American Financial Benefits Center

American Financial Benefits Center (AFBC) offers to help with a student loan consolidation & payment reduction program. Every thing has been great for the last 4-5 years. I had automatic payment sent to AFBC every month. Every year I had my employer signed and faxed in the information they requested. I received a letter at the end of 2018, that there was charges being filed against AFBC. Called and talk to AFBC, they told me there was no worry, it was just formality they were going through. that I had nothing to worry about. Received E-Mail that AFBC has had their doors closed due to using the money, not where it was supposed to go. I called a couple of the numbers for AFBC, a recording was announcing that the business is no longer in service. My school loans were always showing up to date, that I was not behind. So now I'm out of 4 years of school payments that I have paid in to a false business. I did my business check before signing up. CCB, school, local lawyers, BBC.

I signed up with this company in 2015 for the benefit of having my student loan forgiveness. In late 2018 this company was closed down by the Federal government. I have been reading other complaints against AFBC that they took monies from all of us. I was paying $99.00 a month for 3 years 2015- 2018. With a initial payment of $299.00 to get started in this program. The money was not going toward any student oan forgiveness program.

American Financial Benefits Center promised reductions in student loans and all monies paid to American Financial Benefits Center monthly by electronic deduction would be directly paid and applied to student loans. Public Service Forgiveness paperwork annually and 10 years of on-time payments would result in the remainder of the student loans being forgiven as explained by the account specialist. AFBC claimed to be affiliated with the Department of Education and is not connected in any way with the DOE.

Account specialist explained lowered student loan payments were based on annual salary and the number of family members customer provided monetary asssitance to throughout the year, regardless of residency or number placed on federal income tax return. AFBC was paid five years of monthly payments and none of the payments went towards student loans and the 10 years of on time payments will not result in remaining student loan balance being forgiven as promised.

AFBC accessed IRS and Department of Education databases for information to determine annual payments towards student loans. New user names and passowrds would be sent to consumer after processing Income Driven Based and Public Service Forgiveness paperwork annually. Further reduction in student loans per the account specialist would occur by referring new customers at $25.00 per referral that signed on with AFBC and all referral money was to be applied to student loans, which did not happen.

Due to fradulent activity, advertising, and money never being applied to student loans as promised for the five years of monthly payments, AFBC intentionally deceived me and numerous other customers resulting in their own personal gain and increased financial hardship and burden being placed on the customer.

I have been paying for services rendered by *** for years, with the understanding that these payments were going towards my ***. I just got off the phone with *** and they stated that these repayment plans are fraudulent. I don't understand how a company can profit from payments that aren't what they promote.

I have been paying for services rendered by AFBC for years, with the understanding that these payments were going towards my Fedloan. I just got off the phone with Fedloan and they stated that these repayment plans are fraudulent. I don't understand how a company can profit from payments that aren't what they promote.

Last year I learned this company was under a lawsuit and made my complaint here. I somewhat settled a mild agreement with them to lower my billing to 49 dollars instead of the 99. Though I learned that the 49 dollars is still not going towards my loans the only reason I stuck with them is because I am dependent on their service to keep my monthly *** payments low until I rearrange my living situation in September. On my phone with them they stated that loan forgiveness is not guaranteed and that after X many payments I will be "considered" into being forgiven. Which in this country is a joke. I also could have lowered my 99 dollars to 49 the entire time however the failed to tell me this. Apparently the extra 40 dollars you pay were for benefits (discounts and such) you cant even use nor was informed I had said benefits. I was not informed of this when I signed up and I feel very misguided and cheated. This company has awful communication (or none at all) with its customers. I did not receive any notice they were stopping their services due to this investigation. I received word from my mother, who is also affected by this unlawful company, that Naviant has not received her payments since November. I checked my statements and found they stopped mine as well. I would not have known this at all and I'm sure thousands of other customers will be affected by this surprise as well. In a nutshell: - Lack of communication to its customer base but AFBC has no problem taking your money - The payments do not go towards my loans but to some "documentation fee" HOWEVER you only supposed to pay that once - Loan forgiveness is not actually promised you are then "considered" for the option. Which is very difficult to get this misinforming us since day one. - False claims of having "benefits" that are not listed anywhere

I have been a client of AFBC since 2018. They neglected to do what they were being paid to do. They were supposed to be submitting paperwork for my Public Service Loan Forgiveness and my Income Driven Repayment plans for my student loans. It was brought to my attention that they only were submitting my IDR each year meaning that they were not doing what I have been paying them to do for the last 3 years. I now will on my own have to go back to all of my previous employers and request that they sign and fill out paperwork for me that I already had them fill out before and submitted to AFBC to submit to FEDLoan so that I would not have to deal with the headache of doing all of this myself.

I was contacted by this company through email in 2014 and they assured me that if I were to make a payment of $200 for the first half a year to a year and then my payments would go down to $99 per month however I received an email from fed loan saying that I had a payment coming up that was due. When I looked online for the number to the company I got a direct line that they have a lawsuit against them for being scammers. I am livid!

If I could take away stars, I would. This company destroys people's finances and preys on people's desperation. In a world where we all live so hard to make money, its inhumane to do this to others.
My relationship with the American Financial Benefits Center began in July 2014. I had received several notices in the mail stating that there were student loan companies available to help students to get out of debt, reduce monthly payments, and eventually earn loan forgiveness. I contacted the company and spoke with ***, a representative at the time. She heard my concerns about my student loans, and provided me with assurance and confidence that hiring their company would be beneficial to my finances as I sought to provide for my son and improve my quality of life. I was told that the cost of the program would be $1200, to be spread across a selected number of convenient payments, and following the initial cost, the monthly amount of my student loan payment was determined to be $49.70, which would be deducted out of my account for the next ten years. Each payment made on time was going to count towards loan forgiveness, which would be implemented after ten years of timely payments. I enrolled in this program without hesitation, provided the necessary paperwork, and allowed this company to draft monthly payments. For the first six months, payments were $204 a month. During months 7 to 12, payments were $100 per month, including the $49.70 student loan payment. After the cost of the program was paid (upfront), the remaining loan payments would only be $49.70 for the duration of ten years. I was told that this would qualify me for loan forgiveness. I completed all the required forms from the Department of Education website. This company guided me by sending me the right forms to complete, but I completed the majority of the paperwork. I completed the forms and returned them. After 11 months of payments, my loan forgiveness program was supposed to begin. Over four years later, many company representatives and many stories later, I sadly discovered that I was misled and certain information about the program was purposefully omitted for financial benefit of the company.
American Financial Benefits Center violated the terms of their customer contract on many ends. The verbal agreements from reps on the phone did not match the written agreement thy sent. They gave me false assurances about my student loans, misleading me to believe that I was making payment to my loans when this was not happening. Their company claimed to provide financial services to its customers, in the form of educational documents and CDs. This company stated that it guaranteed 100% client satisfaction, or a refund would be provided. This company’s goal says that it is supposed to benefit the customer, and to act in the customer’s best interests with respect to the customer's finances. The company continued to charge my account on a monthly basis, even when no service was needed. Student loans only need servicing once a year! My phone calls to get updates about my loans would be disconnected or thwarted. Had I known that this monthly $49.70 was an additional charge to my student loan payments, that together, actually would correlate with a greater financial cost, and I would not have chosen this program for service. It doesn't make logical sense to hire a company to incur additional charges if you are already struggling to make current loan payments. This company charged me for $49.70 a month for 3 years and I did not become alarmed until I recently started to receive past due notices about my student loans with statement balances of over $1000. I called the AFBC and I was told that they had recently consolidated my loans. I spoke to a supervisor from AFBC, ***, who tried to convince me to stay with AFBC the first time I tried to cancel, in September 2018, after learning that I had an increased balance on my student loans. She pleaded with me to stay, claiming that her company had “proof’ that I had been making my monthly payments, and that my loans would DEFINITELY be forgiven after 120 payments if I stayed. She insisted that I had already been in the loan forgiveness program for nearly 4 years and offered me to remain a customer, free of charge. She insisted that the loans just needed to be consolidated, and that she didn't want me to lose my credit towards loan forgiveness. After the consolidation, I continued to receive notices of repayment and my credit score dropped about 20 points. I contacted my loan servicer directly, and was informed that no payments had been made on my account in the last 2 1/2 years. All the time, I was thinking that my payments were going towards my student loans. I paid for the cost of the program up front, right? WRONG!!!! I received a notice stating that my use of forbearance had been maximized and that there was a recent application for loan consolidation. The only thing this company did was postpone my payments through deferment/forbearance, while collecting the money. In the end, I accrued more debt, and the effect on my finances was unbelievable!
I contacted the company again to cancel. This time, I requested to discuss with someone about a refund. I had been paying this company for over 4 years, referred people to this company, trusted this company to benefit me. The supervisor on duty, ***, was extremely defensive, claiming that the documents that I sent over were not truly sufficient to apply for the loan forgiveness program. She insisted that AFBC had done their part, but that my file was on "hold". According to her, there was something "wrong with the documentation I had submitted..." but I explained to her that no one had contacted or communicated with me unless a payment was late. I only received automated emails from this company. In my record of emails, I was contacted DAILY via phone AND email when my payments were late, otherwise, periodic automatic emails were sent. No great effort or personal emails were sent to reach out to provide education, guidance, financial counseling. No written or mailing correspondence was sent. An occasional auto generated email was my only correspondence from AFBC. This company collected money monthly, even when there was no student loan service needed to be provided. In its initial contract, AFBC claimed that it would educate its customers on well aspects of finance and it did not provide correspondence, education, and the customer care about financial health that was stated in the agreement. Until I spoke with Ms., representatives only mentioned that my file was on hold if it had a balance. They did not give great effort to provide services to customers on their end but expected customers to invest in their program, and make payments to them rather make student loan payments. As a financial company, they not only failed to communicate important information about my finances, they advised me to complete actions that increased my student loan debt. This company neglected to fulfill its duties as stated in the program contract. The only "benefits" I gained from hiring this company were minimal (choosing the right forms for me to complete). I spoke to several representatives from ABFC to request before finally receiving a phone call back from Ms. stating that AFBC had done its job as a business, that “there was no fault on their end” and that I was not entitled to even a partial refund. Despite the evidence, despite the recorded phone conversations of broken promises and violations of the written contract on AFBC’s end, *** and AFBC refused to acknowledge any part or fulfill their 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. In the end, I’m in a more detrimental financial situation than I was before I hired this company. There needs to be consequences for this company for scamming people and taking advantage of decent, responsible people who are trying to fulfill their responsibilities as loan borrowers. The reason why many of us are looking for help is because we need relief! As a teacher, my job and the stress it brings extends far into my nights and mornings. As an employee of a public service field, we go to work sacrificing our lives every day. Its really dissapointing to think that a company would capitalize off people's needs to get student loan relief assistance.

