Consumer complaint received 2017-08-17
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MA
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:
After I submitted my IBR annual re-certification with FedLoan Servicing, my monthly payment was reconfigured and raised to higher amount, due to my increased income. After two months of continuing my automatic monthly payments, I noticed on my XXXX XXXX, 2017 bill, that I was being " direct debited '' the same amount again {$590.00}, but that my current payment due was only {$110.00}. I went back and noticed several months of statements that stated this.
I called Fed Loan Serving before my XXXX XXXX, 2017 bill was due to inquire about the difference in numbers. The agent told me that I had overpaid in XX/XX/XXXXand that I only needed to pay the {$110.00} for the month of XX/XX/XXXXand would stay in good standing and the payment would qualify for PSLF. I double checked with the agent to ensure this was the case, which he again informed me of these facts. I asked the agent to turn off my monthly automatic debit payment for the month and informed him that I would turn it back on after XX/XX/XXXXso that the account would be back to monthly automatic payments, qualifying me for the monthly interest deduction again. After ending the conversation with the agent, I made my payment online for the {$110.00} payment due.
On XXXX XXXX, 2017 I received an electronic notification that my account was past due and now delinquent. I called on XXXX XXXX, 2017 at XXXX to inquire about the status. The agent told me that the statement was not correct and that what was actually " due '' each month is the direct debit amount, not the " current payment due '' amount. I explained the situation twice with her that I had called and asked about it, to which she agreed that I had in fact called and received that information. She verified I had been overpaying since XXXX  2017 and that I " could '' pay the {$110.00}, but that she would have to " put in a request for that payment to be applied to the XX/XX/XXXX billing statement and bring your account into good standing '' but that " the payment would not qualify for PSLF '' because it was n't the amount of the " direct debit ''. I explained that this is not what the bill stated and that it was misinformation that was either told to me by the previous agent or that the billing statements are purposefully misstated. She apologized by refused to acknowledged that one or the other piece of information was incorrect or misstated.
I explained that I would be filling a CFBP complaint about this, as it seems to be a much bigger problem in how billing statements are created across many student accounts and thus would be hurting credit reports, loan standings, etc. She stopped apologizing and agreed to 1 ) put in the request and that it would be reviewed in 2-3 business days, and 2 ) restart my automatic monthly direct debit. I got her name, XXXX, and her ID - XXXX.
Please look into Fed Loan Servicing as this is probably a much bigger issues with billing statements for all students they serve by stating incorrect information on student bills in a way that purposefully misleads students into making overpayments or to cause delinquency when it probably should n't have happened.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation