Consumer complaint received 2024-08-30
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (CA)

As you may know there was a significant change in the Direct Student Loans this year. My union XXXX  ( I am local XXXX XXXX ) during a student loan workshop in XX/XX/XXXX stated we needed to do a loan consolidation if we had any loans prior to XXXX. I had loans prior to that and asked if I am still in school ( XXXX XXXX with XXXX XXXX  ) should I apply. They said yes, I should apply for everything - Consolidation, PSLF, and the SAVE Program even with me still being in school. I did. That is where the issue begins. 

First they only took a portion of my loans the oldest ones and consolidated them into one loan and the rest said I couldn't since I was " In School ''. That is is the first issue, why did they only take the older ones ( about XXXX prior to XXXX ) and not the latest ( about XXXX that are post XXXX )??? NOTE : the consolidated ones went to MOHELA and the rest stayed with XXXX. 

Before they took the consolidated loans right away they said I didn't qualify for the SAVE repayment plan and gave me some other one. Which from last year 's income my income has dropped from {$50000.00} annual to this year will be around {$35000.00}. My XXXX  union rep said I should have qualified for the SAVE. 

I need to mention that the PSLF application is still in Review at this point but my current ( which is my former employer ) XXXX  did not provide the verification of my employment dates ( past or current ). 

Next, Around XXXX or XXXX I start to get notices that I am in Repayment and the payment is around {$190.00} a month from MOHELA. I thought it must be a mistake and let my XXXX  rep know the update. XXXX  was already looking into contacting an Ombudsman on my situation since not all my loans got consolidated ( some said I was in school and the rest didn't say that information - which are the ones that got consolidated and being now in repayment mode while I am In School ). I let it go at first. 

Now it is XX/XX/XXXX, I get another repayment notice from MOHELA but this time is says I am months behind and a current due ASAP. I notify XXXX  Union rep yet again and they said I needed to contact this site and the studentaid.gov sites to submit a complaint since I was " XXXX XXXX  '' until this month. My last day of my XXXX XXXX XXXX  with XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, Ca ) online program ( full time enrollment the last XXXX years ) on XX/XX/XXXX with my degree being " Conferred '' by XX/XX/XXXX. 

I have also contacted MOHELA to find out why I am in repayment since I just completed my full time school graduate online program this month and shouldn't I be in my 6 month grace period until XX/XX/XXXX? Long story short, MOHELA representative stated that XXXX XXXX  didn't update my " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on the " National Student Loan Data Base ''. 

They stated I needed to contact XXXX XXXX  to get this updated ASAP. They would not be able to do anything else until that is updates. 

After speaking to them for a little longer repeating my story and how I should not have been in Repayment yet and that I shouldn't have to be paying as much as well. Finally they did 2 Forbearance Applications - 1 is for the past due amount and the 2nd will be until XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  to hold off the payments until they get the verification from the National Student Loan database. 

At this time, I also asked that these are not my only loans and why did I get denied the SAVE Program. They then asked me a series of questions to which they said I should go back to the the " StudentAid '' website to reapply for the SAVE payment plan and by their estimates my payments should about {$16.00} a month not almost {$200.00} a month. 

This is where I am currently, I really am stressing on all of this and dont think this was handled appropriately. All the extra time I have done to try to get his cleared up is ridiculous and shouldn't be happening. Still going through all of this and not sure what the outcome will be. Please help ....