Consumer complaint received 2023-08-17
Company: MOHELA
State: CO
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:
As of XX/XX/XXXX, my student loan account repayment plan and payment amount have not been displayed accurately on my account and instead display the monthly payment for the 10-year standard repayment plan. Due to the CARES Act, and according to information provided by the U.S. Department of Education on the fsa.gov website, income recertification for income-based repayment is not required and can not be required by loan servicers any date before 6 months after the end of the student loan payment pause. The earliest recertification for any direct federal loans based on this information, and as it is posted on the StudentAid.Gov website, would be on or after XX/XX/XXXX. Since my initial IBR income recertification date was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX, this date should have been pushed by 12 months automatically and then based on the current scheduled end of the student loan pause, by another 12 months to reflect a date of XX/XX/XXXX. This would entail the same monthly payment requirement as was determined by my IDR application in the amount of {$170.00} starting on XX/XX/XXXX. I called MOHELA 's customer service line at XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to request the above change in my recertification date and correction of my monthly payment amount. Initially, the customer service represented misquoted information and incorrectly stated that I must recertify my income to get back on the PAYE repayment plan. I insisted that this was incorrect and that I would not be required to recertify my income until at the earliest 6 months after the end of the payment pause, and for me that date would be XX/XX/XXXX. The customer service representative continued to claim I was incorrect and I refused to accept the misinformation. I requested a supervisor to be involved and take care of the issue. She contacted a supervisor and relayed the exact same message back to me. I refused again, quoting the Federal Student Aid website information regarding the CARES Act requirements. The representative then requested assistance from another first line supervisor. After this consult, she did acknowledge that she previously quoted incorrect information to me and said they would initiate the request to adjust my recertification date and this should be processed in 3-5 business days. I checked my MOHELA student loan account on XX/XX/XXXX and saw that it still reflected the incorrect 10-year standard monthly payment amount. I called the MOHELA customer service line a second time on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX  I requested that the customer service representative acknowledge that I called initially on XX/XX/XXXX for this same issue. She reviewed to notes in my file and also acknowledged that she was in training and had a supervisor listening in on the call. I requested an update on the status of the account correction and the customer service representative reached out to a technical services technician. She relayed that the status of the change was in process and that the request was in my file. Initially she could not tell me the anticipated processing time for the change. I was placed on hold again after requesting that she provide that information to me. I then was told that the process should take 3-5 business days from the initial request ( XX/XX/XXXX ) but at this time they were only able to provide assurance that it would process before the first payment would be due ( XX/XX/XXXX ). I have returned to my online account multiple times, and the account has yet to be adjusted to the correct payment amount and the correct IDR recertification date. Due to the insufficient processing times and initial refusal of compliance with the CARES Act student loan regulations, MOHELA is not in compliance with the federal laws in place for student loan borrowers on income driven repayment plans. This issue must be rectified before the start of student loan interest accrual and restart of payments on XX/XX/XXXX because some borrowers may elect to make a payment in XX/XX/XXXX as it remains unclear whether an administrative forbearance will be applied during this month, which may not qualify for PSLF or 20-year forgiveness for applicable IDR plans.

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