Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation

Review: Inaccurate information on Account numbers [redacted] and [redacted] is being inaccurately reported on my credit which is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Account number [redacted] is currently being reported as 90 days past due as of Feb 2013 when I know that there is no way that could be true when the account In Forbearance.

Account number [redacted] is currently being reported as 180 days past due as of Feb 2013, Jan 2013; 150 days past due as of Dec 2012; 120 days past due as of Nov 2012; 90 days past due as of Oct 2012 when I know that there is no way that could be true when the account In Forbearance.Desired Settlement: Please remove all late payments on these account and report 100% positive payment history.

Business

Response:

Lead Trade Practice Consultant

Revdex.com of Wisconsin

Complaint ID [redacted]

Great Lakes ID [redacted]

Dear Mr. [redacted]:

Thank you for contacting us on behalf of [redacted] and for providing us the

opportunity to address her concerns in regard to credit reporting.

Ms. [redacted] has filed numerous disputes with the Credit Reporting Agencies regarding the

accuracy of her previously reported delinquencies, and as such, all data furnished by Great

Lakes has been reviewed and validated as accurate. Ms. [redacted] was responsible for all

scheduled monthly payments prior to her March 2013 request for forbearance. Application of

the forbearance resolved the past due status of her account, however, the forbearance did not

result in removal of previously reported delinquencies. Her delinquency status was reported as

required and as outlined in the Higher Education Act, and as discussed in her signed Master

Promissory Notes. The delinquencies that occurred prior to Ms. [redacted] taking action to

request a forbearance are accurate as reported.

I apologize for the frustration Ms. [redacted] has experienced. Ms. [redacted] is welcome to

contact our Borrower Services Department at ###-###-#### with any additional questions or

concerns regarding the repayment of her loans.

Sincerely,

Review: I am an anesthesiology resident, I have always been in residency (never suspended or had a gap where I was not in residency) since enrolling in 2011. All loans were in foreberance, I failed to submit an annual claim stating I was still in residency in order to keep my loans in foreberance for one of the loans (despite all the other loan companies aware I was still in residency). This loan was in default, no contact was attempted by Great Lakes via my preferred contact method (email), once they started wage garnishment I contacted the company and set up a rehabilitation plan in January 2014, I was able to make 6 payments, but could not afford to continue making payments because the amount was beyond what I could afford (this is despite filling out a hardship document- Great Lakes determined what I could afford to pay and stated either you pay this amount of we continue to garnish your wages). I did not make payments for 3 months, they resumed garnishment, I recontacted them, was told they have a new plan where they garnish payments for 5 months in addition to me paying a fee I felt comfortable to show good faith. I enrolled in September made the first payment. Come November I discover they have been garnishing a percentage of my biweekly paycheck but not taking the additional $5 from my account. The company stated I have to re-enroll and since no $5 amount was paid for October or November, they can restart that plan today but garnish for additional 5 months. I enrolled in September and expected this to be resolved by January 2015. They failed to contact me and inform me that the $5 was not being deducted for 2 months! I cannot afford to continue having my salary garnished bi weekly as I have a wife and 13 month old son to support. $600 may not sound like much per month, but that is 2.5 months worth of formula for my son or 1/3 of rent per month!Desired Settlement: Reinstate me in the rehabilitation program which was in September agreed to last 5 months (terminate wage garnishment in January 2015) and after that point continue paying just the aloted monthly agreement of $5 until the loan is out of default. I have given up arguing that the loan should not be in default in the first place because that has fallen on deaf ears, I just feel cheated that I was not notified that Great Lakes were not deducting the agreed monthly amount because they were taking significantly more from my garnishment so no one was compelled to contact me.

Business

Response:

Dear

Mr. [redacted]:

Review: [redacted] have falsely accused me of taken out a Student Loan while I was going to College.I have never took out any Student Loan while I was in college. [redacted] have also turn me over to a Lender company called Great Lakes. Great Lakes have also falsely accused me of making payments on a Student Loan that I didn't even take out.Great Lakes have also put this fasle information on my credit report.Desired Settlement: I would like for [redacted] to stop falsely accused me of taken out a Student Loan.I would also like for Great Lakes to remove false information off my credit report.

Business

Response:

February 3, 2015

My student loans were recently transferred to Great Lakes. I received no prior notice to the change from either lending party. My first communication from Great Lakes stated, they were going to be handling my Direct Student Loans and that more details would follow. Any due dates during the transfer would be pushed. This was on August 7th - my loans are due on August 7th.

If my loan is DUE on the 7th that would mean my check was already cut through my bank's auto pay system and in the mail to Direct Loan.

I called Great Lakes and they told me they didn't have my account set up yet, but not to worry about they check. It would be forwarded to them and they would apply the payment to my account. No mention delinquency. Great, this will be a seamless transition. Think again.

August 15 - I received an email that I was behind on my payments. So, again, I called. Now, the story is they need a payment right now from me, or my loan will need to go into forbearance.Forbearance is to be used when you cannot make payments, not when a bank/lender can't get their act together. So, I paid - again - for my loans to prevent any late fees or reports on my credit.

As someone who never misses payments of any sort - I am sure you understand my frustration.

Fair warning - if you loan was transferred to Great Lakes - not matter what their emails say, call them because you don't want this mandated government switch in our student loan providers to affect your credit.

Obviously, honesty and integrity do not apply to the banking/lending institution. But, I guess history has taught us that.

Great lakes won't resolve my conflict they never call me back all they do is deny me and take way too much money out of my paycheck and won't resolve it so I'm filing my conplaint here they are not a good business if they don't carw bout the well being our there customers and I wabt my problem solved asap or I will go take it to couet and have it fixed

Great Lakes handles my student loans. They are not currently in repayment. To get ahead of the game, I've enrolled in auto-pay, and make monthly payments.
Based on a phone conversation only, when I expressed interest in consolidation, and asked how to do this, they put my account into forbearance, without informing me (written, email, oral, phone message), that they were stopping payments on my accounts. When I called to ask why I was no longer enrolled in auto pay. They would not re-enroll me, and informed me that it was true they never emailed me to tell me I was un-enrolled in autopay. The last email I had was confirming my payment that was scheduled, which was never taken out.
It is extremely scary that a loan company can effectively bump you from auto pay, based on a phone conversation, and not send you a written receipt that your loan will not be paid. If I had actually been in repayment, this would be a late payment and could have had adverse effects on my credit history. Not only was the representative unhelpful, he was condescending and put me on hold for 20 min.

I have eight "tokens" (individual loans) via Great Lakes, three with higher interest rates than the others. In the last month, I have called at least six times to (a) make additional payments and (b) request those payments be credited to the tokens with the highest interest rates.
I have received different information about how much is on my account, how quickly my request will be processed, and how the process of allotting payments to individual tokens works every time I have called.
In the meantime, zero of my requests have actually been fulfilled.
I am angry and frustrated at the lack of transparency and information Great Lakes has provided. I will be looking into loan consolidation with my spouse's provider as soon as my latest payment to Great Lakes clears (either 48 hours or 3-5 business days, depending on who's taking my call that day).

Review: I wish to file a formal complaint with your company. I do not wish to use online services nor online banking. I do not want e-statements. I don’t want to pay you electronically. I do not want to receive any correspondence electronically.

I am very annoyed that your company routinely sends me a paper notice stating my amount due and due date. This notice contains no statement details. Instead, it simply states “your billing statement is now available on mygreatlakes.org”. I do not consent to online billing statements.

I routinely receive this notice with very little time to make payment. For example, today (Feb. 6) I received the January notice with payment due on Feb. 14. That gives me only six business days to mail a payment to you. This time period is too short and does not give me enough flexibility to make my payments.

I have tried calling multiple times to stop this nonsense and request a paper statement, but each time I am told this is all there is and I must go online to get the statement. One representative offered to mail me a history, but I don’t want to have to call in to get this information every month. Aren't you required as a loan servicer to provide a periodic loan activity statement?

My most recent notice mentioned that the 1098-E is now available. “The amount of interest you paid on your student loans is available online…”. I do not consent to online correspondence. You are required by IRS guidelines to obtain my consent before you can deliver the 1098-E to me electronically. How many other customers have you neglected to mail this vital information to?

