I had a student loan that went into collection with Immediate Credit Recovery twenty or more years ago. The original loan amount was {$10000.00} and the interest rate 10 %. I set up automatic payments of {$250.00} a month that were deducted twice a month for at least ten of these years. I believe it was XX/XX/XXXX when they disclosed to me they could no longer make automatic deductions, so they began calling me to authorize payment. The original servicer was extremely rude and nasty and I had to speak to a supervisor in order to get someone humane. I also reduced my payments to once monthly, or {$120.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX I asked to settle the account for {$5000.00}. I was told that amount would never be authorized and I needed to make a payment of at least {$6200.00} to reflect 50 % of the remaining balance ( {$12000.00} on a {$10000.00} loan ). 

I called the school directly ( XXXX University ) and after several back and forth conversations between ICR, XXXX and myself the school authorized {$5000.00}. By this time however I had discovered that my payments to ICR had reached nearly {$30000.00} -- three times the amount borrowed. ICR could not explain to me why on-going payments were needed or even a lump sum to pay off the loan. In addition the school agreed that a 10 % interest rate on a student loan was now considered exorbitant ; however the school only communicated with me through ICR, which told me the offer to settle would expire within three business days. 

I called the CFPB three times for advice on whether or not to settle the account but was told there was no representative who could listen to my situation and guide me, and that I could only file a complaint. I did not want the collection agency to make my life any harder so I made the payment. 

After the payment was made, the servicer called to ask me to put in writing that i authorized each and every payment made on the account, which is in fact untrue. This is evidenced by the fact that i immediately cut my monthly payments in half when i was contacted by a live representative in XX/XX/XXXX. 

At this point I decided to make a complaint.