I'm a person who has been fairly successful at paying my bills over the years. Maybe I've forgotten to pay my phone bill once or twice, but I've never had problems with a system where I was actually trying to pay my bills.
I have not consolidated my loans, and I was in that weird transition period where some of my loans are still with Sallie Mae and some are with Direct Loan. In just the past few months, I've had a false belief that I had hit the "confirm" button on my payment. The button was buried at the bottom of the screen, so I forgot that even though I told them to pay a certain amount, that I still had to confirm that I wanted to pay that amount.
This problem got me into the habit of paying early enough so that I could revisit the website in a few days to see if I could catch problems before they turned into issues.
This system is paying off....slightly.
Earlier this month, I had typed in the dollar amount to pay. I looked on my bank account, noticed that it had actually posted, but went back to see if the payment actually took.
For some reason, both my Stafford and Plus loan on that one website were a few dollars short! According to them, I still owed about $17 for the month. I felt that was weird, but I compared what went through the bank to confirm that they didn't take out the full amount, but lost $17 in the process. Seeing that the dollar amounts matched, I went back, added in the extra money, and then went back and made sure that the dollar amounts actually read zero. I'm not sure what happened, but since it's a computer, it's hard for me to argue that I typed in the right dollar amount, even if it is fishy that the payments I made for both loans were just a few dollars too low.
As I feel the annoyance, all I can think is that I'm looking years into the future and having these problems haunt my every step. All I'm doing is very base line activities. I can't imagine what a mess it is for people who fall behind. Seriously, people, you can't even effectively tell your computer how to remove the set amount of money that I owe from my bank! All I need are these jokers trying to ruin my credit.
I can't wait until I become employed. I'm going to live in a tent and eat bread and beans until I get rid of you people.
How's your job search coming along?
ReplyDeleteRe: Job Hunt:
ReplyDeleteI think I may be getting warmer, but until that feeling of being like the pimply faced teen waiting by the phone for a guy to call goes away and there is a ring on my finger, I won't celebrate.
I like your scamblog. I'm going to visit more often.
ReplyDeleteBe careful -- XPress Loan Servicing (Dept of Ed) reported my account as "delinquent" for being $1.24 short for 4 days. I am in the process of going through paperwork to figure out whether they can actually do this for such a low amount -- and for only 4 days. The repayment period for 2 new loans (in addition to two other loans with XPress) was set to begin during the bar exam study period, so I set up an auto payment through my Bank based on the bill XPress sent [your first payment of $600 will be due on 7/15/2010]. However, the amount quoted as the repayment amount actually ended up being (you guessed it) $1.24 less than the actual repayment amount, so the amount I paid was incorrect.
ReplyDeleteI understand that there is no grace period, but reporting me as delinquent on my credit report after 4 days? For $1.24? Seriously?
Sorry for the long post.
Vultures.
- 2010 Grad, unemployed
When Sallie is in your rear-view mirror, make sure you flip her the bird. That is all this whore deserves.
ReplyDeleteI met a VP at Sallie Mae the other night. He mentioned that they want to purchase up to $80 billion of student loan accounts from other "service providers" that are apparently getting ready to fold up shop. This is where the profits are handsome.