Finally, I am extremely agitated that when I call your company I am greeted by an automated prompt that demands a social security number. I will remind you that the social security number is not an identification number. Social security is a voluntary program that is completely unrelated to loan servicing, and not everyone has a social security number. Why can’t I provide my account number to the automated prompt instead?

The icing on the cake was your process to file a complaint. According to your website, “To file a formal complaint, you must first log in.” Of course. (https://www.mygreatlakes.org/borrower/contactUs.html)

I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am quite disappointed.

Please stop directing me to your website. Please start sending me a periodic statement.Desired Settlement: I want paper statements (not payment notices)mailed to me.

I want more time to pay the bill. The Post Office cannot be relied upon to mail me a notice, and mail back a check payment in 14 days. I should be given at least 30 days to make payment.

Business

Response:

February 10, 2014

Review: On 5/5/2015 I received an email from Great Lakes indicating I had been approved for a Pay As You Earn repayment plan. In the email it noted that I needed to make a payment of $44.56 by 7/4/2015 in order to transfer from Pay As You Earn from Income Based Repayment play (IBR). It was noted in the email that when I transferred to the new repayment plan my interest would all be capitalized. If I did not make the required payment by 7/4/2015 I would remain in IBR and no interest would be capitalized. Knowing I had a substantial amount of interest I chose not to make a payment so that my interest would not be capitalized. On 6/14/2015 I received an email stating my payment plan had been created. I went to the website and saw my payment plan was $44.56/ month due beginning 6/22/2015. Being a responsible bill-payer I made my scheduled payment and scheduled automatic payments of $45.00. On 6/22/2015 I received an email again stating a payment schedule had been created and that I now owed $148.51 per month beginning 8/3/2015. I immediately went to the website, discovered my interest had been capitalized on 6/15/2015 and that I had been transferred into the Pay As You Earn repayment plan. All because I paid my bill that was due. I then called Great Lakes customer service on 6/23/2015 and spoke to a representative named Joel who advised that I would be switched back to IBR and the capitalized interest would be reversed in 3-5 business days. On 6/29/2015 I again received an email indicating a payment schedule had been created. Again I went to the website only to find that I now owed $222.76 per month beginning on 8/9/2015. On 6/30/2015 I called Great Lakes again and spoke with Ariel who placed me on hold and when she returned advised that her supervisor would have to send some emails to determine whether or not the interest capitalization could be reversed or not and would get back to me at the end of the week. I clarified that she was stating they were unsure if the capitalized interest could be reversed. At this time I let her know I was extremely dissatisfied with their service as this is an error on the part of Great Lakes and that I am being penalized for paying my bill on time. She only reaffirmed that she would get back to me by the end of the week with the determination. I realize that I need to allow the company at minimum until July 2nd to get back to me on this issue; however it has caused excessive undue stress. They've changed my amount due 3 times in a 2 week period and have provided no resolution except to determine that they will charge me more per month. I have no faith in their services after this experience and the last representative I spoke to, Ariel, did not seem confidant at all that I would have my interest capitalization reversed or my monthly payment reduced back to the original amount.Desired Settlement: I want the interest that was capitalized to be reversed and my original payment schedule that was created on 6/14/15 to be implemented. Meaning I will have $5,369.36 of interest capitalization reversed and my payment will be the original $44.56/month due on the 22nd of each month.

Business

Response:

Review: I pay my student loans every month. Yes, I do pay then 15-25 days late. I do understand the need for collections effort, however I have repeatedly asked for them to stop calling my cell phone. I have asked them this every month since April for 2014 (I have been paying this way for over a year). When contacted for the 1st time I asked why they now all of a sudden were calling me about my payment? The rep could not give me an answer just that I was past due and needed to pay. I requested that my cell phone not be call. They rep then had the audacity to tell me "she could take my number off, but they would just search for the number again and call me back". I then told them women it was against the law to continue to call my cell phone without consent and me stating to stop. The women stated she would take it off. I received phone calls simalar to this in may, june and july. Finally in August I demanded to speak with a supervisor. I told him I would be contacting an attorney due to the fact that the calls would not stop. The "supervisor" told me that the would not stop and they did not have to because it was a government loan. I asked the question of why no one in the prior months had ever told me that? I received no reply back.Desired Settlement: I WANT you to STOP calling my cell phone #!!!!!!!

Business

Response:

September 5, 2014

Review: I have been garnished for student loan payments for almost four years. I quit my job in April in order to return to school full time. I have been requesting a letter of default from the Diversified Collection Services, the agent of Great Lakes, without success. I have phoned them only to be put on hold until the line was disconnected. No responses to my email attempts. My current financial aid status is being put on hold until a letter of default has been received. Over a course of five weeks I have been working to retrieve this information without a positive result. Classes will end in two weeks for the quarter and I will not be able to register for fall classes until my summer classes are paid for in full.Desired Settlement: I need to receive a letter of default from diversified collections or from great lakes in order to continue and complete my graduate education.

Business

Response:

September 11, 2014

Review: I recently received my tax return, and being a responsible adult I am paying back what I owe before buying something nice for myself. I called in on 4/20/15 I think it was, give or take a day or two, and payed off around $4,075 off my loans. I explained that I would like everything extra I was paying to be applied to the principle on my two highest loans first (6.8%) then the rest towards my second highest loan (5.6%). The lady I talked to the first time said okay that she could do that, but I would need to make sure I paid this months minimum payment which is like $75. I agreed to pay and was assured that my wishes would be met. Well after a couple days I go onto my account and I still have a balance on one of my 6.8% accounts and some of the money has been applied to my 4.5% account. I have four loans with them. I then called back again and talked to a second person, a male this time. I was once again assured that the problem would be corrected. A couple of days later I went back on to my account to see that they once again messed it up and I had a balance of $13.00. on one of my 6.8% accounts. Frustrated I sent in an e-mail to the company and was told they were going to look into the matter and sorry for the inconvenience, or something comparable to that. I went back onto my account again and now I have a balance of $261.72. I payed more than enough to pay off both my 6.8% loans. I was even told by a manager that both my 6.8% loans would be paid off and that the rest was going towards my 5.6% and that I was correct in thinking this.Desired Settlement: I would like a letter of apology, and also for someone to back date all the interest I have overcharged due to their error.

Business

Response:

May 22, 2015

Review: I continue to get emails and letters sent to me saying that my loan is about to be in default; however, when I call the number they provide and give my information (SSN and DOB), they claim to have no record of me. Last year (2014) I made arrangements with them to pay $50 per month and did so for 4 months. Suddenly they stopped taking the money out of my bank account, when I called to ask why, they again said they had no record of my account or of me ever having a loan through them.Desired Settlement: I would like my credit report adjusted due to the fact that I am unable to pay on my educational loans because the company itself claims to have no record of me.

Business

Response:

I pay my student loans to Great Lakes through direct debit from my checking account. In January 2014, Great Lakes made an unauthorized debit from my bank account that was $645 great than the approved debit amount. I called Great Lakes and they were able to fix the issue so that the amount to be debited out of my account, moving forward, was correct.

Great Lakes told me that in order to get the $645 back I would have to contact the claims department at my bank due to an unauthorized debit. I did call my bank the same day and the bank had to file a claim against Great Lakes for the unauthorized debit. The bank states that I should receive my money in 7-10 business days.

In hopes that Great Lakes may be able to refund my money more promptly I called them back. I was told that the refund process at Great Lakes takes 30-45 days. I expressed that this time frame was unacceptable and asked to speak to a manager. In speaking with the manager I was given the same information about the 30-45 day delay. I explained to the manager that when the money is debited from my account it is received electronically by Great Lakes with 24-hours and therefor 30-45 days did not make any logical sense. I was not given an answer as to why it would take so long despite asking for clarification on this issue.

This is not yet a formal complaint because I did have my bank file the claim against Great Lakes for an unauthorized debit and. I do expect to be receiving my money in 7-10 business days. My bank was much more agreeable and helpful then Great Lakes customer service even though it was an error on the part of Great Lakes.

This is my third billing issue with Great Lakes in the two-three years since they have taken over service of my student loans. I have removed my bank account information and unregistered from direct debit type payments. I do not want to be put in a situation of financial hardship again due to Great Lakes inability to properly manage this aspect of their business. I would recommend that all other Great Lakes customers consider doing the same. I am also appalled that Great Lakes has an A rating with the Revdex.com after reading many other reports of billing/collections issues. I believe that are-evaluation of this rating is justified.

Great Lakes claims I scheduled two payments and then took out both payments from my checking account. Looking at my internet history I show all the steps for one of the payments, which was my intent, but on the day that they claim I made the other payment my internet history does not show the steps(pages that need to be visited to make a payment). The solution to my problem according to them is a 30-45 day wait for a refund. This is unacceptable.

I want to start off by saying that my wife and I are not the type of people to complain, at all. However, in this case, we couldn't sit back and not act on the way this company has completely changed our lives. Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation has a very poor and shady way of conducting business. My wife and I are newly married and trying to start our lives together with the purchase of a new home. A little back story on the loan is my wife is currently attending school and has been throughout this entire process, any of you with school loans will know that while attending school payments on the loan are not necessary. Long story short on the house, we made it all the way to a couple days before the final signing. We had everything packed, movers on the way and utilities in place. That is when we received the call from the bank saying that the loan had been disqualified due to lack of payment on a student loan from Great Lakes. Funny that they claim 9 months of delinquent payments and yet nothing shows on the credit report until the last credit check. If anyone has gone through a home buying process, credit checks become routine. Which is why it came as such a shock that something as important as 9 months of delinquent payments just goes unnoticed. I immediately contacted Great Lakes, offered to pay the payments in full and even pay the loan in full. The so called "Managers" I talked to were very quick to say that they are not responsible for anything and that we should have paid on time. Keep in mind that this company not only waited nine months to report this, they also never once contacted my wife or myself to let us know that we owed anything to them. You would think with something as serious as this, they would at least try and reach out to us. When questioned about why they didn't contact us, they just responded with they are protected by law, and their policy is that the only means of contact they are responsible for is email. Now, according to them they email and called multiple times. Not once did we receive an email and not one message on our phones. Again, I questioned this and per policy they do not have to leave a voice message when they call, just the simple fact that they called is enough for them. I know we live in the digital age but really with something this important, SEND A LETTER! Going back a little, we never received an email nor a phone message and with no letter in the mail we had no idea that we were to pay anything. Now fast forward we are trying to buy a house, loan is disqualified all because of $250 in late fees. Thats when we found out that there was still hope, the bank would still loan us the money if Great Lakes would agree to write a letter to the credit agencies simply stating it was a mistake and to take it off of the report. We had since paid the loan in full and we were just waiting to see if they would do the right thing. After not hearing from them when they said they would call me back, I contacted their corporate office with this issue. I was told the same stories, it was like listening to a robot. They are covered by law and policy states whatever. The fact of the matter is my wife and I paid the loan in full and pleaded for a letter to still have a loan for a house. Great lakes had destroyed our credit scores to give insight on what I mean by Destroyed I mean high 760's all the way down to low 500's. We got the call from their corporate office saying that they would not write the letter and they are not taking the blame for something that they are not responsible for. Now all we have to show for ourselves is a paid off loan from a company that deserves to be shut down for their policies alone, depleted credit and no place to call home. These people could care less that they just devastated a young couple and killed any chance at a home in the near future, all for $250 and bad practice on their part. Terrible company with even worse people running it. This company deserves terrible ratings and I recommend this place to no one. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone ever again.

Great Lakes don`t care about you. All they want is money. How do you expect anyone to pay off student loan with paying interest. These Positive reviews are from people that work with them. Great Lakes is the worst.

I have never dealt with this cooperation. YET,,,,They have called my personal cell phone on multiple occasions. They are calling from 800-236-4300.I have asked them twice to remove my cell from their accounts for I have never conducted business with them. I have spent too much time being bothered by them and put on hold to explain I am not this female who owes them money nor do I know them. They would not give me a high ranking persons email to rectify. Just offered an email to a generic area. They are obviously not concerned with a my pursuit to remain unsolicited with matters not my concern legally or otherwise.
I also can not believe they use citizens social security numbers to identify their clients. In today's world that is absolutely not a safe practice.

Review: I can not make a payment. Great Lakes has locked me out of my online account. When I call, Great Lakes has a recording. I am now past due. Great Lakes has not sent me any notices of any kind. My account was fine and updated a couple months ago, but now that my payment is due they locked me out of my account. It seems as if Great Lakes is setting me up to fail.Desired Settlement: Unlock my account so I can pay my bill. I do not want any negative marks on my credit. It is not my fault that I could not pay. I can pay, but I can not access my account or contact Great Lakes. They have provided no resolution.

Business

Response:

July 21, 2014

Review: I am the parent of a 27 year old daughter who had graduate school loans. We were not a co-signer, and do ot have ay information about these loans. Great Lakes charged us for a payment for this loan last week (approximately $650) even though my daughter had already made a payment. They said she authorized her to use our bank account to make a direct debit payment. Wells Fargo is contesting, and Great Lakes says it will take weeks to "figure it out." They took our bank information from her undergraduate loan application from 5 years ago. Different school. different loans, nothing the same. The most bizarre thing is they charged our account and her on the same day. They agreed they vharged us both but refused to reverse the charges, saying it would take time.Desired Settlement: Immediate refund and apology for using unauthorized access to our bank account. Apparently student loans providers go after parents any way they can. That is what the bank told me. They say they were "authorized" to use our bank account because it was in a prior loan. How can this be? The bank has told us our account is compromised because Great Lakes has it all over the place now and we have to change our account number. Why is the onus on us to correct this. This is like stealing and they chould be charged.

Business

Response:

Thank you for contacting us on behalf of Ms. [redacted] and for providing us the opportunity to address her concern regarding the $644.56 payment withdrawn from her bank account on March 30, 2016, which she states she did not authorize.According to our records, the aforementioned payment was submitted by Ms. [redacted]’s daughter, [redacted], through her mygreatlakes.org (MGL) account. After reviewing our records, we can confirm that the bank account information used to submit the March 30, 2016 payment was not obtained from an undergraduate student loan application as Ms. [redacted] referenced. The bank account used to make aforementioned payment was saved to [redacted]’s MGL account on August 9, 2013 under the name “[redacted].” This also happens to be the date an $8,275.12 payment was submitted through [redacted]’s MGL account to pay off her undergraduate student loans that were disbursed by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to the University of Miami between May 17, 2010 and January 10, 2011. These loans were transferred by ED to Great Lakes on June 4, 2013 from [redacted]’s previous loan servicer, Direct Loan Servicing Center.From Great Lakes perspective, it appears that [redacted], the borrower, scheduled the August 9, 2013 payment and saved the bank account to her MGL account, since technically she is the only person who should have access to her MGL account. Please also note that only a borrower has the ability to save bank account information to their MGL account, Great Lakes cannot. Additionally, when a payment is scheduled through a borrower’s MGL account, Great Lakes is unable to identify and determine whether or not the bank account information provided belongs to them. However, if we subsequently receive notification that a payment was unauthorized, as Ms. [redacted] indicated, the bank account used to submit the payment is blocked so that the borrower is no longer able to schedule payments from it. Similarly, we have deleted the bank account saved under the name “[redacted]” from [redacted]’s MGL account.With regards to the refund Ms. [redacted] requested, on April 4, 2016 we submitted an expedited refund request to Pay.gov, the clearinghouse used by ED to process online payments. These requests are typically refunded within 7 to 10 business days. Unfortunately, on April 6, 2016, Pay.gov notified us that a stop payment had been placed on the transaction by the bank account holder due to it being unauthorized. As a result, the refund request submitted April 4, 2016 was canceled to avoid both Great Lakes and the financial institution from refunding $644.56.Complaint ID: [redacted]I hope Ms. [redacted] finds the information provided helpful and would like to apologize for any frustration she has experienced. If she has any questions or concerns, she may contact our Borrower Services Department by phone at ###-###-####, by email at [email protected], or by mail to the address below:Great LakesP.O. Box 7860Madison, WI 53707Sincerely,[redacted]Supervisor – Contact EscalationGreat Lakes Educational Loan Services Inc.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Regards,