What should I do if my federal student loans were transferred to a new servicer and my balance increased?
Help! My federal student loans were transferred from Great Lakes to Nelnet, and my balance surged from $68k to $76k. I’ve been anxious since logging into my new Nelnet account. I’m very focused on paying back my loans (which started at over $200k), so I know what I owe, and this sudden increase in balance has me worried.
I contacted both Great Lakes and Nelnet to sort this out. Great Lakes has removed all the accessible information from my account, leaving me with only student loan interest deduction documents. Nelnet’s account only shows the new balance they claim I owe.
At first, both companies insisted that the balance was correct and matched what was on studentaid.gov, but I disagreed. A Great Lakes representative eventually found that my balance was $76k as of January 2020, and I had made about $7-$8k in payments that weren’t applied. I don’t understand why this discrepancy exists, especially since my previous balance was correct the last time I logged into Great Lakes.
Great Lakes promised to email me the document confirming this, but I haven’t received it yet. I’m worried they’ll shift the responsibility to me to prove the error, but I can’t access any documents from my old Great Lakes account. It feels like theft.
To make matters worse, mystudentaid.gov shows my last payment date as 01/01/1901. I’m exhausted and overwhelmed by how this situation has impacted my life. How is it legal for them to erase my payment history, transfer my loans, and claim a new balance while placing the burden of proof on me? I’m feeling very depressed and worn out.