I co-signed a student loan for one term of my son's education. He was able to finance the balance of his student loans on his own. Unfortunately he has not been making payments on any of his loans. When I realized this, I took over the payments on my co-signed loan only. I have the payments set up to pay automatically from my credit union. Although the reps at Sallie Mae were adamant that I needed to set the payments up through them. I refuse to allow a lender to have access to debit my bank accounts, when they cannot manage to properly post the payments. I send my payments to the address they designated for payments from co-signers. Several months ago I began getting harrassing calls, then an invoice came showing that no payments had been applied for several months. In reviewing my records I showed that I should have been at least one payment ahead. When I called their customer service line, after several failed attempts to navigate the barrage of questions and button pushing to finally get a live person, they were rude. I tried to explain that I was calling to complain that my payments were mis-applied and was told that the account was seriously past due and I would need to set up a payment. I explained that my payments are electronically transferred through bill pay with my credit union. The response was then I should double check with them. I gave dates and payment amounts and was informed that those payments were not found. I asked if the payments had been posted to the loan that I had not co-signed. The response was that I did not have authorization to receive that information. Finally out of frustration, I requested a full payment history so that I could file a formal complaint under the fair credit reporting act. That got her attention, she finally found her polite voice.
A week later with my payment history and credit union payments seriously not matching, I faxed my complaint and request for research to correct all of the mis-applied payments. Thinking that it was taken care of and someone would finally correct the account, I deglected to follow-up with a telephone call. The following month another Invoice showing that may payment had not been applied. This time the telephone call escalated to supervisor, when the customer service rep began berating me with the need to set up payments with them since my account was seriously past due. In my review of the payment history I should have been paid ahead several months. The supervisor did listen and patiently went over each mis-applied payment. He also asked that I add the notation "loan 1 only" to the memo line on the credit union payments. I followed-up several days later to confirm that the account was corrected. I also confirmed that the memo line was amended for all future payments.
Today 12/9/10; I received another Invoice showing that there has not been any payments recieved since 8/19/10. When I called, the customer service rep began the usual practice of treatment for delinquent loans. I explained that I was calling to register a complaint for three mis-applied payments. She continued to request that I set up a payment because my account was seriously delinquent. I interrupted her and asked if she had heard what I said about calling to have Sallie Mae review my account and locate the missing payments. Her response was "ma'am did I interrupt you when you were speaking?" My response, get your supervisor because apparently you are not understanding what I am calling for. I have made my payments and once again Sallie Mae has mis-applied the payments. I said this is not the first time this has happened, if you will review the payments for my sons un-co-signed loan you will find the missing payments. She continued to argue, I demanded a supervisor because apparently this was beyond her ability to rectify. She transferred me to an unworking number with sallie mae and the line went dead.
I called right back, the next customer service rep listened and agreed that I would need to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor answered, took the basic information along with the payment dates and amounts that were mis-applied, said hold please, then the line went dead. I called right back and was informed by the telephone auto-attendent that the office was now closed.
I am so frustrated, with the incompetence of the handling of my payments. Why do they have a separate address for payments from co-signers if they arbitrarily post the payments to another past due account, when the intended loan is current.