SSN Mix Up/Need Advice

[SinkingFast]

In applying with Sallie Mae for a Stafford Loan, daughter found out that Sallie Mae already had a "student acct" associated with her SSN.

Another person with a different last name that's 20 years older than daughter.

We've been dealing with Sallie Mae for a couple of weeks now and gotten no where in correcting the situation.

We've faxed Daughter's Birth Certificate, SSN Card, Driver's License, and last year's W-2 to prove Daughter is who she says she is. Sallie Mae is "processing", and "investigating". About as fast as molasses on a cold day in Alaska.

Today, Sallie Mae told us to go to Financial Aid, get the school to fill out a printed copy of the "Application". Then mail the completed Application and signed Master Promissory Note to their processing facility in Florida.

We go to Fin Aid at the School and they say, "No. We don't complete the App. You mail the signed MPN to Sallie Mae and they'll send the App back to us."

In chatting with the Lady at Fin Aid, she suggested we check with Soc Sec to be sure that Daughter got the right SSN assigned to her to start with. So we went to the Soc Sec Office and they Verified that Daughter has the correct SSN. We got a sealed Verification Statement from Soc Sec that Daughter's SSN does belong to her.

But what to do now??!! Seems like Sallie Mae has us over a barrel. Daughter can't apply for a Stafford Loan until Sallie Mae fixes their mess.

The Fin Aid Lady said today Sallie Mae's process involves going back to the other University involved to have them investigate and possibly contact the other student.

Talk about time consuming!!

[lrprn]

How frustrating, SF! What more could Sallie Mae ask your daughter to do to prove she's using the right SSN?? Seems like she could get top level security clearance with what's she's already provided!

The pathetic thing about this is that sometime in the past, Sallie Mae verified the other woman's SSN as correct when it obviously wasn't. Their mistake, your daughter's problem. What a tangle!

Since your daughter's school is aware of the mess, will they allow her to start classes even if the loan won't come through before classes begin?

[SinkingFast]

Since your daughter's school is aware of the mess, will they allow her to start classes even if the loan won't come through before classes begin?

Unfortunately, NO!!

We asked about that.

Daughter did get some Pell Grant money that paid part of her tuition bill. Luckily, she had made enough money over the summer to pay the rest. But that was her book money. So she's looking to struggle for a few weeks at the start of school until she can purchase books. Hopefully, they'll still be available.

IF the Stafford Loan comes thru, the School will cut daughter a check for the unused funds. If the loan processes before the first disbursement, that would be sometime in September. Otherwise, Daughter won't get any money until October.

Also, we did check Daughter's Credit. Evidently this incident is isolated to Sallie Mae. Possibly a typo. There's been no unauthorized activity posted on any of Daughter's Credit Reports. But the Lady at Fin Aid suggested Daughter post a Fraud Alert anyway. And renew it again in 6 months. Evidently Fraud Alerts expire??!!

[Granny]

Unfortunately, NO!!
But the Lady at Fin Aid suggested Daughter post a Fraud Alert anyway. And renew it again in 6 months. Evidently Fraud Alerts expire??!!

Fraud Alert was on the local morning news show today, and they indicated that Fraud Alerts should be renewed every 90 days.

I'm surprised they don't last longer.

[SinkingFast]

Thanks for the "Head's Up" there Granny!

The Lady at Fin Aid had her purse stolen while on vacation. She said the Police told her to place the Fraud Alert and to renew it regularly for a year or so.

I guess Law Enforcement has learned that Criminals expect their Victims will place a Fraud Alert on their Credit ASAP. But eventually Victims become less vigilant. So the Criminals sit back and wait a while for the Fraud Alert to fall off.

The Community College the kids go to has satellite campuses all over the State. Since I can't get thru to the Local Fin Aid office here,.......... I called the Central Fin Aid Office. Spoke with a really nice lady who said she would email the local Director about this situation. See if the School can't do something to speed along the process from their end.

[Granny]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your daughter. Hopefully she and you can get this worked out in time for the next semester.

It's too easy to not go back later if she can't continue now.

[SinkingFast]

Update on the situation.

Yesterday, we sent the Master Promissory Note and a copy of the Verification from the Soc Sec Office via FedEx overnight delivery. It arrived at Sallie Mae by 11 am this morning.

Daughter gave it a bit and called, AGAIN. Same old run around. It's in Processing. That takes 5-7 business days. Daughter said, "Well 5-7 business days has been going on for 16 days now." DD got PO'd and hung up on the Lady.

