Consumer complaint received 2023-12-08
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: NC
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I applied for the Biden SAVE student loan repayment plan on XX/XX/XXXX and provided my income from the XXXX tax year. Based on that, the email I received on XX/XX/XXXX from NELNET said the Department of Education had directed NELNET to change me to the SAVE plan and that my payment would be {$0.00}. 

I received the following From NELNET on XX/XX/XXXX : Your Nelnet monthly billing statement is now available. To view your statement and make a payment, log in to your Nelnet.com account. Once logged in, choose Statements from the Documents menu. 

Your Payment Information Account : XXXX Due Date : XX/XX/XXXX Amount Due : {$0.00} We encourage you to continue to make monthly payments even if your amount due is {$0.00} because interest may continue to accrue. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, NELNET then reversed course and sent me an email saying I would owe {$210.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. They changed my due date and payment amount without any further explanation. 

I called and spoke directly to NELNET on XX/XX/XXXX to get clarification about what was going on. I asked why had I received an email saying I was on the SAVE plan and saying my payment was going to be {$0.00} ( which was my expectation ), but now were changing their tune and said I had to pay {$210.00}. 

Customer service said the system was showing that I had been placed on another program ( Pay as You Go ) and that I had never been placed on the SAVE plan. I asked why that did not happen even though the emails I received from NELNET said I had been placed on the SAVE program. They could not answer that. Said " hum, thats weird ''. Customer service said the only option was to reapply for the XXXXAVE program and it would take XXXX weeks to process. In the meantime, customer service said they would put me on an administrative forebearance and interest would not accrue and interest would not be capitalized during the forebearance period. Customer service told me that I should watch my account to make sure the forebearance was shown on the account, and if it did not get put in place, I should call back. 

I have been watching the account and nothing had changed. So I called NELNET customer service again ( XX/XX/XXXX ). This time, Customer Service told me that my application was incomplete ( they never notified me of this ). I asked them why it was incomplete and Customer Service said they did not know. Customer service also said that almost everything the previous Customer service person told me was inaccurate/or a lie. My loan is accruing interest and the interest will be capitalized. This time, NELNET customer service told me I had to reapply again ( third time now ) and would not take my last years income tax return amount to base my payment amount ( they are telling me I have to submit a current paystub rather than use my last years tax return ). They also told me it would be XXXX weeks to process the third application. This is not how the program is supposed to work. It is supposed to be using my tax return. 

Now I have a payment due in XXXX days in NELNETs system and they have screwed me over time and time again. They are a joke. Why does my government use them. I have no leverage in this. Even though NELNET continues to XXXX me since XXXX, they don't care and all they say is " Sorry ''. Just take a bite out of the XXXX sandwich we are giving to you. I did what I was supposed to back in early XXXX, and here we are in XXXX when my loan payment is due and they still have not gotten this right. Frankly, I am flabbergasted at the incompetence of the entire company. 

I need your help CFPB. Please protect me from these lying bunch of XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation