I defaulted on a student loan and it was handed over to Van Ru for collection. The lady who was handling my account set up a payment plan.
Initially we were sending the payment by check and when I was late sending one in I called and did a check by phone. I set up 3 more payments to be done as check by phone and once they were done we returned to mailing the payment.
I was told that once 6 payments were made I would be eligble to receive financial aid again. The account rep was supposed to send me information in writing on my payment plan (due dates, amount, etc) and never did. I made 3 requests before I contacted the Dept. Of Education to ask about my eligibility and was told that Van Ru had not set me up as being on a payment plan and explained what they needed from Van Ru.
The next time I talked to my account rep she was rude and upset because I had contacted the Dept. Of Education and told me she would not speak to me futher unless a payment was late.
On January 4th she called to tell me I needed to send a payment in, would not answer my questions about why I was still not set up as being on a payment plan and hung up on me when I requested to speak to her supervisor.
I finally got the supervisor 2 days later and explained the situation, made a check by phone payment and she requested that I set up further automated payments. I declined again.
On January 10th 2 100.00 payments were taken from my checking account. I called back to find out why and she said tha in December we had authorized automated drafts. I explained that we had not and that the 2nd 100.00 needed to be refunded.
When I called to verify that she had received all of the information by fax the supervisor transferred my call to the original rep and when I called back she (supervisor) hung up on me. I called back to get her supervisor and was informed that a 3rd payment was coming out that day.
I reiterated that these last 2 payments had not been authorized and no further payments were authorized. He stated that they had been authorized and had been verified by a 2nd party (not true).
I called my state attorney general's office and was given an address to a Federal Comptroller's office to explain and have this investigated.
We had to close the checking account that day to avoid further drafts being taken. The company would not give me a physical address, have begun calling my husband at work in spite of a cease communications letter that was sent.
I filed a complaint with the US Dept of Education about this and told them that I would not deal with Van Ru anymore due to their practices. They said I had no choice.
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