Consumer complaint received 2023-10-04
Company: MOHELA
State: FL
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:
Mohela placed an Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance on my student loans without disclosing exactly why they did that, and it was done without my approval. Mohela can not answer whether this forbearance will count towards my PSLF credits and won't allow me to opt out of the forbearance. 

Account number XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for the new XXXX program through the XXXX. of XXXX 's website. For the application, I connected to my XXXX tax information and received a tentative approval of payment and a date to start making payments. My servicer is Mohela, and I am actively pursuing the Public Service Loan Program ( PSLF ) discharge. I have 25 months left on this program. I have two Direct consolidated loans of {$12000.00} and {$61000.00}. The interest rate is 6 %, On XXXX Mohela sent a message through their portable notifying me that they placed an Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance on my account beginning on XXXX and ending on XXXX The letter was vague and canned. Mohela did not provide any reasons as to why they did this. The letter states that a forbearance can hurt my credit, and interest will accrue daily. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received another letter from Mohela informing me that " my request is in process '' and that this process can take up to 90 business days. Mohela states they will review my request but does tell me precisely what it was, but I assume it's for the SAVE program process. Mohela will let me know if this will be approved or not. I was instructed that I required no action at any time, and Mohela doesn't explain if this forbearance will count towards PSLF. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Mohela dated XX/XX/XXXX telling me I was approved for the SAVE program. I have a new payment amount of {$130.00} for the next 12 months and my first payment is due on XX/XX/XXXX. The letter provides additional canned information and that a bill will be sent to me within 21 days before my due date. I sent Mohela a message through their online portal asking about the previous letters and whether the forbearance would still count toward my PSLF if they said it would take 90 days. Mohela ignored the letter and never answered. 

By XX/XX/XXXX, the forbearance has yet to be removed from my account. With payments starting on XXXX I thought Moehla would remove the forbearance since I was already approved and could begin making payments when Mohela would release the forbearance. This did not happen, so I decided to call Moheal, dreading the long wait times. I was quoted 75 minutes on hold, but at 115 minutes, I was finally transferred to a Mohela representative. I believe her name was XXXX. After verifying my information, I provided her with details of my timeline and explained my questions. I was upfront and direct, stating that I applied for the SAVE program ; I was placed in Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance on XXXX and then I received a letter saying I was approved with a payment amount and date. I asked what the Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance was for, why it hadn't removed yet since I was approved, and if Mohela didn't remove it, would it be counted towards my PSLF credits since Mohela won't allow me to opt out, and didn't respond to my in-house messages. 
The representative then told me she was training and had to place me on hold to ask her trainer. After 5-10 minutes, she returns. She states that her trainer told her the SAVE program is not qualified for the PSLF and that being on this program won't count. She seemed confused in her answers, stumbling on her words and talking in circles. She redirected me to the Dept of Education website. I told her that is not what the Dept of Education 's website says and told her to look it up and that it does count for PSLF. She saw the information firsthand, saying the SAVE program does count as a PSLF program and this confused her. 

I expressed that I wanted to know if this Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance would count for my PSLF, that I can not find an answer anywhere, and that this is a common question floating around the Student Loan message boards. She says she sent several messages to her trainer to ask my question and was waiting for a response. We talked about how the administrative forbearance hasn't counted until the recent PSLF waiver but that there was no information on the Exceptional Discretionary Forbearance. She said I would be in forbearance until XX/XX/XXXX, and I wasn't required to make payments. I reiterated that I understood that, but I wanted to know if Mohela would count it to my PSLF since I can not choose to opt-out. She said she thought so but needed clarification because she couldn't find anything on the Student Aid website. I told her that there was no clear answer anywhere, and that is why I was calling. After close to 45 minutes, her trainer never responded to her follow-up questions and that they must be at " lunch ''. We talked more about the info on the Student Aid website on the forbearance details, but nothing was able to answer my questions. I asked if she could email me or message me through the portable about what we discussed so I have something to refer back to. She said she couldn't do that. She didn't do anything wrong except not being upfront that she was being trained and was new. She appeared to want to help me find the answer but wasn't given the tools, training or resources to do that. 

Mohela employees are there to represent the company. They are supposed to be the experts helping me with my student loans, yet I still need to answer a fundamental question about their actions on my account. I spent three hours on the phone only to get off the call without answering my question. Mohela had had ample time to get its act together to hire, properly train, and provide information to students well before we were forced to get back into student loans. They have failed to do this, and we, as the " consumers, '' must deal with their employees who can not even answer common questions. Our system is broken, and Mohela makes billions of dollars off my debt, and yet, I am scrounging for scraps, making sure that Mohela doesn't rip me off because they refuse to train their employees. I have 25 months left of this predatory system under PSLF before I can be free. Now, Mohela will likely claim it doesn't count, pushing me further back on my timeline while charging me interest on my account daily, resulting in my balance going up. At the same time, I pay on interest on top of interest. My interest from XXXX XXXX XXXX  was at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for one month of interest. Thats criminal. Mohela must be held accountable for their failure to do their job. If I was hired to do a job and proven time and time again that I can not handle it, I would have been fired within the first month, yet we allow Mohela and all the other loan service providers to get away with the worst behavior.

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