Consumer complaint received 2016-04-25
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about my loan

Complaint:
I borrowed over much time from XXXX ( my parents could n't help me pay for college and I struggled ). My loans then went to XXXX XXXX, and then to XXXX. While my loans were with Navient, I asked many times if I was able to give some sort of lump sum payoff at a lower amount than what I owed. I was told that I could only do repayment. I found myself drowning in debt and unmanageable monthly payments, so I got referred to fedloan servcing ( myfedloan.org ). They have the seal for the US Department of Education all over all of their paperwork, emails and website so I assumed that they were a government entity, it now seems that they are a private servicer but they make it seem like they are part of the government when you talk to them ... so you are inclined to trust them. During the origination of my account with them, they told me a consolidation would be best for me and that I fit best with an income based repayment plan, with a max 20 years repayment and then I would get forgiveness. I took their advice and guidance, since that is what I was paying them for! professional advice! Today an article came up on XXXX about how there used to be a publicly published handbook to help students settle their federally owed student debt ( which all of mine is ). I then contacted an attorney and asked for some basic advice as to what my rights might be when it comes to settling a federal student loan debt. He explained to me that there are times where Navient, fedloan servcing, XXXX XXXX ALL OF THEM will do things like waiving collection charges, waiving interest, settling for 90 % of principal ... many variations of how people have actually settled their federal student loan debt. SO ... .I called back fedloan servicing ... .I explained to them that I had a lump sum of money today and I wanted to do a payoff and get some forgiveness on the balance ... the rep told me no can do. They would not take a dime off. SO WHY IS IT THAT OTHER PEOPLE CAN SETTLE THEIR FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN DEBTS AND NOT ME?!?! DO I REALLY NEED TO SPEND FOR AN ATTORNEY JUST TO SUE SOMEONE SO I CAN SETTLE A XXXX YEAR OLD DEBT!?!? I need some good faith negotaitions from them ... .I was given poor advice and now because they are trying to make money off of me, they have successfully turned my XXXX debt into what will be a XXXX debt with interest and fees. This is unfair - I WAS ALREADY BURIED IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT AND NOW THESE CONSOLIDATION PEOPLLE WHO POSE AS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY ARE GOING TO MAKE MORE THAN XXXX OFF OF ME!!!! I WILL NEVER EVER PAY THIS OFF SUCCESSFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also had to give them {$600.00} just to join their service - so now I paid them XXXX and they gave me an income based repayment plan ... .BUT AFTER I STARTED TO PAY THEY SNUCK INTO MY ENROLLMENT PAPERWORK THAT XX/XX/XXXX MY PAYMENT WILL GO FROM $ XXXX/MONTH TO $ XXXX/MONTH! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?! These people are making money off of me when I was already drowning ... and I truly feel as if Ive been tricked into enrolling in this service. They told me that after 20 years I would n't have to pay anymore!! that I qualified for the Obama repayment plan thing ... .now I see that 's not true. THEY LIED TO ME!!! AND NOW IM TRAPPED! HELP! ( I agreed on the phone to an income based repayment plan for 20 years and then when they sent me the docs for the approved plan, it was really for the full balance + TONS OF INTEREST! 
I do n't want to stop making my monthly payments for I fear that they will report delinquencies to my credit so I will continue to pay so I can protect myself.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation