Consumer complaint received 2017-02-11
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint:
I 've been repaying my federal student loans for XXXX years and applied for XXXX because I work for XXXX. After painstakingly gathering and submitting all the necessary paperwork to verify my employment with XXXX, I counted up all the payments I had record of making and compared it to what FedLoan Servicing said I had made ( this was after I sent in verification of an entire year of employment and 12 monthly payments ... and they gave me credit for XXXX ; they then sent me a letter saying they had " received new information '' and corrected it to XXXX payments ). There was still a discrepancy of XXXX payments. I called XXXX separate times in XX/XX/XXXX to find out which payments they were n't giving me credit for. Both times, I was told that there had been a mistake : they had records that showed I was employed during repayment, but it was n't showing up that I 'd gotten credit for several payments of {$0.00}. I told them I had the payment booklets and all the letters stating they had verified my employment and I 'd be happy to send them copies. I was told that was n't necessary and that they 'd file a request to review my case. I uploaded my files to their website anyway. Nothing ever happened. In early XX/XX/XXXX, I tried a different approach, writing them a letter about the discrepancies and enclosing copies of my employment verification letters ( that they had sent me ) and copies of my payment booklets and payment confirmations for all the months they said I had n't received payment credits. I heard nothing, but I did receive a XXXX application in the mail ( which I did not request and do not want to complete because I know it will only take off {$17000.00} of my {$48000.00} balance and reset my credited payments to XXXX ). In XX/XX/XXXX, after I had made my full monthly payment, I received a letter stating that while my loan was in forbearance, interest would still accrue on my account. I had no idea my loan was in forbearance and I had n't asked for it to be. I called FedLoan Servicing and was first told that it was in forbearance because I had requested the XXXX loan forgiveness application and they were waiting for me to return it. I told them I did not request it and did not want to do it. I was then put on hold for about XXXX minutes ; I was then told that my account was in " administrative forbearance '' so that it would n't go delinquent while they were " sorting out my issue '' ( referring to the letter I 'd written ). I was told I could request that the forbearance be removed and that I should pay my full monthly payment for XX/XX/XXXX and would still receive credit for it under XXXX. I received a letter the next week saying my forbearance had been lifted. I still have n't heard anything about resolving the number of qualifying payments I 've made. To date, I 've had XXXX separate customer service reps tell me they 'd " fill out a request '' to review my case. It 's been XXXX months since I called the first time and XXXX months since I sent them the letter. All they 've done is put my loan into unnecessary forbearance for XXXX months without my knowledge or permission and mess up my monthly payments ( now it says I owe about a third of my usual payment because I 've technically overpaid by paying the actual payment amount during the forbearance ... but there 's a lovely little clause at the bottom that says I must pay my full amount - which is n't listed anywhere - to receive credit for a qualifying payment under PSLF ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation