Consumer complaint received 2019-03-19
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MN
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 have 2 complaints about XXXX XXXX, the first with mis-information, and the second with mis-calculating payments and then refusing to respond to my enquiries on the subject to correct the matter. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I had {$160000.00} worth of student loans consolidated and transferred to XXXX, with the purpose to repay them as part of the PSLF program. Upon consolidating and transferring them to XXXX XXXX, accurate information on payments types for PSLF were not well explained and I was led to believe any standard or PAYE payment would be counted for the program ( this is incorrect as I found out years later ). So, with this I opted to make the standard payment of {$1100.00} per month, thinking even if I was paying a bit more than I shouldve been, at least I was denting the principal amount owed a bit in case the program did not work. 

After this, I have not missed a single payment. From XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX, I paid {$1100.00} per month thinking I was qualifying for the PSLF program. In XXXX of XXXX, after hearing some horror stories about XXXX XXXX, I opted to check and ensure I was on track. To my shock, I then found out that standard payments do not actually qualify for the PSLF program. This would be my mis-information complaint, as I remain steadfast these payments should qualify as they were and are still well above what wouldve been paid under the PAYE program. The entire purpose of consolidating my loan with XXXX XXXX was for the PSLF program, and upon consolidation I tried to ensure I was making qualifying payments and was operating under the impression I was based on the information and guidance proved by XXXX XXXX. During these payments, I was, and still am with the same employer, so I know my employer qualifies. 

After discovering my first 3  years of payments werent counting towards the PSLF program, I triple and quadruple checked myself what payment plans for sure qualified for qualifying payments and switched to a XXXX plan. From XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX, I paid {$880.00} per month on time ( auto-pay ). However, when I recertified my employment in XXXX of XXXX, it only attributed 6 qualifying payments being made instead of 12. I sent in a email inquiry to have this looked at, from which I have still not heard a response from. I also emailed again in XXXX, as well as called, although they would give me no useful information, would not transfer me to someone who could help, and just kept repeating it will get looked at in the order it was received. 

My XXXX payment was then recalculated, and from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX I paid {$880.00} per month, again on time each month and without fail. When I recertified my employment in XXXX of XXXX, my qualifying payments got updated as well, but only to 10   total qualifying payments made. I called them again this XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and was told I shouldnt expect to hear back for up to another year on my original inquiry. This would make it a two year response time, which simply can not be acceptable under any circumstances. 

Since switching to the XXXX program I have made 25 qualifying payments ( I am counting the payment I just made as of XX/XX/XXXX ), which have obviously been grossly mis-counted and I would like to have fixed. Overall, I have made 65 payments on this loan under the assumption and guidance from XXXX XXXX that would count to the total of 120   payments needed to qualify for the PSLF program. 

I feel like I have done my due diligence and been plenty patient trying to get this sorted out. However, I need a definitive answer on if my payments are all being counted or not, because if they are not, I need to figure out how to pay my loans back, because if every year when I make payments it only counts every other payment ( or every third payment for that matter ), I will never actually get them re-paid due to the insanely high interest rate ( 7.25 % ) on these loans and them accruing interest greater than the monthly payments it allows me to make.

Realistically, I should have 65 payments currently attributed to PSLF progress, and at the very bare minimum I should have 25 payments currently made. Seriously, anything you can give me  or answers or clarity would save me from an insane amount of stress this is putting on my family not knowing if we can count on this repayment plan or not. Anything is helpful.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation