Consumer complaint received 2024-04-06
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: MOHELA (RI)

I have had Federal Student Loans for both my XXXX and XXXX education. I began paying monthly payments on my 1st loan in XXXX and briefly paused payments for XXXX  XXXX  which I finished in XXXX. From XXXX to XXXX, I was adjunct and part-time XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX. I began XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and have been employedin full time positions since then and for the last 10 years been an XXXX XXXX at the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have been XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and making payments for 13 years, and from my estimate made 151 qualifying student loan payments. 

XX/XX/XXXX I applied for PSLF through the FSA website. Quickly both my employers were confirmed. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from the Department of Education saying both my employers are eligible under the PSLF plan. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from Mohela stating I had applied for PSLF but You are not eligible yet, as you have not yet made the required 120 qualifying payments necessary to be eligible for PSLF. I logged into the site and a PSLF tracker stated I had 41 payments towards PSLF and 143 toward TEPSLF. This information seemed incorrect as I have worked for qualifying employers and made payments for almost 13 years, and when I looked into the details of what Mohela noted as a qualifying payment, it was completely unclear. I have been making payments on the Extended Repayment plan for years. How only 41 of those did qualify and others didnt was not at all clear. Luckily though, in contrast to the email, the 143 TEPSLF payments wold qualify for forgivness. 

XX/XX/XXXX Mohela began transitioning my account to their new website and I could no longer access my account with an expected time frame of about 2 weeks. This email from Mohela clearly states, This change will not affect your loan 's existing terms, conditions, interest rates, available repayment plans, or progress toward loan forgiveness, if eligible. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called Mohela to ask about my PSLF progress and if I needed to make any changes towards forgiveness. The rep told me they could not access any of my information but did explain it sounds like I qualify and I should also get a refund for overpayments. The agent stated that the TEPSLF would transfer over and count toward forgiveness and I didnt need to do anything. I was told to wait and see. That call took about an hour and a half. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received an email that my account was ready on the new site. When I logged in and set up my account. I no longer had any information about PSLF, no PSLF tracker, no history of payments, and no history of interest paid. Parts of the website were not functional. My account was as if they simply moved my remaining loan amount and started all payments back to zero. 

XX/XX/XXXX I noticed the Federal Student Aid website also had incorrect information. I reached out to them via the website and explained the issues with both websites and the lack of information. Their advice was to call Mohela. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called the direct Mohela PSLF number. I talked to 3 different agents who were all in training. 2 of them said they could only see the same information I could see. One agent said I had more info than them. The 4th agent, also a trainee could access my info. Initially, they were argumentative and said Its not like I have a wrench and can crawl under the desk to fix the website '. I tried to then get info on my PSLF count. The agent said they did not know what a PSLF count was. I then explained that I needed to know how many payments were counted towards forgiveness. Finally, they did provide info based on terms, and said it looked like one loan was eligible for forgiveness and had overpayments and the other was 3 payments away. They said one loan had 185 terms and 115 terms for the other. I asked why there was a difference in terms since I had always paid toward both loans and technically they should be the same count. She could not answer that.

She asked someone for help and they responded that she should tell me, I could see all my info on the old website. I explained that I could not even log in to the old website. I continued to ask for help, or if she could forward me to someone to help, and she explained that when agents forward you up the chain, it isnt the case and they have no idea where calls go and most often it is the luck of the draw as to whether you can get a supervisor or someone who can help. She directly stated, I was not going to get any answers. After repeated holds and deflections she finally said I needed to call back next week at XXXX XXXX  and leave a message and that was my best option. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from Mohela stating my repayment schedule changed. I noticed my monthly payment went from {$270.00} per month to XXXX. There was no indication of why, what that payment was going for, and how it affected my PSLF. 

XX/XX/XXXX I logged into the Mohela website and the site now was a jumbled amount of information without any structure. It seemed as if the XXXX XXXX for the site was missing and while it had the same content many of the links and menus were broken. I tried several browsers and all of them displayed the broken website. 

I had also been reaching out to Federal Student Aid and I received an email response from them simply stating I needed to contact Mohela. 

XX/XX/XXXX I again reached out to Federal Student Aid for help via their chat. I was still concerned that the FSA info on my loan displayed no detailed information or history and Repayment Status reflected only 1 payment even though I have paid over half of both loans. The FSA agent suggested contacting Mohela. I asked who determines my Repayment History as it is incorrect on both sites. The agent said Mohela controls that. I also explained that Mohela refused to give me information, does not respond to email requests and phone calls require hours long time with no results. The agent suggested I submit a feedback case. They then referred me back to studentaid.gov if I needed more information- which completely ignored the point of the chat. The info on studentaid.gov is also incorrect. 

XX/XX/XXXX Called in again to Mohela, and the Advanced Customer Service Representative confirmed I qualified for forgiveness and had made more than the 120 payments. They clarified that it for the TEPSLF it was only important that I have an eligible employer ( which should also amount to about 151 payments ). They said the process for forgiveness had already started and was in the hands of the FSA to review qualifying payments. They also claimed that the FSA would determine how many payments would be applied toward a refund or overpayment. They said that the process should take a month, yet when I explained that the process began in early XXXX, they seemed concerned it had not progressed at all. 
The CSR then explained that when they created the new website it was not compatible with the PSLF information and they just learned about this in a meeting that morning. They said the plan was to move any borrowers who were applying toward PSLF back to the old website and it should only take about 15 days for this to take place. The agent also recommended I apply for forbearance so I didnt have to worry about overpaying on a loan that should be forgiven. I applied for a 6 month forbearance that evening and was approved. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received a response to one of the many inquiries I had made through the Federal Student Aid website. The email had the same generic response suggested I contact Mohela but did note, You are currently on the Extended Fixed payment plan that doesn't qualify for the PSLF forgiveness. You will need to change your payment plan to be eligible for PSLF, and to have your past payments counted. This should be done before XX/XX/XXXX. 
This was in direct contradiction to most all of the conversations I had with Mohela in the past several weeks and clearly was in response to that they did not have access to my loan history, so on the FSA side they only note 1 payment done in XXXX of this year towards my loans. 

XX/XX/XXXX As a result of the FSA email, I reached out again to Mohela. They again explained the issue with the website and that they expected it to be resolved in the 15 days since I last spoke to them. They said that we still had 2 more days and it would be resolved. In response the FSA email, Mohela said they did not see any recommendation for me to move to an Income-Driven Repayment Plan. The agent began talking about submitting a manual application but then directed me to apply for the IDR plan through the FSA website. I was concerned about applying for the IDR plan because I knew it would require a lot of recent financial information, some of which I didnt have access to. I was also concerned that it would draw out the process and cause more roadblocks to forgiveness. The agent assured me that that would not be the case and I should apply for the IDR while we waited for the website to be fixed. I again explained that the major issue here is Mohela has refused to give me detailed information about my account for close to 2 months which in doing has also slowed my forgiveness and caused a huge amount of XXXX. The agent forwarded me to a message asking for another representative to call me back. 

In the meantime, I again reached out to the Federal Student Aid help via Chat. Instantly the FSA agent suggested I apply for the IDR plan. I tried to explain to the agent the issue with Mohela and the website and how it affected my PSLF. She directed me to submit a complaint. The agent then said that Mohela was lying and that I needed to be on an eligible plan before my loans could be forgiven. The FSA agent then explained that the reason I had no information on my past loans and payments was that I was not on an eligible plan. Again they seemed to not be hearing that I already had 143 payments and more wanted me to change my payment plan so I would see any counts toward forgiveness. They then suggested submitting a complaint if Mohela wont provide my payment history. The agent also said if I had the payments I noted earlier, I would qualify for forgiveness. 

Later that evening another representative, XXXX from Mohela called me back. She again explained that the website can not service anyone applying for PSLF. I asked how that could have even happened and she did not offer any explanation instead continuing to restate that the old website or the old system had all my information and the new one did not. I was clear that as a borrower I had a right to access my account and account history and Mohela has denied me that right since XXXX. The agent then explained that there was no timeline to move my account to the old website and that they were really waiting to see if the company that made the new website could fix the problems and if they could not then they would transition any affected borrowers back to the old website and that process from the beginning would take 15 days. I should wait for an email that notes my account is transitioning back. I asked if there was any idea of the timeline I might expect to wait, weeks, months, or years? She explained she did not want to give me any dates for fear they might be incorrect. I explained that has been the case all along and just earlier today I was told this would be fixed in 2 days. I also was clear, that while most everyone I talk to has stated I qualify for forgiveness, I actually have no documentation and no payment history, I only have notes from phone calls and while the TEPSLF isnt likely to be a fund that runs out soon, it could and Mohela has a notorious history of delaying, stalling and providing misinformation to borrowers of which I have documented experience. One person states one thing, and another completely contradicts it, so whom should I trust? I asked for their advice on how I protect myself without any documentation? The agent stated that in XXXX when I received a denial letter that it should have noted my PSLF counts. I asked why then did I even get a denial letter than when she hereself has repeatedly confirmed I had more than the needed amount of payments. She stated the PSLF initial denial letter technically has to sent to borrowers due to a waiver. Again I noted that even with documentation, I had completely false information and how was I not to know that after months or years, Mohela couldnt refer back to that letter stating I was denied forgiveness as well as how it had prompted the FSA to also deny me PSLF based on missing information. The agent said she would mail a copy of that letter to me to note its PSLF counts and that it would arrive in about 6 days. I also asked that they email me my payment history, she attempted to avoid this several times, referring back to a script about the unknown timeline of fixing or changing the website. After some time the agent agreed to send me my payment history via US mail and that it would take up to 66 business days. I also asked if there was any documentation that could affirm what all had told me, which was that my loans were eligible for forgiveness, she stated that they could not do that until the loans were fully forgiven. I explained that plenty of people get letters or messages in their accounts noting that their loans were eligible for forgiveness. 

XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to FSA help via chat and asked about the status of my IDR application as well as the compaint I was gudied to submit. The agent confirmed my application was completed on XX/XX/XXXX but Mohela had not responded to the IDR application. I also asked for assitance with my account history to which the rep said they could see my payment histroy only back to XXXX and I should be able to see that on the FSA website. I followe dtheir directions and explained I could not. I asked if that rep could send me my payment history of which they said they could see, they suggested I download my data. Again i explained all my data and information on the FSA site was incomplete and erased my history. 
The agent did confirm that the issue I was experiencing was one many borrowers were experiencing 'across the board '. The agent abruptly shut down the chat at that point. 

XX/XX/XXXX FSA publicly announced they would transition all PSLF away from Mohela back to FSA. This will happen XX/XX/XXXX and in no way accounts for ongoing issues with Mohela, or forthcoming deadlines such as the XX/XX/XXXX deadline for IDR repayment. 

Mohela emailed that they will be again 'transitioning ' my account back to Mohela.com. This is to begin XX/XX/XXXX and take 14 days- which puts me right up again the transition back to FSA. If there are any issues with my account, I will have at most 2 days to attend to them via hours long phone calls and empty promises from Mohela. 

XX/XX/XXXX I sought out help from the FSA chat again. The agent referred me to Mohela to solve the delay in processing the IDR. I explained I had no luck with that. The agent also said my complaint needed 60 days for a response. I explained that if Mohela does not process my IDR by XX/XX/XXXX, I will lose out on 13 years of qualifying payments. I asked if there was anyone to escalate my case to and the response was none. They suggested I contact the Department of Education or an Ombudsman. There is no option to connect my complaint to an Ombudsman on the FSA site. I have to wait for a response to my complaint in 60 days to even have the option to escalate to an Ombudsman. I also explained that with the FSA transition it will completely hinder and offer no resolution to the many borrowers who are having issues with Mohela such as me. The agent responded the FSA has no means of expediting my case. I continued to explain I was not looking for an expediting but advanced support. The agent shut down the chat.