Consumer complaint received 2023-09-02
Company: MOHELA
State: NC
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I enrolled at XXXX XXXX XXXX  to begin my XXXX  studies. I was repaying my student loans and did not request to be put into deferment when I began my XXXX studies. Unbeknownst to me, I was put into deferment without my consent. As soon as I realized my student loan payments were not being drafted from my bank account, I reached out to XXXX, the loan servicer at that time. However, XXXX was also shifting to XXXX so there was much confusion. When I contacted XXXX to request that I NOT be put into deferment, I was told I would have to contact the school. I did and have documentation to show that I asked the school ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) to remove my deferment. I stated that I did not want to be in deferment and wanted to keep my payments because I was working toward PSLF. At that point, I had been repaying my student loans for several years. 
Despite my repeated attempts, it took 24+ months for my payments to begin again. I believe, in part, this was because XXXX was shifting to XXXX and possibly information was lost, requests were lost, etc. The loan providers would tell me to ask my school and my school was not responsive and/or would tell me to contact the loan providers. I could never get anyone to help me resolve the problem. 
Now, the loan provider is MOHELA. MOHELA has significantly better systems than XXXX and XXXX. With new improvements to PSLF, I have read on the fact sheet shared by the U.S. Department of Education that previous problems can be corrected, including with deferment and forbearance. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I uploaded documents within my MOHELA account to request this problem I have with my student loans be corrected. In XX/XX/XXXX, I called MOHELA because I received a response I did not understand. The response did not seem relevant to the request I submitted. I have spoken with staff at MOHELA four different times. I have the dates and names of each person I spoke with but because the directions here state not to include names, I can submit them separately if needed. 
Because I have not been able to get the situation resolved, I have submitted PSLF reconsideration requests. 

My request, in my opinion, is simple. I was put into deferment without my permission. I have documentation to show I repeatedly asked to be taken out of deferment and allowed to continue making payments. That was not done for 24+ months, despite my attempts. I want to be able to repay the amount of payments I would have made during those 24+ months ( approximately 26 or 27 months ) and have those months count toward my PSLF payment count. I am currently at 89 or 90 payments ( waiting for documents to be processed with MOHELA ). I should be at approximately 116 or 117 out of 120 payments.

Whether it is MOHELA, studentaid.gov/the Department of Education , I only want to be allowed to repay those months I was trying diligently to be taken out of the deferment I never requested, never consented to, and have documentation that I was repeatedly asking to have the deferment stopped and be allowed to return to payments. No one should be allowed to make financial decisions for me that affect me negatively without my consent and that is exactly what was done. I only request to fix it. I am not asking to be given those months spent in deferment. I am asking to be allowed to repay those months and have them count toward my PSLF payment count. Thank you.

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