Consumer complaint received 2017-12-17
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan

Complaint:
There is many layers of problems with this, but here is a brief overview, none of the following was sent regular mail, only to my XXXX paperless inbox that is not easily accessible. 

XXXX, sent in application form to switch from IBR to REPAYE, within the deadline per XXXX. 

XXXX received message from XXXX saying they did n't receive documentation to re certify ( other loan provider XXXX had received and processed it from studentloan.gov ) or new amount is XXXX said my Direct Debit setup will automatically pay this. 

XXXX Received message saying Income repayment recalced for IBR, {$16.00} which is first due on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. this is for the XXXX loan that does n't qualify for REPAYE. 

XXXX Received message saying In order to leave your current Income-Based Repayment ( IBR ) plan to go to another plan, you are required to make a fullpayment on a Standard plan or make a reduced payment under a period of forbearance. that amount was {$290.00}. ( I had automatic payments set up, and the letter said XXXX put me on administrative forbearance from XXXX - XXXX and another letter for XXXX - XXXX. my direct deposit has always been setup to pay on the XXXX, it is no coincidence they put me on forbearance for those 2 payment dates ( which I never requested! ) I assume they did n't use my direct deposit because of the forbearance they enacted, which caused me to miss the payment that was sent out in another letter on XXXX. Missing these two direct deposit automatic payments I had setup caused my interest to capitalize against my consent as well. 

XXXX Letter stating In order to leave your current Income-Based Repayment ( IBR ) plan to go to another plan, you are required to make a full payment on a Standard plan or make a reduced payment under a period of forbearance. Based on your form, we have applied a forbearance on your account with a required payment amount of {$290.00}. I never requested a forbearance, and assumed they would have used my direct deposit i had setup to satisfy this. 

XXXX letter saying repayments changed. First announced new repayment schedule XXXX will be due date. 

XXXX direct deposit automatically withdrew XXXX, but did not automatically withdraw the XXXX bill sent earlier that was required to transfer me to the REPAYE plan. 

XXXX letter saying loans were not eligible because regular payment was not made. I HAD DIRECT DEPOSIT SETUP, but they did not use it. 

XXXX called XXXX and was on the phone for over 1 hour. after being transferred and put on hold for a huge amount of time, The last specialist told me i failed to check a box requesting a bill for XXXX dollars, and that this was my fault. XXXX XXXX was her name/number. She said billing me that XXXX dollars, removing standard payment, and I think suspending automatic deposit payments, and paying the XXXX dollar bill was the only way to move to REPAYE and fix this. I was not to pay any bills and wait until I received the XXXX dollar bill to pay. as of XXXX I still have yet to see a XXXX dollar bill. she also said all my messages should have come via mail, and verified my mail address was correct. I still do n't receive via mail. 

XXXX received letter informing me that I was 12 days delinquent for the ( 1 of 10 loans ) this was the same loan that was paid with automatic deposits on XXXX, but they witheld the payment on XXXX, Why?. I never requested they stop my automatic deposits, and my letters I received earlier said they would still use my automatic deposits. .dropped my XXXX .25 % interest reduction I had ( because of automatic deposits ), and that I was 12 days delinquent for the loan. 


Main issues : they misled my phone call where I tried to fix this, and made everything much worse. 
they put me on 2 separate administrative forbearances, for no reason and stated they would still use my automatic payments. This forbearance is the only reason I can think of why they did n't withrdraw using my automatic deposits I had set up. If that is n't the reason, then they really messed up. 
for the XXXX loan that was unable to qualify for REPAYE, they moved that to IBR, but then didnt use my automatic deposit for one of the bills, and then made the  interest go up because of the phone call I made.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation