Consumer complaint received 2017-10-11
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MT
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 have previously submitted this complaint, but never received any response. Please respond!
In late XX/XX/XXXXI submitted my required annual income verification for my IDR plan. In early XX/XX/XXXX I received the notice that my payment doubled from XXXX to XXXX/mo, yet my household income only increased by {$8000.00} gross. I called Fed Loan and the rep said it did n't look right and that she would resubmit for a second look. I called two weeks later, two weeks after than and told it just takes time. The third call I made in early XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX told me that it looked like they failed to take my husband 's loans into consideration when figuring the calculation. That this was totally the mistake of the processor and once resolved, I could request an Administrative Forbearance for the XX/XX/XXXXamount of XXXX.
On XX/XX/XXXX I called again and asked for a supervisor. The rep put me on hold then came back saying the manager agreed it should n't take this long and was processing himself. Next day, the new amount notice showed in my box as being ~ $ XXXX/mo, yet XX/XX/XXXX was still showing at the higher amount. I called the following week asking if they could change the amount to the correct amount. I was told they could not but the new amount would show for the payment due XX/XX/XXXX. I asked if they could override this so that my payment could count toward my Public Service Loan Forgiveness credit. They submitted -- however just a few days later I found myself being very frustrated and called back asking that the override be cancelled and instead that I would accept the Administrative Forbearance, originally offered and just take one month off of my payment for PSLF. That was submitted the end of XX/XX/XXXX.
I have called a few times in XX/XX/XXXX checking on the status of the forbearance. Normally such process has been quick. On XX/XX/XXXX I called and spoke with XXXX in PSLF Dept of Fed Loan. I was worried as my payment was due on XX/XX/XXXX and did n't want TWO months ' be missed under PSLF program. He agreed that this was a very long time to be waiting for an error that Fed Loan IDR processor made. He put me on hold for over 10 minutes, came back and told me that new amount would be showing up online and to pay it by the XXXX so it could be counted for PSLF.
Today is the XX/XX/XXXX I called again first thing this a.m. to ask about the same thing. XXXX, an Escalated Rep told me that the PSLF group put in a request for an override for XX/XX/XXXX and that has to go to the Dept of Ed and can take 60 days. I explained that I called two days later to ask for that to be cancelled. She said she could n't stop it now. I am 54 days late and will be reported to the credit bureau at 90 days. I am at risk of losing my XX/XX/XXXXpayment for counting toward PSLF program.
I am at the point where I feel like this is all a ploy to get me to collections for loans rather than helping me to process the Admin Forbearance for THEIR mistake so that I could get back on track. If they would have fixed their mistake in XX/XX/XXXX, my XX/XX/XXXX payment would have been made on time.
This coupled with one other issue is why I want you to look into Fed Loan practices. The other issue is that in the past I paid a little extra ( like .50 to {$1.00} more/mo to round to an even number ). The next month I went into my account and paid the amount due. Those months when I paid the amount showing due are not counting toward my 10 years of payments for PSLF program because they say I have to pay the agreed upon amount. I argued that I paid EXACTLY what their system said I owed yet they wo n't allow about 4 payments to count. This is not right. I even asked if the XXXX from prior month could count toward the next month 's payment as it was within 30 days of the due date and PSLF says the payment can be made anywhere from 30 days before to 15 days after.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief