Business ProfileforCommonbond

Commonbond is hands-down the worst student loan company I have ever dealt with. They are so bad in fact, that I feel like I have to start by referring you to ****** *** if you're looking for a decent student loan company. I have had much better success with ****** *** and would recommend them over Commonbond any day! Commonbond has been a pain from day one. I didn't have too much trouble getting a loan, but *big surprise* the interest rates were way higher than we expected (9.7%+) and I know it shouldn't have been that bad because I got a car loan fresh out of school at a 2.7% interest rate through a credit union. But, because they had already made a hard inquiry on our credit, we decided to move forward with them. Again, huge mistake. I spent so many hours on the phone with them sorting out my dispersals and the amounts they did and didn't approve. In fact, my school loan officers had to call them more than once on my behalf to try to get the money they hard inquired on/approved me to have in the first place. They insisted after a while that I would have to just start a brand new loan application. Which eventually brought me to use my school's recommended loan company: ****** ***. BUT, now that I've been out of school for a while and I've been paying back my loans (on time and consistently), and have recently lost my job (end of contract) I wanted to also mention their issues with forbearance. With ****** ***, the process was simple. I had to call a phone number and just answer a few questions and they just approved a three-month forbearance period on the spot. With Commonbond, I went into my payment portal (which is sort of run by ********* services), and I clicked into the payment help tab and right at the top, it tells you what you need to do: call a number. So I call that number and this number is to ********* services. The rep I spoke to was confused because she was trained that there should be something in your portal for you to fill out to request forbearance. She also explained that Commonbond is who approves or disapproves of the forbearance requests and so it made no sense that they would even suggest calling *********. Well, eventually, after 15 minutes of searching and clicking around together, the rep and I found the forbearance form (****** "Commonbond forbearance" if you're looking for that now--it's sort of hidden, it won't be the first link). So I fill it out. First of all, they want some sort of proof that you are unemployed in order to approve your request. So I submitted a PDF. Turns out, Commonbond reps don't know how to open a PDF. The rep that followed up on my request asked me to email them another file because every time they opened it, it told them to download Adobe Acrobat (which they claim to have). So, perhaps training their people on trying the "open with" function is something Commonbond should invest in with all that sweet money they are making off the backs of ill-informed students. Anyway, so we will see what happens with the rest of the forbearance process, but I am pretty sure that it's going to be just as much of a headache as every other process with this company. Do NOT go for it. I mean, look at how old the reviews on their website are now. They switched lenders or management or something since those reviews (since I have had my loans) and I can promise you, they are not even close to as efficient as they seem to have been before 2019. Very unhappy with my experience with this company and I hope my review saves a few folks from the terrible experiences I've had with them and their reps.