Question:
Dear Steve,
I took out a private loan in 2005 to help with college. This loan was for 7k. It is now 2020, and that same loan is now $7,120.00. AES is the loan servicer, and they have misapplied payments throughout the years.
I feel justified in not paying them anymore after 15 years. Do I have grounds to do so?
Chad
Answer:
Dear Chad,
Do not stop making payments without a plan in place. You will need either a legal basis to stop payments or a legitimate strategy to do so.
There are reasonable explanations for why the balance has not moved. The most common I see is when people were given forbearance periods when payments were not required. These payment holidays allow interest to build and the balances to creep up.
But if your case is that you’ve not had any payment holidays and have made your monthly payments but the balance is where it is then you might have a possible AES accounting issue.
This is something that I would absolutely urge you to explore with professional help before you interrupt your payments.
You have two logical courses of action. The first would be to request a full accounting history from AES and see if it compares to your records. This way you can deal with specific misapplied payments and attempt to get that correct with AES.
The second strategy would be for you to connect with a consumer attorney that could represent you in this mess. One place to look for such an attorney would be here.
I’m not saying you don’t have a valid claim or argument but I would strongly urge you to confirm the facts before you take action or make claims that might prove to be untrue.

You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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