I have been utilizing this company for several years to service my student loans. Recently I tried to contact them to add my loans that were in grace period. I emailed and called multiple times and sometimes multiple times daily. They did not return or email me any response. The last email was returned undeliverable. I have not received any notice that this company was no longer in business or handling student loans and I would like an explanation and possibly my money back for the years I have spent paying them for them to just drop their services.

American Financial Benefits Center (AFBC), falsely provided information leading me to pay an upfront charge and a monthly fee for their services. They misled me and guaranteed that my student school loans would be forgiven after paying a fixed amount for 10 years (not to include the $99 per month fee or the initial upfront of five payments of $299). I just learned after three years of paying AFBC $99 per month on an (auto debit bases), plus the initial upfront charge of five monthly payments of $299 starting on 5 October 2015 from my checking account to have my paperwork completed and serviced starting into the program for the (Income Driven Repayment Plan School Loan Program) that the only process they were performing was filing the paperwork directly to FedLoans for avocations for my lowest possible payment of my student school loan on a yearly bases. How I found out was through my Great Lakes student loan website account where I have been paying per month on my actual student loan. As a result, I just recently signed on to learn that Great Lakes no longer has my student loan which is now covered and serviced under FedLoans, I therefore called FedLoans and they told me that I can file the (Income Driven Repayment Plan School Loan Program) paperwork myself and free of charge per year. As a result, I am filing this complaint against AFBC for improper business conduct procedures, and embezzlement of monetary action proceedings with no notifications to me (the customer) for an initial stop of payments and as to why they required an upfront charge of $1495 as well as a $99 per monthly service fee that I have been paying for a consecutive of (three years) to this company. In addition, they are currently and continuously harassing me by calling me, and sending me URGENT additional information email requests. Over three years of trust I have built with this company in maintaining a positive and consistent tract record of payments and providing information I advertised an honest business intellect in truth; as a result, I was transparent with this company in their requests to include my safeguarded privacy of personal information per their request as I also honored their promises of requests. I am a very responsive person as to handling my business as long as the other business I am dealing with is truthful and honest. Apparently, this is not the case with AFBC; therefore, I am dissatisfied with this company, and I highly do not recommend anyone to do any business with this company especially our women and men whom are serving and/or have served in our United States Military Services and have student school loans that need to be paid at a reduced rate and acquire information.

AFBC has been collecting my $0 student loan payments for a few years now. However, every time around the holidays that are extremely difficult to contact. Around this time of the year (before W2s etc are filed and received at year end) I can never contact their offices. They usually respond to emails and phone calls within a hour and they will reach out to you multiple times. I have written multiple emails and tried to call their offices multiple times without any luck. No one has reached back to me and I am currently receiving letters from FedLoans that my program is expiring and my $0 payments will change to $900+ per month. It is very frustrating when as a teacher you are trying to do the right things with your loans, but the people you pay are not doing their jobs. And I have recently learned they have a federal case against them for possible fraud and now they don't answer my calls is very alarming. I am going to seek a full refund after speaking with FedLoans to see if my payments have been filed with them over the last 4 years. All I want to do is

I signed up with American Financial Benefit Center (AFBC-a third party company) for student loan forgiveness program since 9/24/2015 and ever since I have been making monthly payments to the company, which was an enrollment charge of $100 and $199 each month for first year and $99 each month thereafter. I received a voice mail yesterday from AFBC that the business is temporarily suspending operations and I was told to contact my loan servicer (Great lakes) to submit my annual qualifying re-application form which AFBC supposedly process yearly. I called AFBC and I was transferred to answering service agent who told me that AFBC will call me back, and they never did. I proceeded to call Great lakes and I was told that I was never enrolled in loan forgiveness program. I was told to contact Fed loan servicing directly. Fed loan agent told me same thing that I was never enrolled in the student loan forgiveness program, and they never had any contact with AFBC on my behalf to enroll in the program. I was made to believe that AFBC is a scam. I have been making monthly payment over 3 years believing am enrolled in the student loan forgiveness program. I need help to get my money back due to services they promised but they never did.

AFBC send personalized mailer to me falsely claiming they were eligible for federal programs that would permanently reduce the monthly debt payments to a fixed low amount or result in load forgiveness. I was mislead that once I made a down payment and continued to pay $99.00 per month for ten years my debt would be fulfilled. I researched the company and it seamed legit. All they did was take my money and defer my loans with income based payments which should have been $0 When I called to cancel they said I was paying for a service "like paying a tax prepare" I believe the company should return my payments of 34 months at $99.00 + a down payment which is what I was lead to believe was the service charge.

AFBC is a scam. They misled me and guaranteed that my loans would be forgiven after paying a fixed amount for 10 years. I JUST learned after two years of paying AFBC that I have only been paying AFBC (NOT on my student loans) for their "services" that they defined as "advocating" for my lowest possible payments (which are determined by FedLoan, and I can advocate for myself), and "document preparation" (which involves scanning my paperwork to FedLoan, which I can do myself). So, I paid AFBC over $2400 to have them do what, exactly...bombard me with requests for customer service satisfaction surveys? Guess what? NOT SATISFIED! AND BROKE!

Since enrolling in American Financial Benefits Center managing my student loan has become much easier. All of their Representative are helpful and truly seem to care about your well-being.

Customer service is really good

They are fantastic and are always professional when helping me.

American Financial Benefits Center is amazing! I have recommended them to all of my friends and coworkers. They go above and beyond to make sure my paperwork and student loans are in order. They notify me well in advance whenever they need paperwork from me. Also, they will even call my loan providers with me on the phone and ask all the questions I don't know to ask. I love this place!!

When I first started with the company I was skeptical and did my research. I have now been working with them for about two plus years and I am so glad to have them. They are prompt with their help, always clear, and organized! I love their customer service people who are always happy and patient! This company changed my life as my student loans were keeping us from having a home to fit our growing family, and more! I love American Financial and I would recommend this company and I do!