Consumer complaint received 2022-03-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: TX
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 recertified my XXXX plan in XXXX XXXX based on a notice from FedLoan Servicing ( I have attached this notice to recertify ) ; my payments jumped by nearly {$130.00}. 

I did it again in XXXX XXXX, because I would get an alert every time I signed into the Federal Student Aid website that it was time for my annual recertification. ( I don't have a notice to attach because it's an alert from XXXX on their webpage ) On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX informed me they had processed the XXXX and my total monthly payment would be going up by a few dollars. 

( Because I am on PSLF track, I wanted to be proactive and not have any hiccups when XXXX transferred my loans at the beginning of the year to whichever new servicer and to make sure I was on an XXXX plan as the XXXX XXXX email from XXXX said I needed to be to continue to be PSLF eligible. ) But after getting notice from XXXX about my new total in XX/XX/XXXX, I keep getting notices from XXXX website that I needed to recertify! Every single time I signed in. So in early XXXX, I contacted the XXXX website to ask them why they keep giving me notices that I need to recertify if I had done this and it been processed. ( I even got one today when I signed in! ) The conversation was not positive ; the representative told me that XXXX receives notices from the various servicers and XXXX just posts them to our account ; furthermore XXXX  never receives notifications from servicers when an XXXX has been processed and updated! This lack of communication between XXXX  and servicers and their blind posting of alerts without vetting them is worriesome. ( I do have this chat to attach to show that XXXX gives me notices to recertify ) But today, I see this on the Department of Education website : Already on an XXXX Plan Were you on an XXXX plan before the payment pause began? If so, you will stay on that same plan when payments restart ( unless youve changed repayment plans since then ). 
Recertification Deadlines You wont be required to recertify before payments restart, and the earliest you could be required to recertify is XX/XX/XXXX. 

So I looked into this online, and I saw numerous social media posts of folks who have learned the same thing, and have contacted their servicers in an attempt to get their pre-pause monthly XXXX total put back in place. A few have been successful, but most have not. 

Even when I was text chatting to the XXXX representative at no time did she say that I didn't need to have recertified! 

So, I contacted XXXX today and told them about how the XXXX website says that if you are on an XXXX when the pause began, you dont need to recertify until XXXX XXXX, and that I wanted the previous XXXX XXXX XXXX of XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX to be removed and revert me back to my previous payment total as of XX/XX/XXXX when the pause began. I told her that XXXX and XXXX had sent me notices all throughout the COVID forbearance pause that I need to recertify and so I had. 

However, she told me that the new XXXX is irreversible because there were notices that I didn't need to recertify but I did ; however she put in a request to have my request reviewed anyway. 

XXXX does not give good notices. 

Take a look at the XX/XX/XXXX, letter I attached that says you need to recertify. It gives the link ( XXXX XXXX for additional information. When you enter that link, it redirects to ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  

Go there and take a look at that page on FedLoan Servicing 's website. Absolutely nowhere does it state that you don't have to recertify right now as a result of the Department of Education 's recent policy. It's not listed anywhere. In fact, it clearly says in bold type " you need to submit a new request and income documentation every year. '' And it also has a window with a Yield Warning Sign with an Exclamation Point- in Yellow - telling me the consequences of not recertifying. 

Then, you can clink on the link at the bottom for their IDR FAQ : XXXX  : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Clicking on that takes you to a long list of FAQs, one of which is " Do I have to recertify? How often? ... '' No where in that answer does it state you don't have to recertify right now because the Department of Education has put that on pause. 

So, XXXX is STILL posting on its website that you need to recertify as part of the XXXX program, but that is categorically not true. Now, XXXX does have a lot of warning links when you first sign in that re-route you back to the XXXX  site to answer more questions, but I feel I shouldn't have to be re-directed off my servicer 's site to find information that I don't need to recertify when every single mention of XXXX on my servicer 's site currently still says in warning colors and warning graphics that I need to do it. 

So I dont understand how XXXX  and XXXX  can proceed to give me notices throughout the pause that I need to recertify when I did not have to. On the part of XXXX they have posted no clear communication or alerts that XXXX says I don't have to recertify, and now claim it's " irreversable ''. How can that be permitted to do this? ( And as far as XXXX is concerned, they're still posting alerts today that I need to recertify! ) I don't know if this policy is only a recent XXXX  decision, but even if it is I feel XXXX should apply retroactively. All through the COVID-forbearance pause, I was diligent about my student loans. A borrower like myself who stayed on top of things has had their monthly payments going up and locked in and " irreversible '', but those borrowers who chose to ignore the erroneous recertification notices get to kept their XX/XX/XXXXmonthly total for the next 18 months? I feel XXXX gave me no notice throughout the pause that I didn't need to recertify, and if it's only a recent policy then XXXX is still not giving proper notice that borrowers don't need to recertify. 

Regardless of this is a recent development or one that's always been there and XXXX and XXXX provided me misinformation, is there anything you can do to help me get my former XX/XX/XXXX, pre-pause payment re-instated?

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief