Discover Student Loans Reviews

I sent a letter from a lawyer and asked for copies of the audio agreements for the variable loan and the loan amounts. They wrote back a threatening letter that scared me but which my lawyer was able to decipher for me stating that they could not follow through with the threats they listed and they were only trying to scare me.

The letter from their legal department stated that if I wanted any information, I would have to pay a fee for the copies of paper and the work time. I paid the fee. They sent back another threatening letter and one page of information with everything blacked out except our names. Apparently, that was all I got for the fee. I asked my lawyer how to proceed and she stated that my only recourse was to sue Discover and that was not something she could do. I searched through every lawyer listed in my area and my state but none of them were willing to take my case.

During COVID, my daughter was unable to work. She called repeatedly, trying to get a lower amount for each payment or a deferment. She had a very short time with a $275 payment and after that they required $860 per month. The amount went up every time due to the 11-14% interest rate. One time she was told, by a Discover employee, that her best bet was to not pay for 120 days and then they would re-negotiate her loan to an affordable amount. My daughter assured me that she had worked out a plan with Discover.

Later we were told, "I don't know who would have told you that". They told my daughter that if she couldn't pay the past three months at once she might go to jail and her credit would be bad for her entire lifetime (she was 23). She was traumatized. As the co-signer, I was informed on the night before the charge-off was to occur. The amount was so large I had to pay some and put some on a credit card. After that I became very involved and the outrageous predatory behavior became very evident to me.

Each time I called Discover, the calls lasted for well over an hour. The wait time to get someone to answer was about 40-45 minutes. I ended up having to call them 3-4 times a week and it began to feel like a part time job. Each time I would be given an answer that satisfied me and allowed me to move forward and then the next time I called the person would say, "I don't know who would have told you that."

I tried to set up auto pay for money to be taken from my account two times per month. They said that I could not qualify for the .5% interest reduction because my payment was paid in two parts (all within the correct time frame). Months later I was told that I should have qualified all along and, "I don't know who would have told you that." I was also told that the payments needed to come from my daughter and not me. I stated that I had regular income periods and she did not, so she would pay me separately. They told me that she needs to get a different job in order to pay them herself.

Each time we called, we asked to be sure that the information we got was noted on our account. It never was and each time we called we had to explain everything all over again, only to get a different answer. I tried asking to talk to a supervisor and was told that they do not have a supervisor. I knew that Discover was not allowing young kids to manage the student loan department and after 6 tries, I finally got a supervisor in the Salt Lake office. He was very little help. I asked him if I could move the withdrawal date back two days in order to coincide with my paychecks. He told me that he couldn't do it right then, but to call back with my daughter on the line the next day at 5:00. We did and were told that they could not do it then, but to call back in two days at 6:00pm. We did that and 6 times we were told to call back on another day, each time on hold for 40 minutes and on the call for more than an hour.

In order to be able to pay on the days I received my paycheck, I had to cancel the auto withdrawal and call in each payment. I did so. One payment each month was for the three smaller loans and the other payment was for the inexplicably larger loan. At this time I was keeping detailed information regarding who I spoke with and what was said. I had a bad feeling about this payment and called Discover back the next day on a hunch. I was on hold for 59 minutes. When I got a person, she told me that my account was headed to charge off. I asked why since I had just made a payment and she said the the payment had been allocated to the wrong loan on accident. She said, "I don't know who would have done that.." and I said it was Andre.

My daughter and I work opposite hours as I am a teacher and she is an actor/singer and often went to work about an hour before I got home. They always had her in tears with their threats and then she had to walk onstage right after. They said it could not be helped as she had to be on the line to do things such as change the withdrawal date by one day.

I continued to call and ask for a reduced monthly payment amount and twice they told me that there is a program we qualify for, but they could only tell my daughter, not me. They wanted to talk to her without me on the line. I would not do that. They would sometimes tell me that she called and said one thing (such as wanting a variable loan) and perhaps I wasn't aware. So many lies! When I would trust them that they had a program and call with her on the line, they would say that there was nothing they could do. They had her in tears and the second time I said if there is nothing you can do, I don't want her on the line. They again said there was a program and again had her in tears when they told her they didn't.

I had called so often, and so often got the Salt Lake office, that I knew every person who worked there. One time I was contacted to say that I missed a payment when I had not. My payment wasn't showing on my account, but it was already out of my bank account. I was told that I would need another payment or be sent to charge off. I asked to speak to a manager and was told he wasn't there, to call back on the next day. When I got the manager, he said that he didn't know who told me he was not there the other day and all I needed to do was ask for him. I said, "Are you telling me that you cannot look at my account and tell me who I spoke with yesterday." He said, "Yes, okay I can see here that it was Fred. I will talk to him. I knew their office so well that I said, no, I know that Fred is off on paternity leave. I had spoken to Andre. He said that was impossible because Andre was a valued employee.

The loan continued to get bigger based on the high interest rate and although we paid nearly $900 per month, we made no dent in the loan. Finally, I had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. I am currently in the process. Discover told me that bankruptcy won't help me as student loans are exempt from bankruptcy. I am going to try anyway. My daughter has no credit cards or loans other than $70,000 in Discover loans and $30,000 in Federal loans. Both of our credit ratings dropped to "Poor" as a result of Discover. My daughter may have to file bankruptcy as well, just to deal with Discover. I have worked with many banks throughout my adult life and have had my own student loans. I have never experienced anything like Discover. They lie and cheat and hope that you will be unable to call them everyday as they request. I feel traumatized by them as does my daughter.

Failed to keep each other in the loop of communication with customers on record. I applied for SCRA benefit from my active duty service, which they responded their plan to give adjustments for 6 months, except that it never happened. After the following month, when I called them about the issue and they had no idea that I actually got that 6 month response at the first place. I asked them why there was the miscommunication, and they repeatedly went off the tangent without addressing the issue at all, wasting my time and patience on the call, showing disrespect. Regarding the the SCRA benefit, they kept saying they applied the SCRA credit to my account but FAILED to give me any evidence or record of those actions on my account. It did not even reflect on my statement.

They say maybe we can help you refinance but then they constantly deny you and don't tell you why. So I'm sitting with low interest rates on all my other aspects of life and then I'm at 10.25 ** percent for Discover. Get your loan with the federal government so you can actually get some assistance. Discover is private and strict with underwriting and their rules so you'll be screwed in the long run since it's a private loan.

Nevertheless, my credit was impacted. This hardly seems right. Furthermore, I received a letter in the mail stating that x amount of dollars was due by a date in April. I went online to pay the amount and the website stated that there was no minimum balance due and did not give a due date. This is very deceiving as I am sure that if I followed the information online the account would go in default. Discover needs to do much better and needs to be more honest and transparent.

I waited twice from 6:30 am to noon at the UC Berkeley financial aid office and was told that there was nothing I could do to have the loan returned since that's just how their system works. I then contacted a Discover Student loan rep and was told that they promised to personally send a letter to UC Berkeley asking for the funds to be returned. I called back to Discover two weeks later to confirm; however, the rep told me that they cannot send a letter or even contact UC Berkeley to receive the funds.

These Discover reps do not honor their promises. Fortunately I have 120 days before I have to be fully liable for all payments; however, it seems that Discover does not want to receive the funds back. In conclusion, if you do choose to borrow from Discover student loans, beware if there is any problem, you will have to "do-it-yourself" from Discover reps. Also, UC Berkeley said that "there is nothing they could do on their end". So at the end, it seems that the money will be sitting there forever; it has already been sitting there for over one month, hopefully it won't be past 120 days.

This is my third time doing an application. I have said yes to the disclosure before and my credit was not reran. She failed to mention that it gets reran if your first loan was done 30 days prior. I was told I was 2 days over by another representative. She knew she had to rerun my credit and I was less than halftime at both schools. It honestly makes no sense and no one can give me any answers. I really honestly want the inquiry removed from my credit report because it should have never been ran if I did not qualify for the loan. It looks bad on Discover's part. I don't care about getting the loan. I got one through Sallie Mae with a smaller interest rate and less money and time to pay it back. I am just honestly tired of hitting brick walls.

So I applied and was approved for the 3-month forbearance period. The customer service rep told me this over the phone and our call was disconnected before he was able to give me a confirmation number. I called back immediately, but the person who answered was not able to connect me to the original person who had been helping me. He told me they all work in different call centers all over the place and he couldn't find out which one I had been on the phone with. So I explained the situation to the second gentleman. He assured me that he could process and confirm the forbearance, and told me that my payments would be deferred for the months of December, January and February, to resume in March. I was told I'd get a letter in the mail confirming these terms.

I got a letter in the mail, but it was confirming 60-day forbearance, only deferring my payments for December and January. I immediately called and explained the situation about how we'd been disconnected the first time but that the second gentleman had processed and confirmed my 3-month forbearance. The person I spoke to assured me that the letter was sent in error and was automatically generated by the system when we got disconnected after only processing the first two months of the forbearance. They said I'd get another letter in the mail, corrected, and I never did. Each month of my forbearance, I called to make optional interest-only payments and to revisit the forbearance issue. Each time I called, I spoke to a different person, and each person needed me to explain my situation and said that they would note the file, send a corrected letter and assured me that I was correct and told me not to worry.

But each week that went by, nothing actually got corrected in their system and I received no corrected correspondence. Then, when making an interest-only payment, the girl who was helping me incorrectly applied my payment to principal and interest on one of my two loans, completely neglecting the second loan. She told me it wasn't a big deal. When February rolled around, I logged onto the website just to make sure the system was updated and there wasn't a payment due on my account. But sure enough, they were showing that my normal monthly payments were resuming, after only two months of forbearance. I called and spoke to a supervisor who apologized for the inconvenience and processed an additional one-month forbearance as a courtesy manager override. I thanked him but told him I wanted to know why the error couldn't be corrected and why all this was happening in the first place. He could only tell me that they were still working out kinks with the system since their transfer.

I appreciated his help and resumed my normal payment in March. I made my March payment online successfully with no problem, and thankfully (due to my optional interest-only payments), my payment amount was only $1 higher than what I was used to. But when this month's (April) payment time rolled around, I went online to make my payment and kept getting errors. It wouldn't even let me submit my payment. I tried a few days in a row, thinking each day the website problem would be fixed. (It's easier for me to pay online during my workday than sitting on hold if I call.) But the problem was never corrected and the error messages continued. I called to make my payment over the phone and told the woman that the website was malfunctioning, thinking it would be a known issue (surely, I couldn't be the only one having this problem) and she seemed to know anything about it. She gave me a scripted apology and processed my payment. I explained the issues I had been having (of course, there's nothing she could personally do about them) and she said she'd let someone know.

I was a little uneasy but I just figured I'd call from now on to avoid being considered late on my payment, even though it's an error on Discover's part for their website malfunctioning. Then two days later, I accessed my online banking profile to do my budget and I saw another pending payment identical to the one I had made just a couple days before. Now, mind you, my Discover loan is my largest student loan payment, so to have it come out twice is a lot of money out of my account that I wasn't expecting. The two payments combined are almost the same amount I pay for six student loans each month! Unacceptable! I immediately called and the woman explained that an online payment had been processed! I was so upset. I explained that the website wouldn't even let me click submit and that I got no confirmation page/number and that there was no way the payment went through successfully on the website. I got another scripted apology and she seemed unconcerned and didn't offer a solution (as if it's normal and a good thing to have two payments come out in one month). I had to ask for a supervisor because I needed the duplicate transaction reversed right away.

