Consumer complaint received 2019-06-07
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (TN)

For the past two years I have been trying to get my student loan re-certification completed correctly through Nelnet. It has been an epic failure, so much so that I had to use emergency Forbearance twice which of course increased my loan amounts which of course are already high. Since XX/XX/XXXX I began making auto debit repayments and the payment was based on my income and house hold and there were no problems. XXXX I was unemployed and had a baby and went back to paying towards end of XXXX. The trouble started after I got married and attempted to re certify. I always complete this process online using my tax returns and it goes through no problem. But Nelnet 's system malfunctioned for over 4 months during re-certification period, not allowing on line submission. I thought my application was completed when all of a sudden I received an email in XXXX which suggested a XXXX dollar deduction for loans. my payments were previously around XXXX. To go from XXXX to a XXXX was a stretch. I may have just gotten married but I did not have any extra income. I called I went back to nelnet resubmitted my app online. I did this for 3 months after trying to get the re-certify complete, it never went through, after multiple calls where each  customer service rep gave me a different reason I had to request forbearance I could not pay. Which capitalized interest again. I attempted re certify again for 3 months starting in XXXX. I was finally told my name change due to marriage is what kept throwing my app out the system so I had to do a manual application and mail it in. After the first submission, the team said i did not apply properly I should have asked for the lowest payment. So I completed the application again, asking for a recalculation selecting lowest payment. After 3 weeks I called to discuss the recalculated amount, and I did not receive a lower payment. The customer service rep told me this time its because I checked recalculation ( i did not check recalculated the previous rep populated the form and told me I needed to submit a recalculation ) and so the application processor <computer or person I don't know> ignored the fact that I checked box lowest payment. The third and last time I was called Customer service I was told to just move to IBR and it will be affordable, they CSR prepopulated the form I signed, and and returned it. Again 3 weeks later I was informed I do not qualify for income based program because my husband makes too much money, his income will always play a role in payment <even though he will give me nothing towards these payments>. I was then informed I only have 5 more months of forbearance left, and Now I can see default for these loans on the horizon. With XXXX children, childcare fees, one XXXX XXXX child, a car note and mortgage I can not afford XXXX monthly student loan bill. The only option I have is to extend payment period by re consolidating the loans into 1 average interest rate. and I may be able to afford a payment of XXXX monthly. Nelnet is a horrible provider, because of the continued misinformation there representatives gave. There online platform was so riddled with issues, that the last 2 years the system was not properly taking any applications in without kicking them back. IF I have to consolidate I am taking the chance to get away from nelnet all together.