Consumer complaint received 2023-10-26
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc. (MI)

At the end of XX/XX/XXXX ( approximately XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX ), I completed the application through studentaid.gov to switch my student loans from their previous payment plan to the new XXXX plan, as I was very interested in the proposed reduction in percentage of discretionary income upon which payments are based from 10 % to 5 % in XXXX or XXXX of XXXX ( can't remember which, not important ). My understanding is that the payment I was expecting to pay ( resuming in XX/XX/XXXX, approximately $ XXXX ) would be reduced next year to reflect the reduction mentioned above. I'm fine with those numbers and was expecting to pay that amount monthly. The payments stretch my family 's resources, but it's manageable. After completing the application, I received emails indicating the process was happening as expected. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from XXXX of my servicers, XXXX ( I have XXXX, XXXX and AidVantage ), saying my application was received. " Great, '' I thought. The process is going smoothly. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from AidVantage saying that my monthly statement is ready. The information in that email also appeared correct, including the payment date and the amount I had expected to pay. Again, I thought, " excellent. This is working correctly. '' That's when things started to become strange. On Saturday XX/XX/XXXX ( no one working at the company and no way to talk to a person until Monday ), I received XXXX ( XXXX ) separate emails from AidVantage with the subject " Change in Loan Terms. '' Upon closer inspection and significant time spent trying to cross reference information from my account on the AidVantage website, I learned that my payment schedule was set to increase from the expected {$680.00} per month to well over {$2000.00} per month after only 3 months. There is absolutely no way I can afford that! I was led to believe that the XXXX plan would be a fairly fixed payment amount until the next income recertification date. In my research, I also learned that my loans were placed in a forebearance ( with interest being applied ) and that my first payment would not be due until XX/XX/XXXX! This was unacceptable, as I had already received information from the loan servicer to the contrary! I had not requested a forebearance. I had not requested a different payment amount! This was ( is ) very confusing and upsetting. The following week, I called AidVantage, waited on hold for XXXX hour and XXXX minutes. The representative I spoke with was incompetent. They incorrectly described key terminology ; I had to correct their understanding of basic terms, including deferment and forebearance. When I requested clarification regarding the change in loan terms, neither they nor their supervisor ( which they placed me on another long hold in order to consult ) were helpful. They basically said, " that's the way it is, and you can re-submit income information at the time the payments increase after 3 months. '' That is not how I understood this XXXX plan process to work! I already did that when I submitted the application in XXXX! When I last looked on my AidVantage account online, the area in which it shows my next payment was essentially blank, indicating I have no payment due, as if something is processing. That, at least, is mildly reassuring, as it indicates processes XXXX be happening in the background. However, I have still not received any information from AidVantage about whether the previous change in loan terms is correct, or that I should be expecting some new, yet to be determined/released information about my payment schedule. Please help!