Consumer complaint received 2020-04-28
Company: MOHELA
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I refinanced my student loans with XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX, which are serviced my MOHELA. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from XXXX XXXX that stated the following : " Your private education loan is owned by XXXX XXXX. This communication is to inform you that XXXX XXXX has rebranded and changed its name from XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX is continuing its partnership with MOHELA as the servicer of your private education loan. With more than 30 years in the student loan servicing industry, MOHELA has the expertise to help manage your loans - answer any account questions, help you explore your benefits and repayment options and process your payments. For your convenience, we have created a new website and phone number for your use, should you have any account related questions. This change is effective XX/XX/XXXX. There is no action that you need to take at this time. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, MOHELA debited {$440.00} from my bank account for my monthly payment, which automatically deducts from my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed that this payment was never credited to my student loan account. Furthermore, I had a notice that my payment was late and that I would be charged late fees. My interest rate had also increased by 0.25 %. They were originally deducting that interest rate for auto-pay. I called MOHELA that morning and they said that they would address this issue shortly. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called again because no progress was made on my account. I was told that this was missed by the accounting team and they would flag the issue to get taken care of immediately. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from MOHELA informing that my account was delinquent and that I would be charged late fees, have my payments reported to the credit reporting agencies, and have my debts sent to a debt collector, even though I had already had this payment taken from my bank account on XX/XX/XXXX. I told her about my prior conversations with MOHELA and she acknowledged there were notes about this issue on my account and apologized for calling. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the issue was not fixed and I called again. I spoke with a supervisor who told me that this would be taken care of by Friday, XX/XX/XXXX and that it would not be reported to the credit agencies until the end of the month. Later that day I received another call from MOHELA that my account was delinquent and they would attempt to collect the debt and charge me late fees. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the problem had not been addressed and I received another call from MOHELA that I missed. I returned the call and the customer service representative again told me that my account was delinquent. I told her about my prior conversations with MOHELA. She contacted another department and informed me they had an internal meeting and would apply the payment to my account by XXXX on Tuesday at the latest. That deadline has passed and the payment has not been applied to my account. 

The original payment made XX/XX/XXXX has still not been applied to my account. I have made additional payments of {$200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$300.00} on XX/XX/XXXX to avoid having MOHELA report late payments to the credit agencies, despite having paid this on XX/XX/XXXX, and the customer service representatives acknowledging that they have received this payment. My interest rate remains 0.25 % above what it was supposed to be with Auto-Pay and the late fees remain on my account.

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