Consumer complaint received 2019-10-17
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: FL
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:
I originally received several student loans when I attended college/university over 10 years ago. The loans were eventually consolidated over to Fedloan Servicing and placed in Forbearance, due to my inability to repay the loans because I was unemployed for years. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I was not required to make any payments due to the forbearance. Unbeknown to me, on XX/XX/XXXX my loans were taken out of forbearance and repayment was to begin, however I was NEVER notified by Fedloan. I did not receive any repayment notices via USPS mail/email nor phone call. I was unaware that any payments were due or that the forbearance was over because Fedloan failed to properly notify me. My address/email and phone number are correct on my credit file and I should have been properly notified that a payment was due so that I could remedy the situation. Fedloan began reporting late payments to all credit bureaus in XX/XX/XXXX and continued to due so through XX/XX/XXXX. Because the loan is divided into ( 7 ) individual loans, I have over 40 erroneous late payments now displayed on my credit report. I only discovered that the forbearance was terminated after I pulled my credit report in XXXX of XXXX and saw these late payments. I immediately called Fedloan and spoke to customer service about the issue. I explained to the representative that I was unaware that my forbearance was over and that I never received any notices from them for 6 months. I told them they had a duty to notify me and that due to financial hardship I still would not be able to make any payments. So they told me to apply for the {$0.00} payment Income Driven Repayment plan. After applying for the income driven repayment plan, it was determined by Fedloan that I qualify for $ XXXX   monthly payments. Which is fine, however I have written Fedloan several letters and placed several phone calls to Fedloan demanding that they delete the late payments, as they failed to notify me of the forbearance ending. As a service provider, they have the duty to properly notify the consumer of payments due, and the intent to report alleged " late payments '' to the bureaus. Furthermore, the alleged " late payments '' were not indeed " late '' because I have not been employed for over 2 years and I qualified for {$0.00} repayment as of XX/XX/XXXX ( the end of my forbearance ). Had Fedloan properly notified me back on XX/XX/XXXX, I could have applied for the Income Driven Repayment plan back then, I would have been approved for $ XXXX monthly payments because obviously my financial status has not changed in almost 3 years, and I would have never endured the hardship of having these late payments affect my credit. The erroneous late payments being reported by Fedloan are causing extreme hardship and is affecting my ability to obtain lines of credit. I am a mother, and currently unemployed and these late payments that have illegally been reported to the credit bureaus need to be removed due to Fedloan 's negligence to properly notify me that my forbearance was over and payments were due.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation