Consumer complaint received 2020-03-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: IL
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 am enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program ( PSLF ). My student loans are all serviced by Fedloan servicing. 

I graduated XXXX school in XXXX of XXXX. After 6 month grace period on my student loans which include : Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, I consolidated my loans with Fedloan servicing. I have attached my welcome email to this complaint. At this same time I enrolled in PSLF through my employer XXXX XXXX XXXX as a XXXX XXXX. I supplied my initial Employment certification at this time and approval is attached to this email. I provided updated Employment certifications throughout my 5 years in residency at XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

I made my monthly payments according to Income Based Repayment ( IBR ) and updated my income yearly through IBR recertification. I have attached a print out of my payment transaction history since my first payment on XX/XX/XXXX. There have been no missed payments, and no late payments. On the Fedloan website I was able to track my payments toward PSLF and they were correct each time I updated my employment certification. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from Fedloan servicing welcoming me as my new loan servicer. I called customer service and was told that due to the amount of interest that had accrued on my account that my loans had now been split into 2 and that the system recognized this as a new loan. Also at this time the payment calculator for PSLF was no longer accurate based on my previous payments. I was told that the payments would have to be recounted and the count would be readjusted. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I started as a XXXX  at XXXX XXXX XXXX at XXXX University. I submitted an employment certification form to continue PSLF. 

In XXXX of XXXX I started as a XXXX XXXX at XXXX University through the XXXX XXXX XXXX. I submitted an employment certification form to continue PSLF. 

At this same time there had been no correction made to my account regarding payments toward PSLF. I was again in contact with customer service at Fedloan who requested that I resubmit all of my employment certification forms to ensure that there were no gaps in the dates of my employments. I requested new forms from my employers. I have attached the letters approving the employment certification for XXXX, XXXX, and the XXXX XXXX XXXX. You will note that the form from XXXX only shows approval for 2 weeks of employment. The original letter of acceptance for the remainder of my employment is no longer available on the Fedloan website for download. I have attached my employment certification for to this complaint to include the correct dates. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I once again called Fedloan customer service as the count for PSLF had been changed from 0 to 16 which still was not a correct reflection of my payments toward PSLF. I was informed at that time that a manual count had been completed but that due to the system having separated my original loan into 2 loans for accrued interest my previous payments and bills prior to XXXX of XXXX when the loan was split by Fedloans. The agent- XXXX XXXX XXXX stated that she would enter a request to reactivate those bills and payments and would request another manual recount. 

I received an email from Fedloan today XX/XX/XXXX that PSLF case had been reviewed and that my account was updated. I signed into my account online and no changes had been made to my payment count toward PSLF, the count remained at 16. I called Fedloan and was told that they are not accepting calls for PSLF at this time. 

I have been attempting to resolve this issue since XXXX of XXXX without success and despite clear indication that the issue stemmed from the actions of Fedloan initiating a unrequested division of my loan for which they are the servicer, they have not been responsive in providing a resolution.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief