Paid off my student loans but now NelNet is saying I still owe money… What do I do?

I paid off my student loans in February 2022 with Heartland/Great Lakes, but now in 2023 NelNet says I still owe them money. I already paid off my student loans and don’t want to pay a penny more. What can I do about this?

We can’t really guess what’s going on from just your statement. It could be anything from an error on their end to extra loans, or maybe you paid off the loan balance without covering the extra interest they add. You’ll need to work with them and make sure your loan statements are all in order.

@Tory
This!!

@Tory
I spoke with them last year and basically, they’re trying to make me pay the original balance plus all the interest from missed payments. I only went to school for one semester in community college, so the original loan was around $1500. I paid that off in under a year through Great Lakes, and now they’re saying I owe over $4000.

@Jesse
Sounds like some ‘legitimate’ nonsense fees. Loan amounts aren’t always the same as your payoff amounts because they add interest when you pay it off. This is probably one of those legit, but shady fees. They might work with you to pay a portion of the fees but not the full amount. Offer to pay only the original balance, and they’ll probably back off eventually.

Not much info here — did you pay off all your loans? Sometimes students don’t realize they have loans with different servicers (it’s common if you have federal loans with ED and also Perkins loans with Heartland ESCI). Check your FSA Dashboard and your credit reports to get a full picture of what you owe.

@Zinnia
Thanks, I’ll look into it.

[deleted]

Zadie said:
[deleted]

Are you asking if it’s me or NelNet calling me?

Zadie said:
[deleted]

Rule 7: Off-topic. Your comment is either not about student loans or it doesn’t fit with the topic being discussed here. If you want to talk about something else related to student loans, find a relevant post or start your own.

What!? That’s crazy. How much is NelNet saying you owe? Were your loans consolidated or kept separate?