American Education Services

It's bad enough that they raise your interest rates to whatever rate they want whenever they want, but they are difficult to work with, their customer service persons are not only unhelpful, they are rude on top of it (this included their online chat persons as well. If you have a question they treat you like you're an idiot and make it almost impossible to make a change on your account. If you pay a bill the day it's due, be prepared to get a phone call. If it's due on say the 10th, and you process your payment on their website on the 8th or 9th, even though your payment is EARLY, they will start harassing you with phone calls because their system takes 3 days minimum to process the payment on their end.

I deeply hate AES. I hope they go bankrupt. I was told that my aunt who agreed to be my cosigner will be crossed out of the student loan after 4 years of consecutive payments on time. It’s been 10 years and AES still refuses to take her off. I didn’t miss a single payment and paid more than what I was supposed to. They discriminate against me because I am Canadian. They cannot accept any credit information other than from USA. I sent them multiple documents but none of them works because their bureaucrats have issues when someone does not have USA social security number. Now my aunt wants to buy a house and she cannot 'cause she has my loan on her name. Thank you AES for putting me in this situation.

Allowed my daughter to only pay interest on loan for 10 years w/o consulting me!! Now she defaults and I owe full amount!!!! So I paid!! Now they owe me 'cause payoff was wrong and say 30 days? Total POS company! RUN!!!

Having 2 loans through this company. Had both loans switched to same due date. After a forbearance, they decide to change my dates back to original due dates (2 separate dates). I went to pay my bill on the phone and requested to switch my dates switched back. The customer service said gladly. Few days later got an email saying I was denied due to no signature. Ok?!

This company guarantor or whatever.. is inept (or they are inept). I've been dealing with this company for OVER A YEAR for a teacher forgiveness application. Unless you call, they do not let you know what you need or not need for the application. Always telling you "you are missing ... " Once you send it, unless you call, you will not know they actually received it. After they receive what they said they were missing, magically when you call again, you need something else. IF I COULD GIVE NEGATIVE STARS I WOULD! THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HORRIBLE! THEY DO NOT WANT TO APPROVE ANYTHING!

Got misinformation when I called - more than once - to ask if I needed to consolidate my loans again to qualify for the Public Service loan forgiveness program. I was ASSURED that I didn't need to do that. That ultimately cost me $54,000 and 7.5 years of payments toward the program. Now instead of 2.5 years of payments, I have to start over: TEN MORE YEARS. Pretty much says it all.

This is the fifth year in a row that AES has not processed my IBR request in a timely manner. Every year I go and do the recertification process, enter the codes on all the websites and follow up with them. Every year they send me a denial letter and then take take three times the amount out of my account stating that without the plan this is the recalculated amount. Nobody ever calls me to let me know, it's a letter in the mail after the fact. It takes 10 phone calls from me to get things straighten out. They have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. Again, this year my wife and I did everything on our end and they said we didn't and or it wasn't in a timely manner. I took screenshots of everything when completed, so I know it is them screwing up.

AES is nothing but a ripoff loan company. They claim that the rise of the interest rate has to do from a bank from Europe. What does Europe have to do with the damn loans? I had to consolidate my current loans to beat this unjust variable rate. Stay away from this greedy loan management company! Look for the following private and federal school lenders and consolidators that have fixed rates. Earnest, Sofi, and Commonbond.

I pay this loan for my daughter because she is paying other school loans and would break emotionally if she knew how much this is per month. I sent an email about interest going up again and they use some lawyer terms that it is based on the United Kingdom Interest Rates. Really? This is America not London. I'm over 60 and may never get her loan paid off. How about blanket forgiveness for school loans? She is already in one plan for 20 years, is a long way off plus can't find a decent job that pays more than $10.00 an hour with a Masters in Education.

My main advice to anyone who is thinking of joining or leaving AES is to look closely and weigh out their 3 repayment options on their website. There is no manageable way to pay down your loan, without paying an equal or greater amount in interest. I took out 4 private student loans beginning in 2005 to help meet the costs of my tuition (as a self-supporting 18 and 19 year old). AES bought my student loans from my original borrowing company, which was a company called Student Loans Xpress. When the 2008 crash hit, AES picked up the bill on the now-defunct Student Loan Xpress company. I signed a new promissory note with them while I was still completing my degree and amidst the chaos of the financial crash, when the impact was not yet known. Ever since then, I have been stuck with them.

In 1999 I began paying back a $22,000 total student loan amount. After 10 years I was informed they were bought out by another company (AES-PHEAA) and my interest shot up to 13%! I paid a lump sum of $5000 to get my repayment interest down to only 8%. I have paid $370 per month since then... Most months I have rounded up to an even $400. So 20 years later, these clowns still will not give me any information. How much I have paid, interest, anything. It's absurd!

AES reported a payment delinquency to all 3 credit agencies and but have now failed to report my payments, so my credit score continues to drop as the agencies believe I am still delinquent. I was told reporting would take place at the end of last month and nothing has been reported. Not only is this shady and disgusting and lazy, it’s also in violation of the law. This company needs to be held accountable.

Someone seriously needs to look into this company. I took out 16,000 in student loans in 2002. Here we are in 2019 and they decided to charge me 11,000 in interest. How is this even legal??? I’m not paying another cent.

Many of these posts are accurate. You will most definitely be in a constant cycle of repayment with no end in sight. I have just made my payoff amount with my tax refund and the total I have paid them was at least double the original loan amount. Such a ripoff. I wish I knew this back before I ever took out a private school loan or at least early on in re-payment so I could have at least paid it off years earlier. Please no one do this.

This company is useless. They never have answers for simple questions. When you call and speak to someone it's like speaking to a 1st grader. The only thing they're good at is adding interest. When you question them about anything they never have an answer and more times than not, they won't respond. This company is corrupt and only contributes to the broken student loan system. They don't follow the same rules as the government even for government back student loans.

I agree with every review written here. They never have an answer for you. All I do is pay more interest than principal. I had no say with my loan when this company bought my loan. I have been paying since 2000 and I am not close to paying it off. We all should join forces for a CAL.

I took out loans through what was then known as "Astrive" in 2008 and 2009 to finance part of my undergraduate education. After graduating in 2009, I owed $31,000 over three separate loans. Now, ten years after paying, I owe $27,000, because American Education Services has continued to move my due dates, change my repayment terms, send my loans to a collection agency when they are paid up, and lose information I submit to them repeatedly. They are criminals who profit from hard working people. I have paid over $20,000 in interest alone on loans that should only have an 8% interest rate. I am currently "75 days delinquent" on loans that I pay twice a month. When I inquired about the delinquency, I was told it was 90 cents. Ninety. Cents. This company should be shut down immediately.

I’ve had this loan since 2006, I’ve paid a lot of money on it and have had to use forbearance and a couple other options to help with payments. Guess, what? I owe more now than when I took the loan out. My chest hurts from the frustration that I feel from taking this loan out. Never again, I pray someone can get all these issues everyone on here has taken care of. The representatives don’t even know what to do!

Someone forged my name as a co-signer on a loan. The person admitted that to them. Still, this company refused to take my name off the loan. The borrower has stopped paying on the loan, and because this company refused to do the right thing, my credit rating has been messed up badly, over 100 points and plummeting. Why should they take my name off, just because I had nothing to do with the loan? How does it benefit these ## to take my name off?

I went to school back from 2004-2008. My father paid for my tuition and room and board every year so I wouldn’t have to take out federal student loans. My parents saved for years to send us kids to college and pay for it in full at the time with NO loans involved. During my time in college, I took out 2 private student loans to supplement my low income while in school. One was through Chase Bank and the other through AES. Each loan was for $5,500, so a total of $11,000 between the two. AES bought my Chase Loan two years later, so both ended up being owned by AES. From 2008-2018, after 10 years of paying $300/month, I had finally got to the point in my life where I could safely pay them off without bringing my savings account down to practically nothing.

Been paying for these student loans since 2002. Found out recently that AES is a third party. Just the collection agency for these loans. The loans are held by National Collegiate Trust Funds which actually sells the loans off to different institutions. This is why you will never receive a straight answer form AES representatives. They have no binding agreement with anyone actually involved in the loans. Tried to do a settlement agreement with them and according to their representatives they have no authority to resolve your loans. They are just a collection agency. Are there any alternatives to try and get this resolved that anyone is aware of. Frustrated Consumer.

I have been paying on my student loans for 10 years. My interest continues to go up. I called to inquire about public service loan forgiveness as well as teacher loan forgiveness, due to the fact that these are private loans. They simply told me I’d have to repay my loan in its entirety. They were not helpful nor understanding of opinions to reduce the stress of paying these loans every month. I expressed to them that I would let my high school seniors know how their company operates and to never use them if they need loans.

I recently completed my Masters Degree in August. This company bought my loans from Great Lakes in June of this year. I also have loans through Fed Loan who has been wonderful. In the time they have had my loans they decided to delete two months from my grace period with no explanation, have raised my interest rate on what is supposed to be a fixed rate government loan four times, dropped my credit score 20 points before my grace is even overdue to refinancing (not aware they could do this) and have now sent me a bill even though my grace period is not up till March.

How many times do I actually have to complete an application and submit my earnings??!! I've done it 6 times already this year!!! Ever since AES took over Sallie Mae/Great Lakes I've had to pay over 20x the amount I paid before on the IBR plan! So you know I'm broke!!! Whenever there is an email or letter stating that "We are not able to process your (IBR) plan" I call immediately and ask what the problem is, what do I need to do? They ALWAYS tell me something is missing. I have faxed, mailed AND completed these things online several times!!!

Any one of the comments here could be my story; repaying more than I owe, not a qualifying financial Institute for PSLF, have paid more than double the original consolidation amount, "matter of fact" arrogant customer service, etc. It's reassuring to know that I am not alone in the AES scam. But what is being done about it? Are there currently any lawsuits pending? Posting my story will not solve the problem. What action can/should we be taking to see results in the near future and not years from now? I am retiring the end of 2018 and still owe over 13,000. Have paid over 45,000 since 2004 without missing a single payment with an original consolidation amount of around 24,000. In my opinion AES appears to be able to get away with these fraudulent practices while nothing is being done. Horrible!!

AES is by far the worst customer service I have received. I refinanced my loan and my refinanced loan made a payment to AES based on the last billing statement and so ended up paying more than the actual payoff amount. Since then I have been trying to contact AES about the status of this overpayment and how and when can AES return this. They have completely ghosted me - no response to my many emails.

In 3 years, I will finally pay off my student loans through AES after nearly 20 years of payment. For the last several years I've been paying $500 a month or double my minimum payment. If you don't pay double your minimum payment you will never pay off your loan. I originally took out $27,000 for my undergraduate. Due to AES's gouging, by the time I'm done, I will have paid over $100,000 for a $27,000 debt. I don't know how this company is allowed to gouge their clients this way. It is hard to believe it's illegal, but it is. After calling and complaining numerous times, it's also clear that AES does not care. I don't know how anyone who works for this company can sleep at night or look themselves in the mirror in the morning. They are ripping off thousands of people and destroying lives. You'd be better off consolidating your student loans with a Payday Loan Company. Don't walk, run away from AES! Someone needs to stop AES's unscrupulous practices!

If all the reviews below don’t scare you away, allow me to add to the long list. DO NOT. I REPEAT, DO NOT, take a loan from them. You will be in a perpetual, never ending cycle of repayment. Allow me to share my case, the math is surely not in the favor of the borrower as with all the examples before. In 2007 I borrowed $5,586.59. Since then I’ve made a payment of $54.82 for a total repayment of $7,169.75. As of today, I still owe $4,296.03. How you ask? Who knows. This company makes up their own rules and keeps stealing from hard working people. At a fixed 5%, I would’ve been done paying it off by this month. So basically, I’m gifting them the $4300 of the remaining balance at this point. Unbelievable.

In 2002-2003 I borrowed a total of $27266 for AES to pay for college. To date I have paid $31,076 and they still say I owe them another $12,312... How!!! If I have already paid $20,236 towards principal and $10,839 towards interest, how on earth is my balance still $12,312 when my original loan amount was only $27266? How does a loan that was $27,266 end up costing me $43,388? That's literally $16,122 in interest!! That's insane.

This company is terrible- no one knows what they are doing. I have been on the IBR and resubmitted everything for an IBR reapplication over a month ago. I have had to be on the phone for hours having to tell these people how IBR's are calculated. I literally have the form I submitted with the correct answers I filled out in front of me. They are telling me that the same form that Navient used to completed my IBR (with no problem)... their system could not process my answers?? So their system doesn't not know how to process a government mandated form for IBR that is submitted through studentloans.gov? Literally wasted so much of my time...