Consumer complaint received 2020-08-27
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: PA
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:
In XXXX, I began repaying my student loans after graduating college and obtaining by XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX out of XXXX of the financial institutions I was making payments to was American Education Services. When I began repaying my student loan total, which was a little over {$5000.00} at the time, I had just started employment in a public service position. I had also just ended my XXXX service term, which resulted in me receiving an XXXX Educational Award of {$5600.00}. 
In researching repayment options, I had learned about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. I had contacted both loan institutions to discuss this to  determine if my loans through both providers qualified. I had reached out to American Education Services, being 1 of those 2 providers, and was told that my loans through this institution did qualify after 120 qualifying payments were made. Due to this, I had decided to apply for the income-based repayment plan to lower my monthly payment, as the representative had confirmed with me that under the IBR plan, those payments would still qualify for the PSLF program after 120 payments were made. Essentially, I paid a lower payment monthly, as my total amount would be forgiven in 120 payments ( 10 years time ) regardless. This lessened the financial burden on me at the time with other bills and loans. I was then able to help lessen the financial load on my end even more by making payments with the funds from my XXXX Educational Award through the XXXX website. Each month, I made the required payment through this money and planned on doing so until it either ran out over time or was forgiven after the 120 payments were officially made.

Throughout the next few years, I had contacted both financial institutions, one being American Education Services, several times to confirm I was on track with my payments to qualify for the PSLF program. I was strict with contacting both of the institutions routinely every few months to check on this, as I have made this a priority. Each time I spoke to an AES rep., I was told I was on track and all of my payments have been up to that point made on time and everything looked good. Again, I would check routinely and always mention that the reason I was checking on this was to make sure those payments through AES for those loans would qualify for the PSLF program. I spoke to several different representatives over the course of a few years until XXXX who all told me the same information : that I was on track for this forgiveness program. 
Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX when I had contacted AES once more to gather information on transferring my loans with their institution to FedLoan Servicing, which would take over and keep track of all qualifying payments for the loans I was repaying that qualified for the PSLF program. When I contacted them to do this, I was then told that none of my AES loans qualified for that program and that this was wrong information. I had explained that over the last few years, I had contacted AES several times to check in on my progress and to make sure I was on track with the PSLF program and was told by several different AES representatives that I was and that my loans qualified, however, It was during this phone conversation that I was apologized to and that this was not correct information. There were phone records that were able to be looked up to see that I had routinely called, but there reportedly was zero record of any representative giving me any information in regards to the PLSF program in general, not even to say my AES loans did not qualify. I was told that I could file a complaint with AES and it would be reviewed and I would be sent paperwork in the mail. I had opted to do this at this time. 
In XX/XX/XXXX, I had contacted AES again due to never receiving any paperwork. It was at that time that I spoke to a representative who told me the complaint/case had been closed and apologized that paperwork was never sent, as they did have this on record. They offered to send me the paperwork at that point. I requested this be done. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I have yet to receive any paperwork regarding my initial complaint/case or anything in reference to this issue. 

My complaint stems from being given wrong information from the very beginning of my repayment status with AES along with the documentation not recording any of the conversations that took place in regards to the PSLF program when the majority of the time ( if not all ) that was the only reason I had reached out to AES. This wrong information led me to make decisions regarding my loan repayments, such as me choosing to follow through with an IBR plan, which ultimately caused my AES loan interest to rise over time, despite making the correct requested payments every month. If this information was not given to me to begin with, I could have paid my entire AES loan with my XXXX  Educational Award in full, however, it was suggested to me by an AES representative that I could make lower payments with the IBR plan and after 120 payments, my remaining loan total amount would be forgiven.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief