Consumer complaint received 2023-09-03
Company: MOHELA
State: SC
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:
I currently have {$92000.00} in outstanding student loans, of which the oldest loan goes back to XXXX timeframe. They have been consolidated several times, most recently on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, so that I have one consolidation loan. This was done after a recommendation due to the one time IDR account adjustment, for which I received the Department of Education letter indicating some or all of my loans qualified for forgiveness, and that action would be completed starting mid-XXXX. 

My loans have changed hands numerous times and in XXXX were transferred from XXXX to MOHELA. I submitted applications for PSLF and TEPSLF prior to the XX/XX/XXXX deadline, and prior to consolidation, was at a XXXX PSLF payment count. It took several calls to MOHELA to get this count, as they initially missed 30+ payments for which they had credited surrounding payments for the same employers. I am now left to wonder if I have even more qualified payments that I am unaware of. 

I understood that when I consolidated, my count would temporarily reset to zero. What has happened since consolidation has been a source of tremendous stress and frustration. Any calls to MOHELA, provided one can get through, have been answered by someone " in training ''. I get different answers each time to my inquiries. 

The final straw is that I had applied for and been approved for the SAVE plan, and was under the impression that my loans would remain in forbearance until the one-time account adjustment occurred. This is apparently not the case. Furthermore, after my consolidated loan initially showed the repayment plan as SAVE with a XXXX XXXX monthly payment, it has in recent days switched, without my action, to a level repayment plan and a payment of around {$560.00}, which I can not afford as I recently took a massive pay cut and have other financial obligations. 

I understand that there is a tremendous volume of actions occurring, but what I do not understand is why a company that was a proxy in a lawsuit to stop forgiveness is the same company handling my student loan forgiveness actions. I also find it unacceptable that any action on my part results in the effective " wiping out '' of any progress that I can see, and at this point, I am not confident that MOHELA will accurately adjust my account for the one time IDR account adjustment, or that it will happen in a timely fashion. 

It should not be too much to ask for a company to provide it's customers with ACCURATE, up to date information, and if the system is so antiquated that making account adjustments requires an actual person to do the counting, I am not confident that MOHELA has enough trained and competent individuals to process these actions. I should be able to see my actual account standing prior to the resumed payment date of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, which until the last few days, was not even showing on my account -- it showed no upcoming payments due. 

What is our recourse as consumers, when a company we did not choose is mishandling our student loans and failing to provide us with accurate, up to date information? I can not even reapply for SAVE at this time, because the MOHELA portal for repayment plan applications is " undergoing maintenance '' and unavailable, and I am directed to StudentAid.gov. The problem there is studentaid shows my account balanace at {$0.00}, because the last update they received from the NSLDS is from XXXX XXXX. 

Thank you, XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief