Consumer complaint received 2024-08-24
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc. ()

Hello! 

This is a follow up complaint regarding a complaint I filed with the Bureau earlier this summer. That complaint ID is XXXX. 

To recap, I filed to consolidate my loans and enter the XXXX plan in XXXX of this year. XXXX of my loans was not included in the consolidation. Because this loan was not consolidated, it is still in the grace period accruing interest. Following communications with Aidvantage, I submitted another application to consolidate the remaining loan and enter the XXXX plan. But, because applications to enter the XXXX plan are not being processed as a result of an ongoing court order, those loans are stuck in grace accruing interest indefinitely. 

Aidvantage responded to my earlier complaint saying that the reason that the loan was not included in the consolidation was because it was marked as " in school '' and was therefore ineligible for consolidation. This is a mistake. I finished school in XX/XX/year>. All of my other loans accordingly were switched from " in school '' to " out of school '' at that time. I have no idea why Aidvantage had my loans classified as " in school '' when I applied for consolidation. 

In Aidvantage 's response to my CFPB complaint, they say that they sent me a notice on XX/XX/year> informing me of this ineligibility. They attach a letter stating the same, but I never received this letter. I first received a letter that my request for consolidation had been received on XX/XX/year>. After that I received the following communications from them on the following dates : XX/XX/year> : " Quarterly Supplemental Notice for Connecticut Residents '' XX/XX/year> : " Quarterly Interest Statement '' XX/XX/year> : " Paid in Full Due to Consolidation '' XX/XX/year> : " Your consolidation was approved '' XX/XX/year> : " Payment Schedule Options '' On XX/XX/year>, I received a letter saying that XXXX of my loans was not placed on an XXXX due to ineligibility, which was when I first contacted Aidvantage and started this process. None of these letters state that the loan in question was ineligible for consolidation. 

I have attached a screenshot of my Aidvantage Inbox to show this sequence of communications. You will notice that there is no letter stating the ineligibility of the loan that was not consolidated. I have also attached all of the intervening communications. 

The result of this error on the part of my servicer is that I have accumulated more than a XXXX dollars of additional interest. And, because of the XXXX plan court order, it will continue to accrue interest indefinitely. As far as I know, I did nothing wrong. I completed my exit interview requirement with the ED. I submitted my application with correct information. As far as I can understand, the error must have been due to some miscommunication between the ED, Aidvantage, and my school. Though Aidvantage may have attempted to communicate this to me, I never received their letter. But even if they had communicated properly to me, the underlying issue is a mistake on their part concerning the classification of my loan. 

It feels very unfair for me to have to pay this large amount of money due to errors on my servicer 's part. And it creates bad incentives for the servicer to make clerical errors that result in higher debt burdens if they aren't held accountable for doing so.