three) MORE times (including by fax) before Direct Loans finally claimed to receive it. The lender who kept having to re-send told me they had this same problem with Direct Loans (and only Direct Loans) very frequently. Because of this delay and the giant Health Professions error, my consolidation didn't go through until February 28, 2011 even though I submitted the complete application on Dec. 15, 2010. I would have saved literally thousands of dollars over those three months, had the application been processed without multiple errors.

5.) I did a (what could be simpler?) online update of my changed bank account # on the Direct Loans website in November 2011. The changed info showed up under myedaccount online instantly. But... a month later, no automatic debit occurred and I was consequently "late" on my payment. They insisted that "no one else" had reported ANY problems with their website and that I must not have signed the electronic promissory note, even though I knew I had...they recommended I repeat the online request. I did. A month later, again, nothing was debited. Direct Loans at that point claimed a.) it takes 45 days to process ( no process time I could find was ever listed on their website) and they WERE having problems with the website. A different rep that same day told me it takes 2 days to process. Both were apparently wrong anyway..."Processing" a simple updated bank account number took literally almost three months...my original submission was on Nov. 19, 2011 and the first automatic debit from that account occurred on Feb. 21, 2012.

5.) Just recently, on January 22, 2011, I got a letter from Direct Loans stating that if my income-based repayment documentation (the one I sent and they "never received" over three months prior in October 2011) was not "RECEIVED" within 30 days of the date of their letter, my account would revert to a standard (non-income based) repayment plan that would literally quadruple my monthly payments. Within about 2 weeks of receiving this, and after much consulting with the Congressman's office, I RE-SENT the forms via postal mail, and faxed 3 copies (one through the Congressman's office, one to a specific supervisor at Direct Loans, and one to their general fax as listed on the forms). A couple days later (which was still almost 2 weeks before the "deadline"), they claimed they HAD indeed received it. HOWEVER, a rep told me because it would likely take more than 2 weeks to "PROCESS" (note: NOT the same as "RECEIVED", which is what their letter stated), I might still get booted to the standard plan with the $2000+/month payments. I'm still waiting to see what happens, as it is completely out of my hands. And all the nasty, horrible rep told me snidely was "Well, I'm sorry you don't like the way our letter is worded." WOW.

6.) In general, through all of these INSANE DEBACLES, I've had "customer service" reps that were either a.) complete airheads ("Oh, really? Hmmmmmm, that's soooo weeeeird. I have NO idea why that happened...it might be because ) OR they've been downright obnoxious and nasty, INSISTING the problems are somehow (inexplicably, of course) my fault and taking no accountability for their over-the-top screw-ups. Iris was literally the only exception.

MORAL OF STORY: if Direct Loans gives you trouble, don't think twice about filing complaints against them. If enough people do it, maybe something will change. But it's beyond pathetic how they operate now...even the Congressman's office told me they are "at a loss" when it comes to Direct Loans. The worst part is that they're not just causing inconvenience and headaches. They are literally jerking the strings and impacting people's finances and lives with their ineptitude and misdeals. It is completely wrong.

Hi back in the 80's i took out a loan and now it is paid off in full and i spoke to someone and they said to me that if i didn't graduate i should not have to pay it back but i had all ready started paying it back so i contacted direct loan to ask for my refund and they gave me the run around saying that US FUNDS had my money so i contacted them law and behold they didn't have me in there system although i gave them my social security # NOTHING THERE FOR ME I CONTACTED DIRECT LOAN AGAIN AND NOW THEY SAID GO TO NEL-NET-SALLIE MAE NOTHING IN NEITHER PLACE NOW I CONTACTEDTHE TREASURY DEPARTMENT NOTHING SO I CALLED BACK TO DL AND THE REP SAID TO ME THAT I NEEDED A TRACKING # IN ORDER TO GET WHAT IS MINE THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE LAST YEAR OF 2011 SO CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE AND THE HELL IS MY MONEY BECAUSE I NEED IT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I realized activities reported by Equifax about changes in my accounts of Direct Loans. Then I reviwed the federal student loan's online page and realized I owed nothing, the full amount I owed was paid last month. I have not idea what is happening. I remember last month I asked for information at www.studentloanconsolidation.com, but I never signed any agreemet.
Has anyone had any situation like that? what should I do?

You people are out of your.minds.they pay us by the call. So we have to hurry to make money or we get fired. And most of the questios you ask is ###ed and stipid. Listen to what we say anx then wewould not have to repeat ourselves. Also dont call us and yell and scream and cuss ts us or we will hang up on you.You people need to underatand we talk to hundreds of people witht the same stupid questions...yet no one ever says thank you. All anyone does is complain even when its your fault. Dont yell at me because you too out a loan and cant pay for it. Grow up people. Im doing my job and all you can do is complain. Act like college educated people for a change not whinny cry baby brats.

It's a nightmare. Same thing happen to my. I paid off my first 2 student loans each for $1, 250 i got over 25 years ago, My 2nd student loan, I worked for the county, and they paid thor 4 off, we'll 2 amd I paid the other 2, shortly after I graduated from nursing school. 6 years later my credit report was so low when I was going thru a messy divorce, and tried to refinance and pull money out to pa my bum ex husband off. Ended up losing my home, cause i was unable to pull out equity because of my credit, due to paid off loans. Leaving my 3 sons and I homeless. During this time I thought maybe I missed a loan, and I paid one off, again. Few months ago I found my orifinal promissary notes, loan documents, in old tax papers. And have the proof, and evidence that 4 of these loans are in fact, as I been telling them all along are not mine. Not only are they seizing money from me to pay off someone else's student loans, I just found out they also took the 2 loans from my first student loan I paid off over 25 years ago, i dont know who, but someone and I'm almost certain it was AES/PHEAA, reaged and sold them in May 1995, to Direct Loans who defaulted them June 6, 1999. And in 2010 AES/PHEAA included my first 2 loans i paid off, with 3 other loans that arent even mine, and somehow consolidated-them and sold them quickly to DIRECT loans. So my first 2 loans for $5, 000 total I paid off, and other 4 loan's total, $10, 500 (my 2nd loans totalled 6, 500, so not even my loans) and today after they have seized over $12, 700 from me, not counting the first $5k i paid 325 years ago paying off my 1st student loans, these 8 loans are 2 loans, total Balance $15, 500, after $12, 000 paid, plus $5, 000 so after $17, 000 paid/seized from me the Balance owed is over $20, 000.

And we all are reading how the federal government is suing themselves, aka federal trade commission suing us dept of education, unable to solve anything, what hope do any of us have to resolve ours?!?! If one department of federal government can't even agree with another department of the federal government?!