Consumer complaint received 2023-10-05
Company: MOHELA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
I previously held student loans with both XXXX and Mohela for my XXXX and XXXX loans respectively. 

In XX/XX/2023 I was informed that my graduate loans were transferring to Mohela. As the payment pause came to an end, I realized that Mohela had my payment amounts for my graduate loans, which were {$0.00} per month prior to XXXX, set to the same amount as a standard XXXX year repayment plan. I looked on studentaid.gov and saw that my XXXX recertification date was in XXXX of XXXX for these graduate loans, however due to the CARES act, recertification of XXXX plans should not have been required during the COVID forbearance period and studentaid.gov stated that no recertification should be required until a minimum of XXXX months after the payment pause has ended. Studentaid.gov advised that recertification dates were being updated, but would take time, so I waited. 

When I received notification from Mohela that they would be expecting a payment of the full standard XXXX year repayment schedule amount I tried to get in touch, however due to long wait times and living abroad I had limited overlap with their support lines hours of operation. Eventually as the deadline neared I sat on the phone for XXXX waiting to speak to someone only to be told that I couldn't be heard and hung up on. I phoned back the next day sat on hold once again for multiple hours and eventually got through to support person in training. 

Once I was on the phone with support, I was given incorrect information multiple times about the need to recertify. I was told that since the loans were in forbearance I had to recertify, and the support person requested that I work through a recertification with them on the phone. I was also told that I could switch to SAVE for my graduate loans, which I told them I did not want to do at this time. I also insisted multiple times that I did not want to recertify, and that no recertification should be necessary as this was contrary to the CARES act and studentaid.gov 's guidance about XXXX plan recertification as the payment pause ended. 

Eventually I insisted that I just wanted to get my currently applicable recertification to be adhered to, my payment amount of {$0.00} per month to be adhered to, and the recertification dates in their system to be updated in line with the guidance provided on studentaid.gov. At this point the support agent told me they were given guidance on what to do, and would proceed with submitting a change to get things fixed. However, Mohela 's website still has my loans being due for payment today, and I have very little confidence that they will be adhering to my request to not recertify at this time. 

Having to wait on the phone for multiple hours in order to speak with someone for support is not acceptable, and giving incorrect information to borrowers which is not in agreement with government advice and legislation which will potentially negatively impact borrowers financially is negligent at best and likely not in compliance with their obligations as a student loan servicer. 

I believe that by insisting on recertification at this time that Mohela is attempting to collect additional funds from borrowers than they are obliged to pay if the CARES act were being adhered to.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief