Question:
Dear Steve,
Hi, a few months ago I consolidated my student loans through a FedLoan servicing company. They consolidated my loans from Sallie Mae, Navient, and Nelnet. I was told by one of their employees after I agreed to consolidate the loans to not contact them any further. A few months passed and my credit dropped significantly so I contacted them and they told me to wait and not contact Sallie Mae and it would all be taken care of.
A month or so later I am receiving calls from a debt collector. I owed Sallie Mae $5700 that I did not pay and it went to collections. I have tried to contact FedLoan Servicing but they have not answered my questions. I was planning on buying a house but my credit score dropped so much that I can no longer do this.
What can I do to fix this? I was told wrong by one of their employees and now my credit has suffered. Who do I need to contact? What should I do? Thank you
Braden
Answer:
Dear Braden,
Do You Have a Question You'd Like Help With? Contact Debt Coach Damon Day. Click here to reach Damon.
Unfortunately I’m not shocked over this. While there are many good and competent people who work for loan servicers, there are some underachievers as well. Until the loans were confirmed to be consolidated there is no way anyone could have assured you it was taken care of. They should have not given you that advice.
An easy way to confirm the status of your loans is to access the National Student Loan Data System. This will show you which loans were included in the consolidation. It’s possible the Sallie Mae loans were but the servicer is reflecting the status incorrectly. It’s also possible the Sallie Mae loans were not eligible for consolidation if they were private Sallie Mae loans.
Irregardless of the cause of the screwup, the reality right now is Sallie Mae is reporting your loans as delinquent. This can cause you loan balances to grow by 20% or more.
At this point you are going to have to take charge of the situation, go back and revisit the consolidation agreement or documentation on the consolidation to show the Sallie Mae loans in question were included and then get them to fix the error.
This matter can be escalated further by requesting copies of the audio recordings of the calls with the servicer. But that might require getting a lawyer involved and that will take time and money.
The fastest way to get this corrected is to discover where the ball go dropped and address that issue.
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