Battling For Your Rights In The Student Loan Process – Part 3

To say I was mad does not begin to describe the frustration. Clearly, I had explained the problem to the lender, yet clearly they had chosen to ignore my complaint, and hadn’t even investigated to see if there was any merit to my claim.

So I went right to the contract copy they had sent me to launch my counter attack, utilizing it to emphasis the fact that I was indeed responsible to notify them of changes in my contact information. This, I stated, was the exact point of the matter.

Until the date of the correction, I had made no changes because there were no changes to make. The last information they had received from me concerning my contact information, was on the third and final loan. No changes had been made since that time.

I was so happy that I had had the fore thought to copy and paste a copy of the error they had initiated in my contact information. So I had a full copy of that information on the error; exactly what the unauthorized changes they made were, and I made sure to include it in the letter. I also copied the exact changes I had made when I corrected their error.

This leads me to my second point of advice. When dealing with a financial institution of any sort, do your utmost to have and maintain copies of any changes made to your account, whether authorized by you or not. Proper documentation is the key to winning, because it enables you to present proof of your charges.

At this point in my assault against their error, I put forth a challenge.

“You sent me the copy of the 1st loan paperwork I signed. The address on that form was the only other address I ever submitted to you aside from my current address, so again…if you wish to claim I am responsible for the error in your system, show me evidence that I gave you the erroneous address information you had in your system, and I will accept responsibility.

As I said before, I intend to pay this loan in full, but I don’t appreciate being accused or held accountable for something that I had no involvement in. If your system is faulty, you need to correct the system instead of holding your customers hostage with it.”

Within two weeks I had two responses one day apart.

“Upon further review of your account and due to a system error, your address was inadvertently changed after your loans were disbursed on… After your loans were disbursed, our office started to receive return mail and your account was flagged as having an incorrect address. In efforts to locate your address, our office updated your account several times; thus, explaining the erroneous or incorrect address information you never authorized.”

Naturally, it was followed by apologies, and a claim that they would waive one late fee they charged me for about $30.00. The second letter claimed that they had reviewed the information they had supplied to the credit reporting agencies which stated my account had been late for the previous three months, and that they had contacted them to remove this information and update my credit history to reflect the correct status as current and paid as agreed.

They claimed that this was situation was “unique” and “not reflective of the high standards that we strive to achieve.”  Yet my statements were still reflecting an increase in the monthly amount I was supposed to pay, and included interest charges and penalties for the previous five months, which were all related to their “error.”

It seemed more than apparent that none of this was going to be addressed or changed.  So once again, I wrote another letter, this time with a bit more fire. I stated that I didn’t think this was the first time a situation like this had occurred, and that from their handling of it, I didn’t see it as being the last. I wondered how many students had been ripped off by these so-called “errors” in their system, and how much they had paid  in undue late fees and overcharged interest.

I insisted that they reset the date that the payments were to occur to correct this situation, as they had failed, in their alleged attempts to update my account, to even verify my address information with the school the payments had been disbursed through.

Since organizations like this have a slew of reps that randomly handle these accounts, I indicated that it was apparent that too many hands were in the pot, and that they needed to assign one person to handle this account to full correction and crediting of all fees, penalties and interest that were already charged to me out of my payments to date.

Lastly, I informed them that I was losing patience with their organization. I indicated that my senator and congressman were just a click away online, and that the Better Business Bureau and Dept. of Education might have a real interest in this “unique” situation. I stated that I would not hesitate to inform them of it if this was not quickly resolved to my satisfaction. Then, I waited.

Continue…