Consumer complaint received 2023-10-06
Company: MOHELA
State: NY
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:
Difficulty contacting Mohela : Each time I call Mohela it takes at least an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to XXXX hours before I can speak with someone on the phone. 
Messages sent through the online portal are not responded to in a timely manner. I sent a message on XX/XX/XXXX and as of today ( XXXX ) I have not received a response. XXXX subsequent messages on the portal have not been responded to. 

Incorrect payment calculations : In XXXX the monthly payment due on my online Mohela account was displaying as {$400.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX I received notice that my new payment amount on the XXXX plan would be {$500.00} per month beginning XX/XX/XXXX. I did not request to be transferred to this plan and I was not aware that I would be moved to a different plan. I also did not recertify my income so the payment amount should not have increased from the previous monthly payment amount due to the parameters of the XXXX program. The new amount, {$500.00}, was 25 % higher, and is incorrect based on my family size and tax information. My payment amount should have been based on my XXXX taxes, married filing jointly, household size of XXXX. The Mohela rep I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX confirmed that the calculation which resulted in the {$500.00} monthly payment was done incorrectly. It was based on a family size of XXXX, and not XXXX, which was incorrect. The rep also asked for my individual income on my XXXX ; this is not something that appears on a XXXX when a couple is married filing jointly. The XXXX is all that we are required to provide, we are not required to provide XXXX or other financial statements when certifying income. 


I spoke with a phone representative on XX/XX/XXXX and I was told that a new income driven request would be processed and the correct monthly payment amount would be confirmed before my next payment is due. It is XX/XX/XXXX, the payment was supposed to be due XX/XX/XXXX, and I have not received confirmation of what my new monthly payment will be or when it will be due. 


On XX/XX/XXXX I received a notice in the mail that a payment of {$15.00} was due for XXXX of my loans. This contradicts my previous interaction with Mohela where I was told that I did not have a payment until my XXXX request was finalized. I logged into the Mohela website and saw that XXXX of my XXXX loans were placed on an administrative forbearance and that a payment was due on XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX of the loans.This XXXX loan is in repayment while the others are deferred. This amount due is also incorrect, as the phone rep on XX/XX/XXXX confirmed that the {$15.00} amount for this loan was based on the incorrectly-calculated monthly payment. I spoke with someone on the phone today ( XXXX ) who said that there was an error in processing the forbearance and that it would be corrected within XXXX days and apply to all of the loans on my account. He also said that I do not have to make the payment of {$15.00} due on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked for confirmation of this in writing and he was unable to provide it and said that I should check my online account towards the end of next week. I dont trust this and feel like I should make a payment to be safe. 


Timely notices of payments due Mohela says that we are given XXXX days notice of payments due. I received a notice in the mail on XXXX of a payment due XX/XX/XXXX, a span of only XXXX  days. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I was told that all of my student loans would be part of this XXXX  process and that all of my loans would be placed in an administrative forbearance. I have not received any official confirmation of this and it is unclear how much is actually owed on XX/XX/XXXX. 


Incorrect procedures When I called on XX/XX/XXXX to discuss my payment amount due I was told that I have to re-certify my income in order to figure out my payment amount. This is incorrect. Federal guidelines say that nobody has to recertify before XXXX and that the data from the most recent recertification should be used. I did not consent to having my most recent tax information being shared with Mohela and did not feel comfortable sharing that information over the phone. Moreover, I was not required to do so but was pressured to by the phone rep who said that she would not help me if I did not provide my most recent tax and income information. I felt coerced into giving this information after waiting on hold for over XXXX hours to speak with someone. 


Losing XXXX to XXXX months of XXXX eligibility due to administrative forbearance Some of the loans on my account are currently in administrative forbearance because of XXXX inability to correctly calculate my payment. I am missing at least XXXX, if not XXXX, months of XXXX eligibility. I did not have a payment due in XXXX because of this issue and I was told I will not have XXXX due in XXXX. The phone rep today said that administrative forbearance is not eligible for XXXX even though this error is due to Mohela. I expected that XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX would count as XXXX-eligible months. I did not request this forbearance and should not lose XXXX months of XXXX eligibility because of XXXX errors. 


Inadequate records retention My student loans have had multiple servicers. Mohela is my current server and, according to XXXX XXXX XXXX, they are supposed to retain all of the documents pertaining to my loans since they were initiated regardless of who was the servicer at the time. XXXX of my loans entered repayment in XX/XX/XXXX when the now-defunct XXXX was my servicer. I applied for and was granted an economic hardship deferment on this loan from XXXX, this deferment is confirmed on the XXXX website. According to the XXXX guidelines these deferred payments should be counted as qualifying towards XXXX under the special waiver. ( My loan payments from XXXX all qualify for XXXX either through the Covid payment pause or the special waiver. ) These XXXX payment periods from XXXX are currently listed as ineligible for XXXX even though I was engaged in qualified employment and on an approved deferral during that period. The phone rep today ( XXXX ) said that even though the loans are listed as deferred ( code XXXX ) by XXXX, Mohela is unable to verify that the deferral was due to an economic hardship. Mohela said that I need to contact XXXX to get a copy of the economic hardship deferment confirmation. I spoke with a phone rep from XXXX who said that XXXX does not have that information and that those documents are kept by the loan servicers. Mohela says that they do not have this information. The loan servicer at the time, XXXX, is now defunct and there is no way to contact them. Mohela is supposed to have all of the documents related to my loans and they should be able to produce them. They can not, and as a result, I am missing nearly XXXX years of XXXX payments.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation