American Education Service PHEAAPennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency Unethical practices misrepresentation Harrisburg Pennsylvania

I was struggling financially with several student loans and this company, AES, offered to consolidate my loans , I agreed. In reality my loans were not consolidated; so while I thought I was sending payment each month on my "consolidated loan" I was actually paying on 4 separate student loans - so I wasn't making a payment "every month" on each loan but I was making a payment on student loans every month.

Thus, April 2010, this particular loan went into default (the other three loans I paid off extremely early- all within 24 months of realizing my loans were not consolidated). When said loan went into default AES added approximately 25% - 30% of the note as "collection fees". So my student loan that was $32,000 became $40,000. In August of 2010, I set up payments of $350.00 per month to be paid to AES through automatic debit from my checking account.

I have made payments every month since then, always on time, I have paid more than $16,000 to AES on this loan in the last four years but I now owe MORE on this loan than I did. My current balance as of TODAY is $42,569.02.

I feel that this company is much worse than any credit card company or loan shark. They are dishonest, the fly under a flag of misrepresentation and intentionally make it difficult for the average American to pay for their education. The sole purpose of this company is to maxamize profit with no regard to the poor unrepresented individuals that are ruthlessly subjected to unfair unethical practices.