Consumer complaint received 2016-07-13
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (CA)

I had to have a congressional investigation regarding my student loans several years ago. The primary concern was poor communication regarding payment amounts and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program ( PSLF ). I made payments for nearly a year that were not a " Qualifying Payment '', even though that was the whole reason for transferring the loans to Direct Loans in the first place ( and I said so no less that 20 times with the various customer service representatives I spoke with ). Ultimately, I let that go and was given a new payment amount but never given credit for that year of payments. So now I 'm dealing with frustration regarding changing my payment program. The PSLF requires 120 payments, I am about 30 payments in, and I want to change to the new REPAYE plan. I have submitted my application 3 different times and each time it was rejected for ridiculous reasons. The final time it was accepted and I was told I had to do 1 month mandatory forbearance ... ... that means one more month delay in my being able to apply for forgiveness. Although I was frustrated I agreed. ( What choice did I have? ) As of yesterday I had n't heard what amount was due XX/XX/XXXX ( 18 days away ) so I called. The rep said that my application had a box checked that should not have been checked and the application should have been rejected and I would have to resubmit the application again. The error was clear to her. She explained a box was checked stating that I had income in 2015, and one was checked that I did not have income, but my tax return was attached so I clearly had income. I asked if the box could just be unchecked on her end and she said no, that I would have to resubmit and then do yet another month of forbearance. This is so frustrating because a representative had walked me through the form and told me what to check in the first place. I have been out of college for 16 years. I am a teacher and have {$120000.00} of debt, which keeps growing, and I need to be able to make payments every month so I can finally get out from under this mountain ... ..I 'm still 7 years away. I do n't understand why they make it so complicated. I first submitted my renewal paperwork XX/XX/XXXX and here it is XX/XX/XXXX and I still do n't have a resolution or a new payment amount due to small technicalities. Clearly if I submitted the tax return they should defer to the box that was checked stating I had income. I plan to resubmit AGAIN on Thursday when I have access to the technology required to send them the documents ( I do n't have a scanner at home to send the revised document to myself so I have to drive 40 minutes to my office to use that scanner so I can upload the paperwork to them ). That is now the only option outside of snail mail. They no longer accept faxes ( but of course I was never notified of that ) so my initial submission XX/XX/XXXX was never received by anyone ... ..even though that is how I submitted the 3 previous years. 
It sure would save time and a whole lot of hassle and delay in payments if the representative could have simply corrected the error on their end with my approval. There are barriers everywhere when dealing with trying to make payments ... ..that 's how the interest grows ... ... I only owed {$6000.00} when I finished with a Masters ... ... .now I owe {$120000.00}, and they continue to make it difficult : (