Consumer complaint received 2023-08-09
Company: MOHELA
State: IL
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:
Hanging Loans : XX/XX/XXXX I completed the PSLF form waiver process for loans that were consolidated in XXXX and loans I borrowed in XXXX. I started the consolidation process, then received a notice that the consolidation process between old loans with high payment counts would zero out/start over if they were consolidated with newer loans. I called in XXXX, XXXX to the FedLoans customer service who echoed that it's probably the case that the years of payments would go to zero if I moved forward with a consolidation. 

I found a PSLF XXXX group that learned that the FAQ section for consolidating loans clearing/zero-out your previous payment count was actually incorrect. Instead if you consolidated loans with the full 120 payments w/ newer loans the consolidation loan would KEEP the 120 payments so that any loans you added to the consolidation loan would then be eligible for forgiveness. XX/XX/XXXX with this new info I put through a consolidation loan request on studentaid.gov that would include my XXXX consolidation loan w/ my XXXX new loans. By the next day the consolidation loan application had a cancelled status. I didn't cancel the application. I attempted another loan consolidation application on studentaid.gov and this time it showed a cancelled application status during the same day, so I put through another application to consolidate all my loans so that I could have the old and new loans up for forgiveness. 

About a week later, I saw that the XXXX consolidated loans were forgiven. I realized I now had lost the option to have my newest loans forgiven even though I attempted to complete the loan consolidation application. 

I was told to fill out the XX/XX/XXXX Reconsideration Form. I waited through the summer and in XX/XX/XXXX I submitted the Reconsideration Form. I followed up to learn if there was an update on the status but then was told by Federal Student Aid that they couldn't see the details of the update, so I was transferred to XXXX. XXXX said for some reason they could see there was a new report in regards to the REconsideration Form but their system didn't allow them access to see details. Instead the XXXX customer service advised waiting for the Biden Loan Forgiveness to go through since I owed less than {$10.00}, 000. I had already applied for the Biden Loan Forgiveness. So I didn't pursue anything further with XXXX regarding the " Hanging Loan '' I had remaining. I put through complaints with no action from Federal Student Aid as well. 

XXXX, XXXX I received an email from Federal Student Aid stating the reconsideration process was done and to reach out to XXXX to learn about the adjustments that were made. 

I waited over XXXX hours with XXXX 's customer service in XXXX, XXXX and was given a escalation number stating I had 14 days to wait before they would have an answer. I followed up after the 14 days at the beginning of XXXX, XXXX to learn whether they had a resolution to forgive my hanging loans. I was told after about XXXX hour of waiting that I was supposed to submit another Reconsideration Form because they didn't get any answers about the results from fEderal Student Aid about the REconsideration Form I submitted XXXX, XXXX! 

I'm rightfully owed my XXXX loans be forgiven because I tried to take the right steps but the PSLF process cancelled my oldest loans before I could benefit from having all my loans included in the forgiveness. I was also misinformed by customer service which delayed the time I had to consolidate all the loans. Also, the reconsideration form process is broken. It's supposed to allow up to get an escalation and have our loan history reviewed, but it goes nowhere. XXXX says they can't do anything unless they hear it from Federal Student Aid. Federal Student Aid 's instructions in XX/XX/XXXX was that I needed to talk to XXXX to learn about the adjustments that were being made. There have been no changes. 

I want the current XXXX loans to have the loan count of the XXXX consolidation loans that I had listed at the time of the PSLF waiver application in XXXX, XXXX

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