If you’ve applied for multiple student loans and have several balances, your payments may be mistakenly credited to the wrong account at any given time.
Keep in mind that interest accrues on each balance and is posted to different accounts at different times of the month, depending on the billing cycle.
Even so, you may find that you are being charged the wrong amount for your student loan and will need to take necessary steps to ensure that everything is accurate and up-to-date. Getting into the habit of keeping track of all student loan payments and keeping your own running balance of your student loan can help to detect any problems.
Here’s what you need to do if you think you are being charged the wrong amount for a student loan:
Make Copies of All Payments
If you think that you have not been credited appropriately for payments you made to one or more student loans, you’ll need to send proof of payment to the lender holding your student loan. Here’s what you need to do for each form of payment you sent:
- Personal check – send a copy of the check (both front and back)
- Cashier’s check, money order or Western Union payment – submit a copy of the check front and back). Sending a receipt of this payment will not serve as proof of payment. You might need to contact your bank or Western Union in order to get a clean copy of the front and back of this type of check.
- Treasury Offset Program – send a copy of the notice from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Management Service (FMS) from the IRS or State Department of Taxation that states your federal and/or tax refund (or other payments) were offset because of the student loan. You can call the FMS directly at 1-800-304-3107 to make a request for this statement.
- Credit card payments – send a copy of your credit card billing statement that shows where you sent funds to as payment for your student loan
Submit Supporting Documents
If you are making payments on a federal student loan, you should send the U.S. Department of Education some proof of your federal student loan payments. To do this, you must write a brief letter stating the discrepancy, and outlining the problem(s) you have experienced to date.
Again, make this letter relatively brief, no more than a page or so. Be sure to include your full name and Social Security number so that a representative can track down your account easily.
If you have a demand letter, or any type of notice about your student loan, send a copy of that document as well.
Your documents will need to be sent to:
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Default Resolution Group/National Payment Center
P.O. Box 5609
Greenville, TX 75403-5609
Finally, anything you can provide to show you have indeed made payments and that they were not credited appropriately will help to resolve the situation.