I spoke to a supervisor who again apologized, said she understood my concerns and frustration, and said she would do her best to enter a request to the supervisor of the payments department to refund the second transaction and wire the money back into my bank account. Then she told me that this usually takes 3 days after the request is received and processed, which translates to possibly more than 3 days. I said that was unacceptable because I have other online payments scheduled to come out and they will bounce. Now Discover has taken $600 out of my account, causing me to bounce other payments or incur stop payment fees, which of course, they won't help you with. I asked her to try and reach the department to see if they could waive their 3-day hold policy on account of the problem being a Discover error and not my error. She took my number and said she'd call me back by the end of the day.

Now, this is where it gets even more infuriating. I told her specifically that other supervisors had said that to me before and then never actually called, and I said "Please call me either way, whether you find out anything or not," and she promised she would call and assured me that she didn't want to keep me waiting to hear something. Well, she never called. I got into work this morning and saw that the duplicate payment had been cleared from my account and that I have other pending payments scheduled that are about to process, which will overdraw my bank account. (I can't cancel payments that are already in process.) So I called Discover again this morning and talked to some poor young guy. (I feel bad that he had to listen to all my ranting and frustration but someone had to hear it and I wasn't getting anywhere with the supervisor apparently!) He assured me that the supervisor had noted my account and entered a request to the payments department and that I'd probably have my money in 3 days.

I said that wasn't good enough and that the supervisor had been in the process of requesting a possible expedited funds transfer or a one-time waive of the 3-day hold policy. He said there is nothing they can do about that, as it's a separate company who handles their payments and refunds. (Of course! Isn't it always?) So after he passed the buck, I asked for that payment company's phone number, and was put on a long hold. He came back after several minutes to tell me that he couldn't provide me with that information and that I should call my bank and alert them that a deposit will be coming in so that they can accept it as soon as possible. He also advised me to call back and ask for the supervisor after she got it at 9 am (Central time). I told him I'm at work too and I don't have time to keep jumping through hoops and calling Discover to be put on hold and given the runaround. I told him he needed to find her when she got in and have her call me like she said she would. And of course, he told me that supervisors are busy and it probably just slipped her mind, to which I replied, "Yes, I'm busy too, but it's my $600 so that's why it didn't slip my mind!"

Before I hung up, I told him I'd be posting a negative review on the Consumer Affairs website (ta da!) and doing everything I can to move my Discover loan to another company. I've had enough! Horrible customer service (they speak with pleasant tones of voice and act concerned, but it's scripted and no one actually follows through when there is a problem). And they can't just blame it on the transition and the buyout. I've been paying student loans for years and have been through a few other buyouts, and the transitions were smooth and unproblematic. You would think two companies as large as Discover and Citibank could work things out to be smoother for their customers but apparently, no one cares or is smart enough to ensure the best in customer service, technical support, and payment processing. Absolutely terrible experience, way more stress than necessary. I would not recommend Discover unless you want to be robbed, lied to and feel helpless because no one can do anything to rectify their mistakes.

Now finally, a supervisor says she is willing to direct deposit my refund and send me my statement because this took unusually long and she doesn't know why. No supervisor would speak with me. This is the fifth time I've been told this in months, so we will see. The representatives are very nice, but it seems as though they are untrained and don't know what to say and I have to deal with this all the time.

Discover does not care that there was an oversight on their end and immediately threatened me with reporting a delinquency to negatively affect my credit score. At this point, I just spent another hour on my Sunday afternoon getting this straightened out. It's worth mentioning that they do not read any notes before proceeding with a threatening collection call. I am not one to submit a complaint, but Discover has now started harassing my mom (co-signer) by calling her 8 times over the last few days saying that this has already been reported on her credit.

I have worked out a payment plan now with 5 or 6 different representatives to get caught up. I have requested that something outlining our agreement in writing be sent to me every time and they have refused until today, when Liz told me that she would submit a request for that including a statement that includes retracting anything negative reported on me and my mom's credit. We will see.