U.S. Department of Education

AWFUL! Try not to get stuck with them for servicing your student loans. I sent payment at the end of September for my bill that was due on ¹⁰⁄₇. On 9/​26, my check was deposited by US Department of Education. They decided to transfer my loans to another company on ⁹⁄₂₈. That payment never made it to the new company and now I have «delinquency» status. I’ve called several times and the representatives are completely useless. They talk to you on the phone but refuse to backup anything they say in writing; whether it be email or a customized letter. You have to demand to talk to a manager and even then, they are all reading from the same script and have nothing intelligent or helpful to say.

In transitioning my loan from the Direct Loan Servicing Center to EdFinancial, paperwork was not processed, I incurred a non refundable bank fee and now have to resubmit the paperwork.
Phone call: 16 minutes
Paperwork: 20 minutes

Where do I begin with this place. The representatives were either extremely rude or unbelievably incompetent, and they really try to suck every penny they can out of dirt poor college students.
So I got an unsubsidized loan for the 2009 school year, and I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s about the only loan that will start accruing interest before you graduate from college. My mom told me to pay it off since it wasn’t a large amount and it will end up accruing hundreds just in interest before I even graduate. So I called them around the end of March to get the exact amount to pay off the entire loan, including the interest. The lady I spoke to had a hard time understanding what I wanted and took about half an hour just for her to give me the amount I needed. I cut them a check and sent it in, and called them back 7 – 10 business days later to make sure they applied it all to the unsubsidized portion, which they said they did.
All this time I thought I didn’t have anything to worry about with my loans, but along comes an interest statement over the summer stating that I still owe interest. Really confused, I called them back today and after explaining my situation to a rep, they told me they would send a statement and to also look online. I logged into my account, and noticed they paid off two of the unsubsidized payments (each loan is paid at the beginning of the quarters), and the rest to the unsubsidized portion, leaving one payment of the subsidized loan unpaid. Uhhhh why? They even made sure to charge it to the lowest interest-​bearing portion of my subsidized loan as well. Really?! The rep couldn’t even tell me this, when she was staring right at it when I was speaking to her? I had to call back, and explain everything YET AGAIN, and this time the lady was so ridiculously rude. By the time she realized they had messed up, she would cut me off in the middle of the sentence and put me on hold. At the end when I finally got them to fix everything, she didn’t apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused, but instead abruptly hung up on me. Ruuuuude. Whatever I’m just glad to be done with that nonsense.
I just don’t understand why they didn’t apply ALL of my payment to the unsubsidized loan in the first place, like I said to when I called them multiple times to make sure. Obviously the reason I paid it off was so I wouldn’t have any interest accruing, what is the point of applying it to my subsidized loans? They just seem very sneaky in what they do to get everything they can out of you. I don’t know if their representatives are trained to do things like that and act like children when they get caught doing something wrong, but either way I will be making sure to pay off my loans asap. I would have been happy to let them earn some interest off of me when I graduate had I not gone through this ridiculous experience. I’d rather borrow my money with higher interest rates then have to deal with these morons anymore. One star (because I have to) for giving me money (because that’s what they’re supposed to do) to help pay for school.

For every American who attend college and university for Bachelor’s, Masters, J.D. Law, LL.M., or doctorate degrees a student loan (Subsidized and Un-​Subsidized Stafford Federal Loans) is a must-​have to pay for one’s tuition. Student loans borrowed direct from the federal government is much easier than borrowing from a bank.
After a long haul of ten years re-​payment continuous process, my status is finally «paid in full» which has been removed from my credit report. I rate U.S. Department of Education/​Direct Loan Servicing Center four stars as upon contacting the toll-​free number a series of the automated menus needed to be bypass in order to finally speak to a live human being which only then leads one to be on eternal hold.
The William D. Ford Direct Loan program assists all Americans and U.S. Residents in achieving their acadamia dreams!