Consumer complaint received 2017-02-01
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (CA)

On XX/XX/2017 I submitted my re-certification application for an income driven plan through StudentLoans.gov as instructed by XXXX who originally holds my loans. XXXX reminded that I must submit my application before XX/XX/XXXX to remain on an Income Driven Plan. Soon after I submitted my electronic application through StudentLoans.gov I received an email confirmation from them indicating that they have received my application for an Income Driven Repayment Plan but I was also instructed to mail in additional verifying information through regular mail to my servicers, FedLoan Servicing and XXXX, which I did. 
XXXX sent me an email confirmation that they received my e-application on XX/XX/XXXX and FedLoanServicing sent their confirmation of my application ( not clear if the paper or electronic form ) on XX/XX/XXXX. 
Now, my concern and confusion is that both XXXX and FedLoanServicing gave me two dates 1 month apart to resubmit my application. XXXX made it very clear on their email reminders while FedLoanServicing did not, and because my loans in essence are originally through XXXX, I depended on XXXX due date. Because I missed FedLoanServicing 's due date, I was charged {$380.00} today, XX/XX/XXXX with just a 24 hour " notice ''. FedLoanServing did not send me a clear email indicating that they will be charging this amount today. The only reason why I found out there would be a charge was because they emailed me on XX/XX/XXXX with a subject line of " Change to your repayment plan to benefit from PSLF ''. It was then when I logged into my FedLoan Servicing account and saw I will be automatically debited {$380.00}. I quickly called FedLoanServicing and asked if there are any options because due to the short notice given to me I would not be able to secure funds unless I borrow money. The first rep I talked to told to me about the following options : 1. Pay a {$5.00} forbearance amount which FedLoan is waiting on in order to avoid the above full balance. This {$5.00} payment was not an option on my online account and just took me to a dead end. I could not change my debit information either because of the short notice ( to them ) -ironic! 
2. Call my bank and ask them to place a stop payment for this bill : I called XXXX and they told me there is a {$30.00} fee for this service and they also needed the exact name of the way the charge would come through. This was not an option because the rep I talked to was n't sure how the charge would come through in the billing. 
After I exhausted these options, I called FedLoanServicing again in hopes that they can offer me other options because the {$380.00} was just too sudden and too high of a payment considering that I just moved into a new apartment so I exhausted my savings for the moving expenses and I am not getting paid until XX/XX/XXXX. I was able to talk to another rep that was a bit more helpful. She offered to submit a forbearance request immediately which would halt the $ XXXX+ payment and then I would just have to be in the lookout for the {$5.00} forbearance payment in the weeks to come. She stated that the Income Driven Repayment Plan would take effect until May. I was able to gather the funds to make sure my account did not overdraft in the event that the charge came through but borrowing the money was not easy. I was hoping that the forbearance the second rep pushed through would be in effect but of course, the payment was charged. Now, I am left financially vulnerable and frustrated because I am left with almost nothing in my emergency savings. This could 've been avoided if the communication between StudentLoans.gov, FedLoanServicing and XXXX was much stronger and synced. I was given different dates from these servicers and at the end I, the consumer, was left financially vulnerable because of their lack of clarity.