Great Lakes Student Loan Complaint

Great Lakes Student loan department,

Non-federal student loan Dealing with my lender or servicer Trouble with how payments are handled Colorado

Great Lakes Loan is serving a private student loan I took out with -. There are - separate loans identified by " token '' numbers. There is - token that has a higher interest rate than the other - ( # - ). In an effort to pay off the loan with the highest interest rate faster, I have been making extra payments. On the Great Lakes website, it states that my extra payment will be allocated to the loan with the highest interest rate ( after deducting any late fees, and interest on the other loan tokens ). Additionally, my statements indicate I may contact Great Lakes and allocate payments a particular way. Contrary to their representations, AND MY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS, Great Lakes is not applying my extra payments in this fashion. Please see my loan payment history for the last 12 months. I made extra payments in the months of - 2016, - 2016, - 2016, and - 2016. Only the - and - 2016 extra payments were allocated correctly - ie. being allocated to the loan with the highest interest rate.


would not be allocated to token - because part of it would be used to make my " monthly payment ''. After informing the representative that I had already made my monthly $250.00 payment on - -, the representative informed me that my " billing cycle '' had changed, and that because I was in a new billing cycle, my $1000.00 payment would first be applied to my - monthly payment. I complained and spoke with Account Manager -. I do not have - 's last name. She confirmed what the representative had stated. When I brought to her attention that my extra monthly payments in - and - were allocated in the way I described, she informed me that Great Lakes made a change to the billing cycle on - -, 2016. Note : I DID NOT AUTHORIZE A CHANGE TO THE BILLING CYCLE. Additionally, I was not notified of such a change - a point confirmed by -. I subsequently made an online payment on - - for $1000.00 to payoff - # -. It was not allocated to pay off the loan. By unilaterally changing the billing cycle to where my payment is now due at the " end '' of the billing cycle as opposed to the " beginning '' of the billing cycle, Great Lakes has instituted a scheme to receive excess interest payments. Rather than extra payments being applied to the loan with the highest interest rate, Great Lakes has effectively " inserted '' an extra monthly payment which the loans need to be allocated toward first - thereby reducing the amount of money being applied to the loan with the highest interest rate. This results in extra interest being paid by the borrower. Not only do I believe this scheme constitutes fraud, but I believe it violates the terms of my promissory note. As of this writing, Great Lakes has not provided me a copy of the promissory note, despite repeated attempts to do so. Please note, - indicated that I would need to contact Great Lakes for the promissory note. It can not possibly be true that the loan servicer can unilaterally determine what my " billing cycle '' is and then arbitrarily change it on a whim - without notice to me, or a description of the ramifications. I work as a - for the -. When we uncover schemes to manipulate customers to pay more money, we assess HEAVY sanctions against the perpetrators. I believe this arbitrary change in the " billing cycle '' violates the terms in my promissory note, and constitutes a fraudulent scheme developed by Great Lakes Loan whereby borrowers pay extra interest rather than allocating extra loan payments in the most efficient way possible.