At 6 pm, DD decided to give it another whirl. DD overwhelmed the poor associate that answered the phone. That poor girl just decided to put DD thru to her Manager. This guy listened to DD's story, took a look at her file on his computer terminal, and said, "Oh, My! What a Mess!!" Then he asked if she'd mind to wait on hold while he looked at some stuff.

Turns out,......... The other person "using" DD's SSN is the co signer on another Student's loan. That person caught the mistake on their end and corrected it. Why DD's SSN hadn't been amended then, the Mgr did not know. He said the student loans were with a private Lender. He's gonna contact them directly. Get the Lender to validate the info and he's supposed to call DD back with an update tonite.

If that does not work,............ a Forum Member PM'd me with a name, number, and direct extension of a Rep in the Customer Advocate Unit. We'll see if this guy who said he would help really does call back tonite. If not, we'll call recommended contact tomorrow.

[lrprn]

Glad to see that DD and yourself are making some progress moving the mountain! (and thanks go also to our anonymous member for sharing such a great insider connection!)

Please keep us posted, and tell your daughter that many complete strangers are rooting for her to get the money for school that she's entitled to!

[CindyLou]

So, was this an honest paperwork mistake or did someone actually use her ss number? I would say you also should file a police report if this person actually used her social. She should also pull a credit report and see if anything else shows up under her name. Good luck on the loans!! Hopefully they will straighten this out quickly!

[SinkingFast]

So, was this an honest paperwork mistake or did someone actually use her ss number? I would say you also should file a police report if this person actually used her social. She should also pull a credit report and see if anything else shows up under her name. Good luck on the loans!! Hopefully they will straighten this out quickly!

Apparently, this is an honest mistake. A typo somewhere along the line during the application process. Either when the Borrower recorded the co signer's SSN wrong on the original application. Or possibly when the other Student's University keyed in the info to Sallie Mae. But according to the guy DD spoke with last night, the co signer caught the mistake and corrected it immediately.

As a CYA, we did pull DD's Credit Reports to verify there aren't tons of loans and CC's floating around out there she doesn't know about. Nothing. DD's Credit Reports are clean.

The very helpful guy DD got last night did not call back. So we're off to Plan B this morning. Call the referred person direct inside Sallie Mae. See where we go from there.

[Minnymouth]

YEP, cleaning up the "mess" is a Pain in the *****.......... been there, done it......

Seems like no end to the paperwork involved.............

Good Luck, hope you get it straightened out soon.....

[SinkingFast]

It's Fixed!!!

DD called several times today. Different departments speaking with different people.

First, DD called the person recommended by one of our Members. She got that gentleman's voice mail and left a message.

After waiting a while, she called regular Customer Service again and asked to speak to a Supervisor. That Supervisor told DD her file had not been updated with the copy of the MPN and the Verification Letter from the Soc Sec Office. Even after that update, it would take at least another week for all the data to be entered and DD's SSN to be amended.

DD got a phone number off the school's website and tried that. Same response. At least another week. Called another number, got transferred to another Dept. Got another run around.

So MOM took over and called. I told the Customer Service Rep I wanted to be transferred to their Legal Dept. I planned to have our attny get involved because we were tired of their mess. She said, "I'm sorry Ma'am. You're breaking up. What did you say?" So I repeated myself. And she said, "I'm sorry Ma'am. You're breaking up. I still did not hear you." And I said, "Funny. I say the word Legal and you can't hear me." She said, "Let me put you thru to my Supervisor."

A little chat with the Supervisor. She asked to put me on hold while she took a look at DD's file. The Supervisor came back on the phone and said, "It's fixed." I asked, "As in my DD's name is associated with her SSN??" And she said "Yep!" All the Supervisor needed was the name of the school for the MPN. I gave her that info. Then I asked, just to be sure, "Can my DD call back in 5 minutes and any Customer Service Rep will tell her that her SSN belongs to her name?" and the Supervisor said, "Yep!".

DD waited and called back 15 minutes later. Sure enough. It's fixed. DD's SSN belongs to DD's name!!

[lrprn]

Yay!! It's about time! I hate the run-around that happens so often when it's someone else's mistake but you have spend enormous amounts of time and energy talking to many people to fix it. So glad to know you and DD were successful in the end!

Happy learning this semester, SF's DD!

[Bandit]

It's Fixed!!!



DD waited and called back 15 minutes later. Sure enough. It's fixed. DD's SSN belongs to DD's name!!

I read the first part of the story and thought how frustrating that would be for me. The when I got to the bottom and saw it is fixed, I was relieved for you.