Consumer complaint received 2018-10-31
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: GREAT LAKES (NH)

My loans went into repayment in XX/XX/XXXX. I applied and was approved for an income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plan in XXXX and made regular payments on that plan. I was informed mid-summer XXXX that I would need to re-certify for IDR. I was given a deadline of XX/XX/XXXX to complete the re-certification. I completed the application to re-certify my IDR plan on XX/XX/XXXX. I received a message from my loan servicer in my online message center on the loan servicer 's website on XX/XX/XXXX. It said " You're Approved for an Income-Driven Repayment Plan. '' It also said that I would " receive your payment schedule detailing your repayment terms, scheduled monthly payment amounts, and due dates 45 days before your first payment is due. '' Today, XX/XX/XXXX I logged in to my loan servicer account portal and one of my loans had a payment amount of over {$1000.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. All other payment due amounts had been for {$60.00}. That loan is on autopay and if the full amount was taken out of my bank account it would overdraw my account. I immediately called Great Lakes - my loan servicer and asked them to explain why, despite the approval for continued IDR, I had a payment due of over {$1000.00}. The representative responded that my IDR application had not been processed until XXXX and had only been approved on XX/XX/XXXX. She then told me that because the application was processed after the XXXX deadline that the payment had increased but should eventually go back down. I was then chastised as she explained " this is why we tell people to be sure they fill out their re-certifications on time. '' She said in her system she could see that I had filled out the application on XX/XX/XXXX but could not explain to me why the application was not approved until XX/XX/XXXX. She also did not have a copy of the message that I received and could not explain why I had received a message which apparently misrepresented that I was approved as of XX/XX/XXXX. She also could not tell me when I would get a new pay schedule. 

I then asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor explained that my new IDR application could not be processed until twelve months had elapsed from when I started making payments. She said this was why my re-certification application had not been processed until XX/XX/XXXX. She then said that payment schedules " generate over the weekend '' and that my payment schedules could not generate until after the 12 months had elapsed, the application was approved, and then the schedule generated on the weekend which could happen this coming weekend, XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX or even next weekend XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX. This is obviously not 45 days before my " first payment '' on the " new '' IDR is due, XX/XX/XXXX. She apologized that she could not provide any payment amount information at this time and could not account for why I was told that payment schedules would be provided 45 days before the payment was due. At this time all I know is that I am approved for an IDR Plan but I have payments due on XX/XX/XXXX and I do not know how much I owe on that date.