Great Lakes International Ln, Madison

Do not call me at 8:30pm after I've put my 2 year old to sleep without having a representative to speak to. An automated message, then a hang up is a waste of time. Also, its absolutely RUDE to call after dinner time.

I am horrified that my student loans go through the company. Wisconsin is a backwater state and the people will do only do what's good for them. If there's a way to switch your loans to another company do so NOW!!!!

My daughter's school loans have been serviced by Great Lakes since 2018. Loan service has been great, no problems with applying payments correctly, surprise fees. Customer service has been knowledgeable and helpful, their website is comprehensive. Overall, I'm very happy with our experience.

All $30,000 of my loans came out of forbearance last September, and I've now made 9 monthly payments with Great Lakes, going on 10. I'm signed up for automatic withdrawal payments, so my monthly payment just comes right out of my account. I get a text message alert a few days before the transaction goes through, so I can check and make sure my account is ready to have that money come out. I have one other loan that is serviced directly by my alma mater, and the university charges me a convenience charge for this. Not so for Great Lakes. I called in last fall to make sure I was in the correct repayment plan to fit my current financial situation. My phone call went right through, with no labyrinth of phone menu options to wade through. I got right through to a rep who was friendly, knowledgeable, and answered all of my questions. I felt I just needed to put a review here to counter all of the negative reviews of Great Lakes. As long as you ahem, read your promissory note when you take out your loans, there really should be no surprises. Great Lakes is a loan service provider--they just manage the loan's repayments. The Department of Education (or private credit company) is the one who issued it, and the student--and/or her parents--is the one who agreed to the terms.

I had poor internet connection while using the app in a restaurant to make a payment and the app closed. I figured it timed out since the connection was slow. So I logged in a couple days later to try paying again when I didn’t see a payment hit my account or an email confirming that I had scheduled a payment. So I tried making the payment again. This morning I wake up to my account, strictly for budgeting bills, was overdrawn. This never happens as the account is only touched by billing accounts not purchases. So I called to address the double payment that hit my account and Great Lakes told me that it will take 30-45 days to refund the one payment back to my account. Now this puts me not off budget for 3-5 business days like a normal institution would be to process a return. But a MONTH or LONGER? Are we still using a person to person hand off paper system at this institution. Absolutely ridiculous.

Reading all these negative reviews of Great Lakes honestly surprises me. Either I got very lucky and received amazing service, or the few people who left reviews were unlucky. I received more than excellent customer service via email and social media. The social media team at Great Lakes had a great sense of humor and was there rooting me on the whole time during the duration of my repayment process. The payments online were easily made. They do take a few business days to process the payments, but what online service doesn't? I repaid my student loans within a year! I'm proud to say I'm student loan debt free and I would recommend Great Lakes to any of my friends.

These guys manipulate you with your credit score. My account is in good standing payments wise until 9/30/2020 based off their online website. Yet they add a remark to my account stating "payments deferred" causing my credit score to drop 25pts?? No email or letter. Extremely abusive relationship. I actually dont even understand why. I mean read their employment reviews.. "I started to climb the latter in management because their staff has no clue." Outstanding.. submitted tickets and waiting for a response. Will update status when the dust settles.

So far, they have always been very helpful. I am happy with this company and have had loans with other companies to be able to compare. Those other companies were absolutely terrible. I hope Great Lakes Loans keeps treating professionally and applying my payments accurately.

I graduated college in 2014. I have been paying since based on our payment arrangement. I have been sending in recently the same amount. I sent my son to college and opened up a parent plus loan. I had no idea that the parent plus loan went to Great Lakes. They claimed to have sent it back in October through my email. I get my tax statement every year, but never a monthly statement nor a letter since 2014. I have sent in the money and then they applied it to the parent plus loan every time and send me an email that I am late. Hmmm... so I get an email from you on being late but not telling me that you have my parent plus loan and now taking an aggred payment arrangement from one account and applying it to another. Meanwhile, I keep calling and calling for 3 months to resolve. I started to climb the latter in management because their staff has no clue. Apparently, neither does the management staff.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake and ended up with a fee from Great Lakes. When I realized my error, I immediately logged on to my account to change my withdrawal settings. Despite promptly changing my settings, Great Lakes, once again, charged me a fee the next day. The first fee was my fault, but the second one should not have happened. I had to contact Great Lakes twice in order to get any response. When I was responded to, the email from Great Lakes had the exact same information I could find on the website, in the exact same terms. For all I know, my concern was not even read over. I have emailed again, but am expecting that I will have to make a phone call. First of all, this is a ridiculous hassle. Secondly, I am not even being given an actual response to my inquiry - I was sent a copy-pasted batch of general information. For all the money this service is getting out of my student loans, you would think they could take the time to explain what is going on. Even if this is resolved, I will no longer recommend Great Lakes to anyone. I can't believe I need to jump through hoops to ask about a single fee.