Reviews of Firstmark Services LLC (Loan Agency)

andrew simpson

awful service, will not corporate with the borrower during repayment. they are very happy to report you to credit agencies for any possible reason they can find. deserves zero stars

Ryan Hanehan

Unfortunately I have to go through them for my loan. You shouldn't expect them to respond to emails quickly at all, and sometimes they don't even respond to emails. It's just a bad customer service experience all-around.

Zack S.

As others have said, these guys are nothing more than the standard, predatory student loan sharks we've all come to know, and, errrrr, "love." What takes them from ordinary "awful" to "abysmal" is with their customer service. When I got notification they had purchased one of my private student loans, the FIRST thing I did was sign up for auto-pay, because like most people I enjoy knowing it's taken care of automatically each month versus having to manually deal with it. Apparently signing up for auto-pay goes above and beyond the abilities of this institution, as the first payment wasn't auto-debited for 3 payment cycles, and as a result my credit was hit and I was absolutely hounded by their loan reps. asking why I hadn't made a payment. It's fixed now, but I can't WAIT to pay these idiots off, and will make sure they get as little interest from me as I can manage.

Chris Zumwalt

If your loan is now serviced by Firstmark (Nelnet) you should immediately look into refinancing elsewhere. Since they took over my loan they tried to increase my payment to five times the previous amount. Their website is awful and their customer service is incompetent at best. This company is so bad that they have to have their employees post shill reviews for them. Ryan Bauer and Kendra Halley work for Firstmark and Nate Elmshauser is Kendra's husband. So as of writing this 3 of the 4 positive reviews are fake.

Sukayna Nathani

I am just a Co signer left to pay when the borrower ran away; so am paying only and have no much experience with them. I know that whenever I talk to them, and I do a lot; and shout at them that they did nothing to get the borrower to pay; but I guess it’s not their fault; partly mine for Co Signing; they just follow rules; even then; they ANY TIME NEVER EVER spoke rudely to me! They are very Polite; and for me to say such things, is something really great coz I am really critic! Fair but critic! I gave them 4 stars ⭐️ coz I think they could somehow subpoena the borrower to the Courts; but, can’t argue with them!

Ben

Standard student loan servicing company – which is to say these people are greedy, soulless, and predatory. Shame on every person who participates in such a corrupt and evil industry. You are profiting off the debt slavery of entire generations.

Keith Washington

I don’t believe worst customer service can be provided. If I have need to skip paying a bill, these guys will be the first to be skipped. Totally unresponsive to my questions.

Elizabeth Thomas

The wooooooooorst

Gary Wayne

The rate is reasonable as well as the payment amount. Im glad i chose to go with these guys for my personal loan.

DrBill Boston

Someone told this outfit about Wells Fargo: I applied for a studnet loan wayyyyy back in September of 2008. I had to get an endorser. Then I got a letter from the bank stating that my application had been DENIED. End of that story. However, when you feel like a little extra income and you're a banker in Nebraska, you just set up a bogus account and then wait for nine years and three months to start billing the customer. Then in January of 2017, I started getting bills. Of course the 10 year limit on collecting was running down, so no wonder they decided to try extortion - isn't that how it's done? I am retired and living on Social Security, and the poor man who endorsed the loan is retiring soon. After we sent a copy of the DENIAL letter, they just got NASTY. This happy band of thieves actually threatened my endorser with all sorts of collection calls and told him they would ruin his credit if he didn't pay up, regardless of the denial letter. I hope that who ever is behind this scam is having fun telling his wife and kids "You know, I totally F#### a sap in Boston. heh heh. Ain't ya proud of yer daddy?"

Angie

I paid the balance off at the beginning of August. 1st mark is still reporting a $4458 balance and this is towards the end of October. They are messing with my credit score. Angie joens incase anyone cares to reflect the real payoff date

Amanda Krautstrunk

I called to see what I can do with my repayment plan because I was struggling making the payments every month (still am). I was told there is NOTHING they can do. The rep suggested making a lump sum payment of $10,000. Which I responded "I cant f-ing afford $500 a month how in the hell would I afford a $10,000 payment?!" She told me that was the ONLY option she can provide. Looking to pull my loans out of here, in hopes to one with better customer service.

Paul Henderson

This company is a predatory student loan shark. My son has 2 student loan with this company that I co-signed for several years ago. He is has paid off multiple loans, with a few remaining. He has never been "late" and always pays. He travels frequently for business. When he is a few days after the "due date" which is not "late". My phone does not stopping ringing with harassing, threatening calls. The payment system takes sometime from payment to post. So these calls continue long after they have received payment. THIS COMPANY AND BUSINESS PRACTICES ARE SHAMEFUL.

Don Adcock

I've had a loan from this company for the last several months. Everything has been very smooth. I have looked at some of the one star reviews. I am not sure, but if you made the payments you agreed to when you signed your contract I believe your experience with this company might be better!

Noel DeSerres

Terrible company. I received no notices via mail or Email explaining that they would be changing my payment plan and which loans my payments would be allocated to each month. Also, after seeing a continuing increase in my interest rates (average of 4 loans was 9%) I have switched all of my student loans to Sofi instead. Interest dropped to 5% and payment amount dropped $200 a month. If you are considering companies for student loans, you should stay clear from Firstmark Services.

Kate K

Awful customer service.. payments applied to wrong loans and then charge late fees for their errors. Absolutely a nightmare!!!

lisa lennon

On the phone for 23 minutes to change an address....really????

Kenny Rogers

Very easy to use website, no issues with auto debit, easily make additional payments. I refinanced my student loans to half the interest rate I was previously paying on my vet school loans. I have not have any slight of hands or attempts to change rates or deny payments being received as I've read from other reviews. Advice: if you can't make the payment until the loan is paid in full, don't take the loan.

Tyler Schwankl

Sharks, pure and simple. The nice people who service these loans are perpetrating a scheme. I have more respect (none) for criminals serving life than I do for the souls at the "top" that allowed student loan terms and regulations.

YW

My experience with them is a nightmare. I refinaced out 11/2018 with an over payment. They still haven't sent the check with the excess amount to my new lender. It's been about 3 months!!! Been calling the supervisors about a half dozen times now. They are telling me that they have a funding department where they have no extension or number to call nor know where they are even located in the building. What kind of business are they running? No one able to help. My personal opinion is to keep AWAY from doing any form business with them as the immense difficulties and frustrations of dealing with a profoundly inefficient company is not worth it from my experience thus far.

Kurt Liedtke

SERIOUSLY, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR LOANS. I cosigned for my wife on a loan. My wife made the payments every month, and we've got statements to prove it. Now Firstmark claims there's a late payment and that hit my credit report. Let it be known, this company will attack your credit report.

Brandon Sexton

Another company profiting off of students. You'd be better off selling a kidney behind your local bar than taking a loan out through Firstmark. See the canned, unhelpful response from Firstmark below, an example of how out of touch they are:

Debbie Holschbach

Horrible company! My daughter recently moved and ever since then we have had all kinds of problems. Obviously , they cannot handle an address change! She is making her payments but still getting notices that her payments are delinquent . We have both called and/or emailed numerous times and have been assured that everything has been straightened out, etc. But, it is still NOT straightened out! I have to call again tomorrow and try again to rectify THEIR incompetence . Makes you wonder how they can stay in business when an address change totally stumps them!

Bianca Luque

This is the least helpful, most difficult lending agency I've ever dealt with. They required that both of my parents co-sign on my student loans, and now seven years later, I'm trying to change my payment plan and remove my parents from the loan, and they said there was no option for that. The only way to change my payment plan would be to show them pay stubs, tax documents, and other forms from all people whose names appear on the loan. Then they said I also have to go through financial counseling, before they will even consider working with me. I've been paying these loans on my own since graduation, and they will not release my parents from the loan and allow me to be on the loan by myself. They advertise all the different payment options on their website, and then when you contact them, you discover there are fifteen hoops you have to jump through because they'll seriously consider your request. And other requests will be flat out denied because the options don't exist. Never take out a single loan with these people. Ever. Save yourself the trouble.

Terence Shea

internet has problems call them customer services is lacking waiting 5 min. just get a stupid recording about using on line services log in they locked me out only had to keep changing password

Tyler Gustafson

Didn't know my lending services were switched to Firstmark till recently. I received a call asking for my social and didn't receive any information who and why. I hung up the phone cause I didn't know who Firstmark is and thought it was a scam. After researching I realized my student loans were transferred. I am currently a full-time student and have my existing loans deferred until I finish school. The person on phone said I owed for the past month's payment. I informed them of my status as a student and that they have been on in-school deferment. They claimed I signed a contract that only gave me a certain amount of months to defer and I'm out of months. I asked the person to see the contract I signed only to get put on hold for a while. Once back on the phone stated that there was no contract and that they updated the agreement recently on the student loan without my knowledge. Not sure how this is legal. I am a disabled veteran and cannot work certain jobs which is why I am back in school. They offered no assistance as to helping me out in the situation I am in and read a long spiel basically telling me I didn't have too long until this would be sent and affect my credit. This shouldn't be the first impression I receive from a company.

Jeremy Johnson

One of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with. They up and decided to change my payment plan with letting me know anything. Went to pay my normal payment and it is over 2 times what it usually is. I call about it and they can't provide any reason just keep saying there is a request to change it back but love to let me know they will report me past due if I don't pay. I did not choose this company but it looks like I am stuck dealing with them until they get bought out by another company.

Andrew Joda

0 stars. Trying to refinance loan under a different provider. Not responding to my requests, and haven't seen a statement in over a year. Apparently when you give them more money than they ask for, they decide you don't want a statement anymore. It's all good, my new provider actually treats me like a human, so I'll be done with these jackals soon. Avoid like the plague.

Allan Bulemore

I just completed a 31 minute call to customer service (I use that term very, very loosely) I have to agree with a previous post as to there could not be a worse customer service than this company has. All I am trying to get is for the website to provide me with detailed information of all transactions for each of the three loans my son has with this company. I want to see the loan balance after each payment. For example loan balance on 3/1/19 is 1747.83 and I make a payment of 84.00. I want to see that $ 9.15 of this $84 was towards interest and the balance of $74.85 goes towards the loan principal and my new principal balance is $1672.98. My home mortgage company can do this. All my credit card companies can do this, why can't Last Mark do this. The second level person I spoke to did say she would issue a complaint in regards to my request. I will be extremely amazed but pleased if this happens before we pay off the loan(s). The first level person I spoke to did request a transaction statement for the past 12 months. I once again will be amazed and also pleased if it comes to me with the information I need as stated above. Good luck to all of you out there trying to pay off your student loans with this company. And the only reason I selected 1 star is that is the only way I could get this posted.

Laura Myers

Within 3 months time, my loan service was sold and switched to Firstmark Services and in almost 10 years of payments I never once had an issue before. My variable rate that was once 2.25% doubled within 8 total weeks, and Firstmark's response was that it could balloon as high as the market allowed. I asked, could get as high as 15% ? The Customer Service Representative told me that if the rates traded between banks rose to that level, then yes it would balloon. Somehow through 10 years of 3 other loan service providers my rates never changed....but conveniently with them they seemingly did overnight. They do not appear to have ethical business practices, but I signed up for a variable rate and they made that clear. I simply paid the debt off that day to get out from underneath them. I was lucky I was in a position to do that... My advice is to quickly look for a new loan servicer if your Loan was sold to Firstmark.

David Faffler

I have had enough of these clown! There is a reason why they have an overall rating of 1.7 stars. If you read the reviews they pretty much explain this horrible company. ZERO customer service!

Amy Nelson

They are awful. Chaotic. Disorganized. Sloppy. They shift all burden to the customer and require you to do an extensive amount of paperwork to solve problems. Their interface is a nightmare. Hold times are atrocious. What they do should be illegal.

Z Z

Wow I’m just trying to make my monthly payment for my student loans with dehumanizing interest rates, and their website is down and it just says to try again later. So I called their number this morning and got an automated message saying that everything is down for “routine maintenance” (then why don’t you put a disclaimer about that on your site, or send an email communicating this?) The recording states that even their phone systems are down during this maintenance, and that it will be completed by 3AM next Monday, over 4 days later. Horrible communication, horrible interest rates, horrible “customer service”.

Katrina House

I have had absolutely no problems with this company. Auto payments are taken out monthly and my debt is getting paid off faster at a lower rate. Couldn’t be happier.

Ron Hatfield

DO NOT USE THIS OUTFIT! This is a scam outfit. We attempted to pay the balance in full for my student loan and had them email the TOTAL PAYOFF to us. We found out a year later that this scam outfit kept a small balance due on the account. They admit their mistake and a rep even said she would take off the remaining fees (including a promise to call us back and email the resolution that day) to which nothing was ever done and no one contacted us about it. They give fake TOTAL PAYOFFS in order to keep a small balance on these accounts and never contact the borrower until this small amount balloons into a much larger amount. Now, they won't even put the total amount due into writing. THIS IS A SCAM OUTFIT! Having to do it all over, I would quit school rather than borrow from this SCAM OUTFIT! I wish there was a way to do a negative star.

J LY

Will not help people out when they made a mistake... this company should be dealt with by the fcc or whatever government entity that deals with these people

Luke S

They're literally autistic.

Sam Namdarian

I was late on 4 payments for my student loan, because my loan was transferred from access group and I never received a notification of this transfer or no payments. They reported the credit bureau while they failed to notify me for 4 consecutive months.

Ross Brown

Shameful business practices outside of the fact that they are a predatory loan company

Laurie Rich

Appalling customer service. Our loan was transferred to this company. Made our payment , they cannot find our payment ! Repeated phone calls , gave proof from our bank payment was made, claim they never received proof. Want us to snail mail the statement from our bank! Now charging late fees. Have made payments each month. No one at this company is taking respomsibity for finding our payment. We have gone down the rabbit hole with this company. So frustrating, is there anyone there who cares????

Raimee Eck

My loan has changed hands a dozen times and is now with FirstMark. For some reason they don't recognize that I'm still a full time student and call me dozens of times a day despite my calls to sort it out. Garbage company.

Jules C

I didn't select this group, my account was transferred to this group. I was trying to setup auto pay, but it would take over a month to set this up. REALLY?! This company calls you endlessly if you are a day late, which is against the law. Stay away from this group because they can't handle the most basic of requests!!! Total mess! I absolutely hate this company. I idea that this company will harass me, one of the few who pays their students loans is crazy! In response to the reply, I have already tried to deal with representatives and it was a nightmare. My other three loan companies could set this up within a few days, but not Firstmark. It doesn't matter, this loan will be paid off this year and the nightmare will be over!!! DONT USE THIS COMPANY

Audrey Davis

Absolutely horrible! They lose payments after they cash them, and then call you relentlessly demanding another payment or they will report you. Zero stars if you ask me

Wade Hustad

Horribly service with no intentions to help the borrowers. You cannot schedule a payment in advance on their website as a one time payment. I've sent complaints and called multiple times over the last year. Either they have no IT support or don't care to have their website coders find a solution for people like myself. Garbage.

Ryan Bauer

Great service!

Sarah Schmidt

Wish I would have read these reviews a few months ago. My loan was sold to Firstmark. I overpay each month to get out faster but recently I noticed that my regular monthly payment amount went up. When I called they fed me a line about how it helps me pay off faster which is actually not true since I'm overpaying already, more of that overpayment goes to interest if you increase my regular monthly payment. After reading these reviews though, I'm looking to refinance ASAP.

Dina Crawford

I have attempted to fully pay off this loan and Firstmark stated they could not process the payment as it was sent to Citizens Bank (parent co?) and they would have to return the payment—the payment address used given on their automated service when they gave the payoff amount—however Firstmark then attempted to cash that very same check 2 weeks later-after my bank cancelled and reissued-NOW they have lost the reissued check and can’t tell me where it is even though my bank can see both checks have been processed. Customer service is alien to the multiple reps I have spoke to except for Daniel who was atleast honest the 2nd time we spoke and said he thinks the check is lost—I atleast appreciate the honesty. The rest of the folks-all females-downright NASTY-its not their credit affected. Despite being under review, Citizens keep harrassing me with calls about my payment being late even though I am supposed to be waiting for their response They are destroying my financial future!!!!

Nishu Singh

One word- Terrible !!! they do nothing to help you if you are struggling to make payments or ask them to lower payments income driven. I sold firstmark loan to another lender who is much nicer.. And guess what? My interest rate went 8 % to 5%... Happy me.. Switch over if you can.