I've been in a rehabilitation program for a year now to recover my student loans from default. I pay out 470.00 each month for all my loans, those to Financial Asset Management Systems, Inc among them. I have never missed a payment in this past year and have had to work two and three jobs to make these payments. I'm near the end of my "program, " but twice now this company, which collects for the Department of Education, has moved my payoff date back due to "missed payments." This happened just this week. I typically mail my payments according to my pay schedule so my last payment, which I mailed last Monday, was to be applied to my May 7 payment. (My payments are due on the 7th each month) Responsible, right?
So, I get a notice in the mail this week saying that I made a late payment, typical dunning letter, which is crap since they have a clear record that I've been payin for a year now. So I call, leave a VM and no one returns my call. I get a message on my cell phone, after repeatedly asking these people to notify me in writing only, to call. I do, the guy supposedly "handling my account" is gone for the day so i end up with a flunky who tells me that I made 2 payments in March. I told her that the payment they received at the end of march was for April. She tells me the payment was too early! So, my April payment was never applied to my account (they kept the money, of course). This threw my paument scedule out of whack and so the payment I just mailed for may was applied to April and I am left having to make a second payment for May. Of course, I have my check records to verify everything.
As I say, I've repeatedly asked them to contact me only via mail, for documentation purposed, they ignore me. I've been harrassed with phone calls at work, at home, at 6:30 in the morning on Saturdays, I've written letters to the Department of Education, Congressmen and state reps in Washington and Minnesota. I've gotten nowhere. These idiots at FAMS do what they please and don't follow the Fair Debt Collection laws, although the DOE who hires these collection agencies tells me how seriously they take complaints. What a load of crap. And every single time I call FAMS, I'm kept on lengthy holds, and am spoken to either like an errant child or a crimnal who deserves mistreatment. They hurry up to talk to me in a kind of collection agancy gibberish that no one could possibly understand and then they always follow up by saying that Congress passed these laws which govern my stipulated payment plan. Congress did pass these draconian laws and they were designed to help Congressmen get rich since Sallie Mae has one of the largest lobbying groups in Washington.
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