Consumer complaint received 2021-02-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: NC
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 complaint is against XXXX XXXX XXXX, AES and FedLoan Servicing. I believe I should be granted PSLF ( or TEPSLF ) right now, with a refund for years of payments overpaid. I have made regular payments on my student loans since XXXX, and have been employed by a PSLF- eligible employer all these years. I have been on an income-based repayment program since XX/XX/XXXX. My loans are currently in an IBR/PSLF with FedLoan Servicing but they say I won't be eligible for forgiveness til XX/XX/XXXX. ( The paperwork actually says XX/XX/XXXX because the system is not " counting '' the COVD-excused payments in paper correspondence though the customer service agents say that will be corrected ). At any rate, let me explain why I should be forgiven right now : I received my PhD in XXXX and began repaying my loans, which were over {$110000.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX my loans were transferred from XXXX XXXX XXXX to AES and set up on Direct Debit. Not long after the transfer, I talked to someone at AES to ask about IBR and PSLF, options I had not pursued before because I did not know about them til a colleague told me about it. The person at AES said " sure! we can do that! '' I got set up for IBR around XX/XX/XXXX and thought I was good to go. 

I recertified for IBR every year and in XX/XX/XXXX I called just to check in about IBR and the PSLF. Much to my dismay I was then told that my 2 years of IBR payments were NOT counting toward PSLF because I had been given incorrect info by the AES loan person 2 years prior. ( I have since learned this was a common shady practice at the time so that lending companies would not see all their loans go away to different companies ). AES told me my loan was a FFELP and not a Direct Loan and that I could shift to a Direct Loan but I would lose those 2 years of payments ( not to mention all the payments since XXXX when the program started ). This was the first I had heard of any of this! At that point I did the only thing I could : I consolidated my FFELP to Direct Loans, which shifted my loans from AES to FedLoan Servicing, which is where they are now. I pay on time and certify for IBR and PSLF every year. ( Currently of course, I am not paying due to COVID relief, but those months are supposed to still " count '' as if paid ). 

FedLoan servicing tells me every year ( because I ask every year ) that they can't count anything prior to XXXX because that's when my loans become Direct Loans and were shifted to them. They say my loans will be forgiven around XX/XX/XXXX. The principal of my loans, even after 20 years of payment, is still over $ XXXX despite the fact that all these loan payments have negatively impacted my family 's life and my ability to save or invest. ( XXXX XXXX at state universities don't get paid much ). So all those payments ( made with difficulty ) were just money down the toilet. Meanwhile, I have probably paid my debt twice over. 

I am XXXX XXXX XXXX and need to save for retirement. I want this monkey off my back. So I ask for the following : 1. I want my loans forgiven now, under PSLF. 2. I want AES to be held accountable for the bad instructions they gave me in XX/XX/XXXX when I asked to get into the PSLF program -- instructions that cost me 2 years of payments, if not more. 3. I also want both XXXX XXXX and AES to be accountable for being negligent -- for not telling me that IBR and PSLF were options -- I should not have had to find that out on my own. 4. I want FedLoan Servicing to be accountable for the fact that ever since COVID relief has excused borrowers from paying, the date of forgiveness has not been accurate. forgiveness date on statements keeps moving forward, as if the COVID-forgiven payments don't count, when they do. This is very anxiety-producing and confusing. 

I hear that the government is now helping people like me who have been paying for many years into a loan that is in some way " not the right kind of loan '' for PSLF. Please help me right this wrong and help me get my loans forgiven right now.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation