Consumer complaint received 2018-06-12
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: TN
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:
In XX/XX/XXXX I re-consolidated my loans ( which had been with XXXX XXXX ) with XXXX, since I had read that through them I could benefit from the Income-Based Repayment program ( IRB ) and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan ( PSLF ). ( I have been since XX/XX/XXXX and still am a XXXX  at a XXXX XXXX. ) In switching to, reconsolidating with, XXXX I made clear that I wished to enroll in both the IBR and the PSLF programs. They said I could do so, and sent me an application, which I filled out and returned, and which was approved. Ever since I have made regular payments on my FFEL loans, through automatic bank drafts, to XXXX, until they sold my loans in XX/XX/XXXX to a company called Nelnet ; now these automatic payments are received by Nelnet.

As long as my loans were handled through XXXX I was able to log onto their website and see a record of all my payments. Periodically, in the yearly process of renewing my IBR status, I received verbal confirmation from XXXX representatives that my loans would be forgiven when I had made 120 payments. I recall these conversations well because I was almost in disbelief that my loans would be forgiven : it seemed too good to be true. Each time I asked the phone representative assured me that I was not mistaken. ( Note : at one point during my time in the program I had to suspend a payment, which I did with XXXX 's cooperation, at which time I was assured that the temporary ( 1- or 2-payment ) forbearance would not affect my forgiveness timeline. ) When XXXX sold my loan to Nelnet ( and at the same time changed their name to XXXX ) I contacted Nelnet to make sure that I could still access my payment history and that my IBR and PSLF enrolments were in good standing. The Nelnet representative affirmed that my IBR enrolment was inact, but informed me that I was not, and never had been, enrolled in the PSLF plan. They informed me that my only recourse was to apply for the PSLF again and pay for 10 more years.

Thereafter I spoke with a representative at studentloans.gov, who informed me of the following : 1 ) that I had never applied for the PSLF plan, which has a separate applications process from the IRB 2 ) that the PSLF program is not available to borrowers whose loans are consolidated through a private company ; they must be consolidated directly through the goverment, and 3 ) that FFEL loans, which mine are, are ineligible for the PSLF program anyway.

This was all news to me. My complaints against XXXX, then, are the following : 1 ) That they knowingly misrepresented to me the nature of my loan consolidation : at the time I reconsolidated with them -- which I did for the express purpose of enrolling in both the IRB and the PSLF programs -- they did not tell me that I was ineligible for the latter program ( which I was, on two counts ), nor did they direct me to any other consolidation process, 2 ) That they have repeated verbal assurances that my PSLF timeline was correct, and that I could expect my loans to be forgiven at the end of 120 payments, and 3 ) That the amount I now owe represents practically no progress on principal balance of my loan : whereas the amount of my original loan was {$81000.00}, the amount I now owe is {$81000.00}. That is, believing in good faith that my loan would be forgiven after a specific number of payments, I was willing to pay the apparently exorbitant interest exacted by XXXX. Now, however, there is no forgiveness contingency, and my principal balance is, after almost 9 years of payments, is virtually unchanged.

Furthermore, I have been unable to get, from either XXXX/XXXX   or Nelnet a complete history of my loan payments since XX/XX/XXXX Finally, I think it is highly suspicious that exactly 10 years after Congress approved PSLF 's 10-year forgiveness program, XXXX changed its name to XXXX  and sold off its loans to other companies.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation