For the past couple weeks I have been slowly and surely reigning in all my finances and changing them to work with Hiromi and my new fancy joint account. Its pretty exciting and a big step for me in regards to finances. I usually manage my finances like I would a motorcycle - recklessly and without a helmet; but I have been trying to do everything the “correct” and have actually been reading blogs and what not to find out how to budget things efficiently and without losing money.
Anyway - today was “change the autodebit accounts on my student loans day.” So I called up Nelnet and they helped me. No problem. Didn’t even flinch or say anything shocking. So I got off the phone and thought “wow - loan people are OK.” HAH.
So then I called Iowa Student Loan and promptly got fucked.
Back in 2001 when my student loans went from deferment to repayment - Iowa Student Loan has a deal that was supposed to reward people who paid their loans on time. For a certain amount of consecutive student loan payments that were autodebited from your checking account, they would decrease your interest rate a certain small percentage. Nothing too big - something like .025% off - but when you have 70k of student loans, you pay attention to details like that. So I immediately signed up and started my autodebit plan. It worked really well and I went over 6 years without a missed payment or even an issue.
So I call today to change my checking account. First off, Iowa Student Loans mentions that it would take around 2 months for my payment info to be updated. And in the mean time, I will have to check both my statements and my checking account to see if the payment went through. So this seemed a bit archaic - especially since every sketchy porn site and other sketchy business out there can handle autodebit - it seemed a bit insane that these people were going to take 100 years to process something that seems like it would only take a couple minutes. So I question why this is, and apparently their autodebit system sends a test charge to make sure that the account is correct and then changes the account, after the correct test charge works. However they can only send the charge at one specific time only once per month. wtf. this seems insane.
But whatever, I can deal with this. So I casually ask, since there will be a break in my autodebit, if this will effect my percentage bonus. And lo and behold, by changing checking accounts, I will be ineligible for the autodebit bonus. Even though I have almost 7 years of autodebit and have never been an issue. Apparently they don’t offer the autodebit bonus any longer. And rather than treat their long time customers well they decided to experiment with being inane.
Now, in total, the amount I will be losing by not getting my interest rate bonus is around one to two thousand dollars. That isn’t a whole lot in the scheme of 70k. however. WTF. how does a company get off on treating their customers like this. If this were a phone company, I would pay the termination fee and leave. But sadly I cannot pay the termination fee and leave my student loan lender.
Fuckers.
8 Responses
Jordan
March 7th, 2007 at 1:20 am
1Eesh, that’s ridiculous. As they say at Consumerist, “Escalate!” There must be a VP or someone somewhere in the chain that will honor the lower rate you’ve earned. Actually, you ought to send your story to Consumerist–this is right up their alley, though I’m not sure if Iowa Student Loan as big a fish as they usually deal with.
Cedric
March 7th, 2007 at 10:23 am
2Can you report government agencies to the Iowa Better Business Bureau? You might want to try it, that’s the one part of Iowa state government that actually kicks ass.
Wesabe is neat » Harper Reed: Tech, Phones, Parties, Yo-yoing
March 7th, 2007 at 11:34 am
3[...] started this post awhile ago. But with my brothers angry credit card company post and my angry student loan post, I think a post about how to easily manage ones finances is more topical than ever. So [...]
Jonesy
March 15th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
4Are you sure it was not a mistake?
Dan Wright
March 21st, 2007 at 1:10 pm
5That sucks, you should see if you can talk to anyone about getting them to honor their rates. I have never had a problem with Iowa Student Loan myself, always thought they were a great company, but I guess I havent tried to change my checking account?
mickey
April 18th, 2007 at 8:00 am
6Contact Steve Switzer at the Iowa Attorney General’s office steve.switzer@iowa.gov
mike s.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:43 am
7Everybody’s got a bitch when it comes to places that charge for $. What they miss is the fact that without the $ available, they’re stuck. It’s not as bad as some make it, in fact it’s pretty good if you can go and finish school.
Dan
July 6th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
8I posted this on the DesmoineRegister because i was so pissed off.
For the record, ISL is a non-profit organization, but that only means this: whatever money they have left after deducting expenses, they get to keep. However, they are exempt from taxes because their status is non-profit. The only way they have an issue with the government is if they do an audit and find that they actually do have a profit and administrators keep a large portion of it.
Here is my personal account of my dealings with this loan entity, and if they treat a borrower as such i have to question their methods and justifications on a larger scope.
After having left my previous college, ISL had put me under less than full-time student status. After enrolling full-time at a different, sending them the same forms they requested numerous times (i think 8 in total, 5 through regular mail and 3 via fax) and they insist they have not received the forms. No only that, when i tell them i have the receipt from the post office that certifies that someone in their department has received it, they repeat the same litany, “I’m sorry sir, but we do not have that on file. If you would please send it to us again i am sure we will receive it.” During this time, of course, my status has not changed and i am still making payments even though i am a full time student and full time working. On 3 occasions i had the school call them directly to verify my in school status, which ISL adamantly denies even though i was right there in the registrar office when they made the calls, and on 2 occasions i requested that ISL call the school to verify my student status. Both times i called back immediately to see if they actually called or not and both times they LIED because i called the school on my cell phone and they confirm that no calls had come in from them. Recently, in the span of 2 weeks, i called to confront them and why they treat me, a borrower, as such. All three times i called, the representative hung up on me, one time right after saying that line “I’m sorry sir, that is not my problem and you should be actively concerned with your own account information.”
THERE IS SOMETHING VERY WRONG/SUSPICIOUS WITH THE WAY THEY ARE RUNNING THINGS.
A year and a half later after i had left my previous school and enrolled in a new school, ISL has my information as STILL ATTENDING MY OLD SCHOOL!!! If they treat me as such, what do you think their opinions are of YOU? Then is it so hard to believe that ISL would use bullying and misrepresentation/misinformation to obtain YOUR tax money for THEIR profit?
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