Consumer complaint received 2017-11-03
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: WI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I have been working as a XXXX XXXX since XX/XX/XXXXand have never missed a student loan payment. My loans were initially serviced by XXXX XXXX and I started payments in XX/XX/XXXXon my loans through that company. I was on the Income-Based Repayment Plan the whole time my loans were with Direct Loans until the loan was transferred to Fed Loan Servicing in XX/XX/XXXX There are two issues I 'm having with Fed Loan Servicing.
First, their calculation of my PSLF payments is incorrect. They are not calculating the months of XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX toward my student loan forgiveness, claiming that I was in deferment/forbearance at those times. I never turned in an IBR recertification late with with XXXX XXXX and never applied for a forbearance or deferment. Those months should count toward my PSLF tally as a result. As forXX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, there was no payment collected in XX/XX/XXXX because my loans were transferred by the government, not because of anything I did. This months should count toward PSLF for that reason. In XX/XX/XXXX, I paid {$520.00}, which was my payment under income-based repayment and the same amount I paid from XX/XX/XXXXwith the previous servicer. This payment should count toward PSLF and Fed Loan Servicing is not doing this.
Second, once I went to Fed Loan Servicing, their website offered a calculator showing your best payment option. It reported that under the Standard Repayment Plan, my payment would be {$540.00} per month, less than {$20.00} more than what I was paying under IBR. This calculator represented that this was a ten-year standard repayment. I was aware at the time that the Extended Repayment Plan did not qualify for PSLF and would never have enrolled in a payment plan that I was both paying more and not PSLF eligible. I remained in that plan until I got the recertification information and found out I was placed in the Extended Repayment Plan unbeknownst to me. I immediately recertified under the ten-year Standard Repayment Plan at that time.
I have followed up with Fed Loan Servicing several times since then, asking why I was placed in the Extended Plan without my request. After digging, I was told inXX/XX/XXXX that they automatically as a company place anyone with consolidated loans who is applying for the Standard Repayment Plan into the thirty-year Extended Plan. This was absolutely not represented to me in the online application and I have requested a physical copy of my application ( which was completed online through their website ) for the plan change to be mailed to me multiple times and I have received mailings on two occasions with the wrong information. On a third occasion, I received no mailing as requested ( for these requests, I have also requested a log of all of my payments from when my loan was with the previous servicer and again, I each time was sent the incorrect information ).
I now see on their website, since the start of my complaints on this issue over the past year, that they now allow payees to pick between the Standard and Extended Repayment Plans when starting the application process. This was not how the application was formatted in the past and my request was to be on the ten-year Standard Repayment Plan to maintain PSLF eligibility.
I think it is extremely unfair that I have lost 12 months of PSLF eligibility because the loan company placed me into a program without my consent. I also had to pay more than I otherwise would have had I left my payments in the IBR program and there I would have maintained eligibility. I believe that I should be allowed to maintain PSLF eligibility for those months or that the should be responsible for the year of additional payments I will have to make as a result of their error.
As an attorney, I can not simply mishandle a client 's finances without severe repercussions and having to make the client whole financially. It is completely unacceptable that this has happened and this private company continues to treat those who have taken out loans from the government in this way.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation