Consumer complaint received 2023-12-05
Company: MOHELA
State: MO
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:
My account is PSLF serviced by MOHELA. I consolidated my PSLF loans through XXXX to receive the benefits of the one-time payment adjustment. 

I had two additional loans that met the 120-payment PSLF threshold for forgiveness. I applied for those loans to be consolidated at the same time as the others, again, to receive the one-time payment adjustment that would have moved the full set of loans to 120 payments ( thus making all of them all of them eligible for forgiveness ). In the 6 weeks it took for XXXX to process my consolidation, the 120-payment loans were forgiven, so the other loans did not receive this eligibility. XXXX issued a payment to MOHELA for the full amount ( including those 120-payment loans and MOHELA then kicked back a refund ). In my opinion, the earlier date of application and beginnng of processing of the consolidation should have taken precedence over the later date when these loans were forgiven. 

My first complaint with my MOHELA was that I've never received email Notifications when correspondence was sent to me electronically. I have since taken myself of of paperless communications to make sure I see changes without having to log in and check my Messages every day, which is what I did to make sure I stayed on track of the following. 

My other complaint is inadequate explanation of decisions made by MOHELA, either in writing or via phone. Here are the dates and activities of which I raised issue : XX/XX/XXXX, received notification that all loans service by MOHELA had been placed in the XXXX payment plan, with {$0.00} due for 12 months. 

In late XXXX, I applied for a consolidation to be processed by XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX told me the consolidation was finished and I would receive more information from MOHELA regarding payment amounts/dates. 

XX/XX/XXXX MOHELA sent a welcome letter telling me my forbearance/deferments had ended on XX/XX/XXXX on repayment began then, leading to interest charged after the transfer ( 10/10 ) but before the welcome letter. I was billed for this interest before I knew of the transfer and I did not have time to place the loan into an XXXX before the first payment date ( the payment was calculated based on the Level Plan ) I had to put a forbearance in place soon after XX/XX/XXXX, so I wouldn't come due prior to the XXXX processing. 

XX/XX/XXXX I sent a complaint message to MOHELA asking whey I did not receive the Welcome letter until XXXX weeks after the repayment period began, when interest began to accrue. 

Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I checked the MOHELA website today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and saw my loans were now on XXXX. I never received noticed form MOHELA of this change - either online or via mail. 

Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted MOHELA via phone to ask two questions : 1 ) Why were my loans put in the XXXX plan ( with XXXX $ payments ) prior to consolidation ( even a previous consolidation loan containing ParentPlus loans ), then not allowed the option of entering the XXXX plan after the consolidation. I was told over the phone that the new consolidation contained Parent Plus loans and could not participate in XXXX- which is directly opposed to what they had set up with my prior. ( In any case, part The response I received to this first question was " that's just the way it works. '' Today, XX/XX/XXXX, question 2 ) was why I didn't receive notice of a payment period resuming ( with interest ) until three weeks had passed - when those three weeks of interest had already accrued. In short, I didn't know MOHELA had my consolidation until after interest was charged and before I had time to get an IDR in place. 

The response I received to this second question was " I don't know. '' Finally, the MOHELA representative was in training, so I asked her to transfer me to a supervisor who could provide more information. I have now been on hold with them for 2 hours waiting for the transfer to be picked up ( listening to wait music ).

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