Consumer complaint received 2016-06-06
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: DC
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Having problems with customer service

Complaint:
My student loan servicer is FedLoan Servicing. For several years I have been on the Income Based Repayment ( IBR ) plan, and my monthly payments were automatically deducted from my checking account. From the start of my repayment period in 2012 until recently, I have had no issues, and my payments were always made on time. Late last year, I applied to transition from IBR to the new REPAYE plan, as this would save me nearly {$300.00} each month. Months later, I am still waiting for the switch to happen, and the process has been a complete nightmare. I have called repeatedly to check the status and find out what further steps I could take to expedite the process, and continue to be told that the process is underway. In a few instances, I have been given conflicting advice or information by FedLoan Servicing employees and supervisors. For example, I was informed ( by a supervisor ) that I needed to make a {$5.00} forbearance payment to complete the switch ; I made that payment, only to be told later by another employee that that payment did not in fact do anything to advance this process ( the payment was simply applied to my balance, but did not affect the IBR-to-REPAYE process ). So, FedLoan Servicing had me make a separate {$4.00} payment, and I was assured that this payment was the only thing that I needed to do to finish that switch to REPAYE. An employee even told me that they would request that the process be expedited. And yet, XXXX month later I am still waiting. I called again today only to be told that the {$4.00} payment did not count, as it was {$0.00} short. But I simply paid what I was told ; the employee I spoke to told me this was a recurring problem, and that I -- and others in my situation -- should have received a payment request for {$5.00}. So, today, I have made, for the third time, the payment that is purportedly the last step in this process. To be clear, FedLoan Servicing apparently has removed me from IBR, and I am currently on the Standard Repayment plan. But because my repayment terms under this plan are far too onerous, I have had to make repeated forbearance requests while I wait for FedLoan Servicing to move me to REPAYE. I believe that this transition from IBR to REPAYE has been completely mishandled by FedLoan Servicing. It should not take six months to make a switch from XXXX repayment plan to another. I have now gone from having several years of consistent, on-time payments, to a record of several forbearances. This should have been much smoother, and I suspect that things would have been even worse had I not repeatedly called FedLoan Servicing. This is also incredibly XXXX to me because I intend to take advantage of Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ), but for each month that I am on a forbearance -- while I wait to be put onto REPAYE -- I am not making on-time, qualifying payments that will count toward PLSF. The sad part is that I am in a position to make payments right now under either IBR or REPAYE, but FedLoan Servicing has left me stuck in Standard Repayment purgatory. Through its actions, FedLoan Servicing has made the benefits of REPAYE illusory to individuals like myself. I fear for myself and other borrowers in my situation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief