Consumer complaint received 2017-09-12
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: ME
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:
Hi. I started the process to change my repayment plan inXX/XX/XXXXwith My Fed Loan .ORG ( I am in the public service forgiveness program and was forced to have them as a loan servicer ). I submitted all required paperwork to leave my current repayment plan and enter in a new repayment plan ( both were income based ). At the time the customer service representative stated that I could request a forbearance to pay less then the full amount on my loan. In order to enter a new repayment plan you are required to make one " regular '' loan payment. For me this amount was approx. {$510.00} and the forbearance amount would be {$5.00}. I made the payment onXX/XX/XXXX when I received the a bill for the full amount. By the original loan processor I was told that I should expect to receive a full bill and to not pay this bill but wait to receive a bill for the {$5.00}. I paid the XXXX onXX/XX/XXXXand expressed relief that I would not have to worry about making the {$510.00} payment. The My Fed Loan.org Customer Service Representative agreed and stated I was all set. However what I was not told was that in order to ensure that the payment for {$510.00} to not be processed I would have to suspend direct debit. I had a payment for {$510.00} removed from my banking account onXX/XX/XXXX. I called My Fed Loan .ORG to see why this payment was processed and was told that the payment is processed regardless of any other statuses on my account as the Public Service Forgiveness Program does not allow for them to stop payments. When I asked why I was not told that I would need to suspend direct debit I was told that they are not allowed to provide this information and I have to ask for it. I asked to have the payment reversed as I did not authorize this payment. This was not allowable according to the representative who I spoke with unless there was an error on their part. They stated I would need to go through my bank to dispute the charge. I also asked if at this point ( approx. 5 months after I had started this process XXXX if the paperwork had been processed. It was still waiting to be processed so in XXXX I would potentially be forced to make another payment for XXXX. I was escalated at this point to a supervisor who " as a favor '' finished processing my paperwork in order to enter me into the new repayment plan. When I questioned why the process took so long it was stated that my request for a forbearance meant that it would take additional repayment cycles to process through this request however I would still be required to make payments under my old repayment plan. Had I been provided this information in the beginning I would have simply made a " regular '' payment since the 3 extra payments I made in the old plan meant that essentially paid that anyway. The processor also stated that they were " backed up '' due to the millions of loans that they service. At this point I asked if my direct debit had been suspended ( thinking that my clear desire to not make these direct payments had been stated in this call ) I was told that since I had n't asked for it yet the direct payment was still on the account. At this point I asked to have direct debit suspended and asked for a copy of the recording and all other recordings from the phone calls I had with My Fed Loan.org be sent to me. I was told that this was not possible as that was " confidential '' information that I did not have a right too. 

I have since reached out to my bank to ensure that My Fed Loan payment for {$510.00} is disputed ( this will require a trip to the bank to sign the paperwork in person ) and that My Fed Loan is blocked from accessing my account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation