Consumer complaint received 2024-03-12
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (OH)

XX/XX/XXXX : My student loans were transferred to Mohela due to my submission of a Public Service Loan Forgiveness form. I worked for a qualifying employer, XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Received notice from Mohela that I was not yet eligible for PSLF because I had not made 120 payments. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Received congratulations notice from Mohela that PSLF had been granted. I was required to log into the system to see what was awarded. Upon logging into the system, I found that my account was set to {$0.00} balance. There was also a new message with a letter attached, dated XX/XX/XXXX, stating I had satisfied my obligation for my account and no additional payments were required for the following loans : XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX {$21000.00} {$0.00} XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX {$25000.00} {$0.00} XX/XX/XXXX : I logged into the Federal Student Aid website and found that the balance had been updated to {$0.00}. This confirmed my loans were forgiven. I checked every so often just to be sure and every time I checked Mohela and Federal Student Aid websites, the balance said {$0.00}. 

XXXX : There was NO COMMUNICATION from Mohela. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Received messages from Mohela 's website/email stating I was required to start making payments again for my account. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I called Mohela and spoke with XXXX. I told her that my loans were forgiven in XX/XX/XXXX but that I was getting messages that I owed for my student loans. XXXX said there was an error and that my loans were mistakenly forgiven. I told her this could not be true and that I had notice from Mohela that all of my debt had been forgiven. Additionally, never once had Mohela sent me notice that my loans were discharged in error. She and her supervisor researched and after 25 minutes, told me that I was right and that my loans were forgiven and mistakenly put back into payment status. XXXX stated her supervisor was going to put my loans back in process to be discharged, which could take five days. 

XX/XX/XXXX : AFTER getting off the phone with XXXX, I received two notices from Mohela stating that my loans were improperly forgiven and that I had only made 13 qualifying payments for PSLF. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Called Mohela back because my loans were still showing due. XXXX came to the phone, gave me the " collecting a debt '' speech, informed me my account was three days late and asked me if I was calling to make a payment. I said no and advised XXXX of the situation. XXXX researched and advised that my loans had been improperly discharged due to e-filing around a certain date. I told her I had a letter from XX/XX/XXXX proving Mohela had forgiven my debt. She said it was wrongly forgiven, but not discovered until after and that I received notice. I had to explain to XXXX that the " notice '' she is referring to was only sent by Mohela after I called them about it. I asked for a supervisor and was never transferred to one. Mohela is now stating I owe a balance of over $ XXXX. 

This is not how to treat consumers. First of all, before loans are forgiven and letters generated a quality control/assurance check should be completed. It's the servicer 's responsibility to ensure they're sending proper and accurate notifications to their customers. Additionally, if indeed Mohela made an error and should not have discharged my loans, they should have recognized that a forgiveness letter was sent XX/XX/XXXX. That should be honored. 

Mohela has sent multiple notifications to me, all with conflicting information while they were investigating my PSLF application, not all which were listed here. However, once I received notice that my balance was forgiven and it showed {$0.00} on the websites, I felt safe. That is, until XXXX of this year when they reinstated my balance WITH NO NOTIFICATION. That is predatory, confusing, and deceptive.