Consumer complaint received 2022-01-30
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MO
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:
I am a teacher who is eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. I have worked in an eligible district for 18 years. Additionally, prior to the PSLF Waiver announced on XX/XX/XXXX, I was misled by XXXX XXXX XXXX into consolidating my student loans under the wrong program for PSLF. I consolidated my loans into a direct loan with FedLoan in XXXX and had to restart my payments under PSLF. I also held two FFEL loans that were not consolidated and was led to believe these loans would qualify for forgiveness after 120 payments by FedLoan and XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I began the process of consolidation. Prior to this process, I made several phone calls to FedLoan. I waited hours to speak to loan consolidation specialists. When I finally reached a specialist, I was told I could make a single consolidation of all my loans and that would not affect my PSLF loan count. At this time I added my Direct Loans to my consolidation application. After I submitted the consolidation application, I received a letter stating that I WOULD have to restart my payments for PSLF if those loans were included in the consolidation. I later received the consolidation letter stating that I would start my PSLF payments over again with this consolidation, that I had ten days to decide, and the consolidation would be permanent. I again tried to call a loan specialist upon receiving that letter on XX/XX/XXXX. I waited hours to reach anyone. I could not reach a specialist and had to make decision about canceling the application or lose the opportunity for loan forgiveness in the near future. Because I could potentially have to spend ten more years to see loan relief and because of lack of support from FedLoan, I canceled the loan application on XX/XX/XXXX. After I canceled the initial loan, I was also unable to re-submit another application for consolidation without the Direct Loans through Federal Student Aid. It took many hours to reach a specialist who informed me that I could re-submit an electronic application five days after canceling my initial application. This was false. On XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that the only way to re-submit an application was to file a paper application. I did this and inexplicably, my first application was canceled without explanation. After calling FedLoan again and waiting hours for a loan specialist who never answered the phone, I emailed FedLoan and resubmitted the application. For some reason, it went through. At this moment, I have only included my FFEL Loans on the application pending further information. So far, my experience with FedLoan has been quite difficult.

I have repeatedly reached out to FedLoan and Federal Student Aid to determine what is my best course of action for loan consolidation under the PSLF Waiver. Nobody has definitively said, in writing, whether I can complete a single loan consolidation of all my Direct Loans and FFEL Loans and satisfy the terms of the waiver or if I have to consolidate the FFEL Loans separately from the Direct Loans. 
This puts me at a disadvantage because loan consolidation is permanent. In my situation, if I can consolidate my FFEL and Direct Loans and receive credit for PSLF, my loans will be forgiven under the waiver. If this is unacceptable under the waiver, and I consolidate all of the loans, I have to start over and make 120 more payments. If I complete a second Direct Loan for the FFEL Loans, they will be forgiven under the waiver. It is unclear what will happen with my Direct Loans which are not accurately counted due to XXXX misleading practices. 

I have read all the information about the waiver on student aid.gov I havent found an answer for this particular situation. 

I think it is fair that a complete and accurate answer is provided in writing as to how I should proceed with my Direct Loan consolidation under the PSLF Waiver.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief