GREAT LAKES

2016-08-18

Chicago, IL

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Trouble with how payments are handled
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-18

Rumpus Ridge, SD

Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed

Debt collection: I do not know

Debt is not mine
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: Yes Timely Response

2016-08-17

Charlotte, NC

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Non-federal student loan

Can't get flexible payment options
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-16

Cheverly, MD

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Complaint: I was granted a back-dated forbearance including the months XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, where payments were listed as late, however, my account notes that the account was in a forbearance for those months. I wrote letters to XXXX and XXXX, who in turn contacted My Great Lakes, however, I 've never received anything from the account servicer stating otherwise. I called them as well and the issue was not able to be resolved. I would like the late payment information from those months deleted from XXXX and XXXX and any other data repository. I have copies of the letters sent, and I have never received correspondence from My Great Lakes. ( XXXX )
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-15

Bedford, TX

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Complaint: I have mailed privicay and Opt-Out Instructions for all my accounts Great Lakes XXXX XXXX is servicing to both the Department of Education with whom responded advising me to send notice to my loan server Great Lakes. Opt-Out Instructions for Account # XXXX Dear US Department of Education/Great Lakes XXXX XXXX : Following are my instructions with regard to your information sharing and Opt-Out policies : 1. You do not have my consent/permission to share my personally identifiable information with any nonaffiliated third party companies or individuals. I am asserting my rights under the Financial Services Modernization Act the ( Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 15 U.S.C 1682 and 17 CFR 248.7 ) to opt-out of any sharing or sales of my personal information by your company. 2. You do not have my consent/permission to share my personally identifiable information about my creditworthiness with any affiliate of your company. I am asserting my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to opt-out of any sharing of this information by your company. 3. I Request a copy of your company 's Privacy Policy and opt-out methods that states how you handle my personal information. Only what is " permitted by law. '' I wish to limit other uses of my personal information by your company and its affiliates. In particular : * You do not have my consent/permission to disclose any information about me, including transaction and experience information, to any of your affiliates. * You do not have my consent/permission to disclose any information about me in connection with direct marketing agreements between your company and another company.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-13

IL

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Trouble with how payments are handled
Complaint: My loans are being serviced by the Great Lakes, and I believe there are several UDAAP issues. First of all, the website claims that the payments will go towards interest first, and then towards the principal balance of the loan with the highest interest rate. I have the screenshots of that language that I have provided. However, this is not the case. My payments have been allocated towards all loans, including the ones with the lower interest rate, resulting in higher interest earned on my loans. The website has recently introduced a feature that allowed the customers to choose which loan they would like to allocate their payments to. However, even though I have chosen specifically the loan with the highest interest rate, my payments have still allocated towards all loans. The second issue I found was with the payoff amount. When looking at the payoff amount on the website, the amount I was quoted was {$12000.00} as of XX/XX/2016. However, including the interest earned through XX/XX/2016, my total payoff amount should only be {$12000.00}. The quote includes an additional 10 days of interest that I should not have to pay if I were to pay off the loan on that date. The amount is overstated in a deceptive manner. I have included the payoff quote print out for your review, as well as a print out of my accounts, interest rates, and balances for each of my loans. When I contacted the customer service regarding these issues, my disputes were not addressed properly, as I was simply given the same information that was provided on the website regarding the allocation of payments, that did not match what was actually happening with my account. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-11

San Diego, CA

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Non-federal student loan

Can't get flexible payment options
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-11

Ellenwood, GA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Don't agree with fees charged
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-11

Alexandria, VA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Having problems with customer service
Complaint: Great Lakes student loan company is refusing to acknowledge my enrollment in a new school - XXXX University, XXXX program. After one month of emails to them and my school sending them my enrollment information, they refuse to acknowledge my enrollment -- thus causing me to have to pay back my loans and new school fees causing financial hardship.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-10

IL

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Can't get flexible payment options
Complaint: I received a letter from XXXX XXXX, in response to my letter to the XXXX. I am contacting you again because of the concerns I have with the interest rates on federal student loans. I am currently on the IBR plan with the government lender Great Lakes XXXX XXXX XXXX, however ; I do not understand how my interest rates are so high considering these are federal loans. I have been paying my loans for the past 3 years on the IBR plan at $ XXXX/month, however ; because the large debt I have and the ridiculously high interest rates my loans continue to go up close to $ XXXX/month. It makes no sense to me to " help '' students by placing them into the IBR plan, yet continue to tack on over {$1200.00} in interest a month which exceeds my monthly payment. I ca n't afford to make the full $ XXXX/month payment, so yes the IBR plan is the best option for me at this time but from my understanding it 's supposed to be helping not hurting me in the long run. I originally took about {$160000.00} for my XXXX in 2012, and over the past 4 years while continuing to make payments my loans are at {$200000.00}. How does anyone in our government think this is even ok to be doing to people such as myself. You are making money off of borrowers in the most unethical way possible. The mortgage companies are giving loans to borrowers at a 3 % interest rate, but yet I am still being pounded with a 6.8 % interest rate. We continuously hear that the government is doing everything they can to help people drowning in debt, but we have yet to see anything like that. Again dropping the interest rates would help significantly. XXXX, a private lender, has a program called the interest rate reduction program that dropped my interest rates from 7.5 % to 3 %. I have been told that XXXX determines the interest rates on federal student loans, and if XXXX is all for helping people like myself how have they not done something about the interest rates for people that are paying their loans? Dropping the interest rate from 6.8 % to something around 3 % would help my family and I significantly. If my monthly payment of {$870.00} either went towards the principal or even STOPPED the monthly interest and placed my loans at a standstill this would help myself and probably a majority of the borrowers across the country who drowning in debt as well. Again I know the IBR plan is helping me now, but what happens 25 years from now when my loans have increased to {$400000.00} and I get taxed on that. I will owe close to {$70000.00} in taxes even after paying {$250000.00} over the 25 years. The government will be making {$150000.00} off of me alone, at this point I am better off quitting my job and continuing to stay on the IBR plan and only owe the {$70000.00} at the end. You give people like me no incentive to go out and become successful because it would be easier to sit at home and not pay a dime to their loans. I was not raised like that and have been driven to become successful, so why not help those that are doing something about it? XXXX thing we can all agree on is the student debt crisis is out of control, and only XXXX has the power to help not only those entering college but also people like me trying to dig themselves out of the debt. So please I ask you to take this letter seriously and do something to help.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-10

WY

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Trouble with how payments are handled
Complaint: While I have not been personally affected by this issue, it was discovered that when you pay off a student loan with Great Lakes, they calculate 10 days of interest. If they receive your check prior to that 10 days, they do not refund the money unless it is greater than {$5.00}. This fact was directly stated to me by Customer service. Of course this is a relatively tiny amount of money, but multiplied by possibly XXXX of transactions, I believe they could be receiving a large amount of on unearned money
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-09

El Paso, TX

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Can't decrease my monthly payments
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-09

Boston, MA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Complaint: The company at hand is named called Great Lakes loans, which are servicing my federal direct student loans. They have bundled my student loans, which makes it impossible to be sure what the pay off amount is for an individual " account '', and you must contact them by phone. I did this and received the pay-off amount from the company representative verbally. I paid the amount the representative instructed to me immediately after the call. The representative, by any reasonable assumption would assume that I would pay that amount, did not disclose that more interest would be added during the short processing period Great Lakes has. Thus, interest will was added during the period which prevented the loan from being paid off with the very " pay off '' amount provided by the loan servicing agency.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-09

Scottsdale, AZ

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Need information about my balance/terms
Complaint: XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys submitted a request to verify my student loan accounts with Great Lakes ( GL ). XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys called & XXXX confirmed the request was received & that GL needed 5 business days to apply the limited poa. XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys called to confirm the power of attorney ( poa ) had been received, GL needed the Poa to be submitted along with an " Agent Certification '' form ( ACF ), & Attorneys submitted the limited poa with the ACF the same day. XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys called & XXXX confirmed the poa & ACF was received & that GL needed 5-7 business days to apply the limited poa & ACF ( although it had already been 5 business days since sent on XXXX/XXXX/16 ). XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys called to confirm the poa had been processed & was told by XXXX, yes the poa & the ACF had been approved & they had sent their request to me ( I did not receive any documents from GL ) as my address was the XXXX on file. Attorneys requested the documents be sent again to their office & it was confirmed they need to do research before they could provide the documents to Attorneys ( even though they already stated they approved the poa & ACF. ) XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys called again & XXXX stated they were still reviewing the poa & ACF & conducting an investigation from the request on XXXX/XXXX/16, they stated they needed 2-4 weeks to finish the investigation. XXXX/XXXX/16, Attorneys called again to confirm the investigation had been completed & they could now get the documents requested to verify the account, GL stated that I needed to complete an " Information Consent Release '' form ( ICRF ) ( Attorneys sent this document to me & I returned it to them ). Attorneys received the ICRFon XXXX/XXXX/16 & submitted it to GL, along with the limited poa & ACF. XXXX/XXXX/16 Attorneys followed up with GL, in accordance, GL would take 3-4 weeks to process, they were told the poa needed to be notarized in order to be valid. When Attorneys, explained this is limited poa & also confirmed receipt of the " Information Consent Release '', GL again refused to send the information to Attorneys. They stated because the poa was not notarized they could n't send the information to Attorneys but only to the address on file, when Attorneys attempted to confirm the address on file, they stated they could n't disclose that information to Attorneys because they did n't have authorization to do so. Although, GL stated they were going to send documentation to the address on file, there is no guarantee that either Attorneys or I will receive the information as they would not confirm the address in their file & refused to even let Attorneys say my address in order for them to state yes or no. It is absolutely ridiculous that GL refuses to talk with my Attorneys & provide documentation to them, when they have put every effort into getting GL the forms & information they have requested. It has been months & we are only looking to get information about the accounts, because it has been years since I paid them & I no longer have the records. We need to know the balance on the account, as well as receive the signed contracts. It seems unbelievable to me that it has been such a hassle to confirm the information appearing on my credit report & that any student loan company would n't know that if an attorney is involved, not to just send the documentation to an Attorney 's office, especially since I have signed 2 different releases ( limited poa & GL " Information Consent Release '' ) clearly I want them to communicate with Attorneys.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-08

Phila, PA

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Can't get flexible payment options
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-08

Ft Lauderdale, FL

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Can't decrease my monthly payments
Complaint: Discharging my federal student loan. I am a former student of the XXXX of XXXX, From XXXX. I also was duped into enrolling with false promises! With aggressive recruiting tactics. That no matter what they wanted me on the the hook, With a federal loan, for A predatory school. With many of my instructors barely educated in the field themselves to which they were teaching. Am I to remain on the hook for debt I owe to the Department of Education? For a degree that is worthless, no more than the paper it is written on. The promises that were made to me and others at the art institute were that, at the end of my education I would be able to find a position in my field and begin the long road of repaying the loan back. But that was not the case. The job career center that the school offered only had jobs with really low paying positions, and had nothing to do with my field of study. An example being, a fast food restaurant. With more than XXXX in debt that can not realistically be paid off with the small amount of wages I currently receive and the HIGH cost of living.
Company Response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-08

Haskins, OH

Can't repay my loan

Student loan: Non-federal student loan

Can't decrease my monthly payments
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-06

Nashua, NH

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Non-federal student loan

Trouble with how payments are handled
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-05

Woodbury, PA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-05

Urbandale, IA

Disclosure verification of debt

Debt collection: Federal student loan

Not given enough info to verify debt
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-05

Plainview, TX

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Non-federal student loan

Trouble with how payments are handled
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-05

Woodbury, PA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response

2016-08-05

Woodbury, PA

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Received bad information about my loan
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: Yes Timely Response

2016-08-05

SC

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Trouble with how payments are handled
Complaint: Great Lakes has just initiated a new policy. Based on the way monthly payments are not structured, borrowers pay higher interest rate. Under the new policy, all auto-pay payments are processed on the XXXX - the last day of the billing cycle. If a borrower wants to then make an additional payment, it will be applied to next month 's minimum loan amount ( instead of the principle of the highest interest loan ). For example, I made my monthly auto-pay on the XXXX of XXXX. Less than 24 hours later, I made an additional {$900.00} payment so the entire payment would be applied to the principal of my loan. Great Lakes informed me that the additional payment is now being applied to the *next* billing cycle ( XXXX ). Instead of lowering the principal of my loan, it 's being applied as a minimum monthly payment for XXXX. If I were to make the {$900.00} payment earlier in the month, ( on the XXXX, for example ) before the auto-pay processed, I would be paying interest from the date of that payment until auto-pay. So my {$900.00} payment on the first would be applied to the minimum monthly payment and then I would pay interest for two additional weeks until my autopay processed on XXXX XXXX. Instead of paying on the first, if I make it on the XXXX, the payment goes to the next billing cycle and is applied as my minimum monthly payment. Inevitably, this means that borrowers pay additional interest on their loans. ( Prior to this, a borrower could pay via autopay and then, within the same month, make a payment to lower their principal. I had done this for months until Great Lakes instituted this new policy )
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: Yes Timely Response

2016-08-05

Mount Vernon, IN

Dealing with my lender or servicer

Student loan: Federal student loan servicing

Keep getting calls about my loan
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law Closed with explanation

Disputed: No Timely Response