Consumer complaint received 2015-04-09
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan — Can't temporarily postpone payments
Company: AES/PHEAA (PA)

I am still in my training to become an XXXX. I have completed 5 years of XXXX and am currently in my last year of specialized XXXX training. I took a significant pay cut to complete this last year of training at another institution and have had significant difficulty in repaying my loans with American Education Services. What makes things even worse is that every time I call and speak with the company, I get a completely different story about how to attempt to receive forbearance. The most glaring issue happened on XXXX/XXXX/15. I was called by a loan collector because I have not been able to make payments. I have XXXX loans with American Education Services ( AES ). I was told I could put XXXX ( Loan Sequence XXXX ) into a modified repayment plan of {$50.00} dollars. Also, I was told at that time that I would also be able to put my other XXXX loans ( Loan Sequence XXXX and XXXX ) into forbearance, but would have to make a payment of XXXX to bring Loan Sequence XXXX out of enough delinquency to allow forbearance. I made a total payment that day of {$130.00}. About a week later I received a letter with the forbearance form which I filled out and mailed back. However, on XXXX I received a letter stating I was in debt collection for Loan Sequence XXXX. I called AES again on that day to find out why this happened. As it turns out, the customer service representative did not mail me the correct XXXX form. Despite them admitting to their mistake, they said there was nothing they could do at this point for me. I was told I would now have to make another payment of {$86.00} for Loan Sequence XXXX since it was too far past delinquency to apply forbearance to it. I made this payment and was emailed the correct form. I filled this form out and kept checking my online account. On XXXX/XXXX/15, I made a payment online through Loan Sequence XXXX of {$50.00}. On XXXX/XXXX/15, I called again because my Loan Sequence XXXX was still listed as delinquent online and I also noticed that Loan Sequence XXXX was listed as delinquent. When I called them, I received no help at all. Although, I did make a payment on XXXX/XXXX/15 to Loan Sequence XXXX, for some reason the payment was applied to a different loan ( Loan Sequence XXXX ). I was then told that my temporary hardship request for Loan Sequence XXXX was denied because I had been delinquent XXXX times in 12 months. However, the last time I was delinquent was because of this error by AES on XXXX. If I was given the correct form as told I would on XXXX I would have been able to put my loan into temporary hardship and not have had this problem. Now I am told that I am essentially stuck and either have to make payments ( with money I do n't have ) or face debt collection. I have tried to call and reason with this company and I get no help. I am working XXXX hours a week and am supporting a wife and infant on essentially $ 40k. This company does not help out people that are struggling. All they use is fear and intimidation. The people that are hired by this company are completely incompetent, and I get a different story each time I call them. People should be made aware about how incompetent and dangerous this company is.