Consumer complaint received 2017-10-19
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: ME
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX my federal student loans were transferred to the loan servicer, XXXX XXXX, after I completed and submitted a PSLF application to start enter into the program. I am a legal services attorney and have been employed in legal services for the past 5 years. Under the PSLF program, after 10 years of on-time monthly payments, the balance of my federal student loans will be eligible for forgiveness. Prior to submitting my PSLF application, my federal student loans were handled by XXXX. For the last 5 years I have been enrolled in a IBR-payment program and make my monthly payments using a XXXX XXXX XXXX I received from two terms of XXXX XXXX. The XXXX XXXX XXXX can only be used to pay for current education expenses or to pay off your federal student loans. Generally, it takes longer for the loan servicing companies to process and apply a monthly loan payment from the XXXX XXXX XXXX than it does if you make the payment with your bank account. However, in exchange for earning only a yearly stipend of {$18000.00} during my year-long term in XXXX, I received a $ XXXX education award. This is what you get in exchange for serving your country. I was told I could use this award to pay off my federal student loans that I took out to attend XXXX XXXX. And, in exchange for serving your country and the public as a XXXX XXXX XXXX working at a XXXX, I am eligible for the PSLF program. 

XXXX typically took about 2-7 business days to apply my payment to my student loan account after Iogged on to the XXXX portal to request that a payment be sent to XXXX for my monthly student loans. 

XXXX XXXX ; however, is taking anywhere from 13-20 business days to apply a payment to my account from the date that I create a request in the XXXX portal to pay my monthly student loan payment. This has resulted in my account being marked " delinquent '' several times and in the month of XX/XX/XXXX, because my payment was applied too late to my account by XXXX XXXX, I am not eligible for PSLF for that month - even though I " paid '' my monthly student loan before the due date. XXXX XXXX took 20 business days to accept and post the payment from XXXX, which resulted in my account being marked " late '' and ineligible for PSLF for the month of XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called XXXX XXXX to ask them about this. They told me it is their policy to take 7-12 business days to accept a payment from XXXX and another 7-12 business days to actually apply it to the account. They said that is just the way it is because they have too much work to do and I just need to understand that. 

I disagree. I do n't understand how a government program designed to encourage new lawyers to serve the public good ( XXXX ) in exchange for a small education award to help you pay off your law school federal student loans can be mishandled by the sole loan servicing for individuals working in the non profit and public service world to help others and to benefit the public. If XXXX XXXX has too much work to do, then they need to hire more staff. It should n't be at the expense of the consumer. Now, XXXX XXXX is telling me that yes, I am ineligible for PSLF for XX/XX/XXXX. I do n't think I should be, because I did what I was supposed to do and on-time. Further, I asked XXXX XXXX whether they let borrowers and consumers know about their backlog and lengthy processing time for XXXX, and they said they do not. 

Now that I do know that XXXX XXXX has a problem servicing loans and applying payments in a timely way, I make my requests on the XXXX portal 1+ month in advance - which, could cause additional problems if XXXX XXXX  processes my payment more quickly, then the next month 's due payment will not yet have processed - meaning that I will have used my XXXX award to pay 2x the interest to XXXX XXXX in one month, rather than having it count towards two monthly payments. 

As you will see in the attached documents, I have created 4 loan payment requests on the XXXX portal since my loan was transferred to XXXX XXXX onXX/XX/XXXX. I have created payment requests on XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; and XX/XX/XXXX. All 4 of those payments requests show a modified date on the XXXX portal - this is the date the servicing institution accepted the payment. Only 2 of those payments have been applied to my account on XXXX XXXX Below is the breakdown : 1. XX/XX/XXXX ( created ) ; XX/XX/XXXX ( modified ) ; XX/XX/XXXX ( applied to account ) 2. XX/XX/XXXX ( created ) ; XX/XX/XXXX ( modified ) ; XX/XX/XXXX ( applied to account ) 3. XX/XX/XXXX ( created ) ; 9/28/2017 ( modified ) ;??? ( has not been applied to account - and my account is in delinquent status once again as a result ) 4. XX/XX/XXXX ( created ) ; XX/XX/XXXX ( modified ) ;??? ( has not been applied to account )

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation