Consumer complaint received 2018-08-03
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem — Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (IL)

In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my annual documentation to re-apply for income-based repayments. I had previously done so and been on a {$0.00} per month since payments began on the loans in XX/XX/XXXX. I  submitted my XX/XX/XXXX tax return via Nelnet 's online portal which redirected to the IRS 's website for confirmation. Once I completed these steps I was under the assumption that no further action was required. Since I had made around the yearly income as I had made the previous year, the monthly payment was to remain at {$0.00}. I did not hear anything from Nelnet after submitting my tax return. Around XXXX  or XX/XX/XXXX, I received a text message from Nelnet saying my loans were about default and immediate action was needed. There was an option in this text message for me to apply " yes '' to start forbearance. I immediately signed into the Nelet website and saw I was 6 months behind on payments. No income-based payment plan had been applied to my account and I had been responsible for the full monthly payments since XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately replied " yes '' to the text message from Nelnet and called Nelnet to find out what was going on. When I reached a representative, it was explained to me that they did not receive my documents to reapply for the income-based payment plan and thus I had been on a regular payment plan since XXXX of that year. When I asked why Nelnet had not contacted me prior to 6 months of late payments the representative was unable to say for sure. I would like to reiterate that I received no letters or phone calls from Nelnet about this matter until the text message that was sent after the accounts were 6 months in arrears. Since statements were set up to be received online, I never received a statement in the mail about this matter either. Had I known they did not receive my documentation, I would have gladly re-submitted so this matter would have been resolved in a timely fashion. While speaking with the representative, I immediately submitted my tax return again and after a couple days of processing, my payment was changed to {$0.00} per month, as I had already thought was the case. If NelNet had alerted me earlier that they did not receive my documentation, or alerted me after the first or second missed due date, this matter could have been resolved months earlier without the detrimental effect on my nerves, well being, and credit history. I have repeatedly tried to reason with Nelnet on this but they refuse to admit to any wrongdoing on their behalf. It has been years now of disputing this with them. There has not been a single issue or missed payment or missed deadlines on my account other than this incident, yet Nelnet refuses to concede any mistake. I can't say for sure how the mistake happened. It could have been a technical glitch when I uploaded my tax return, a human error that deleted it after it was uploaded, or any number of reasons. All I can say is that I did my part and uploaded the document in a timely fashion well before the deadline. I would have been happy to upload it again as many times as needed had I known there was an issue. It was not my fault Nelnet didn't properly process the request. As seen in my attached document, Nelnet continues to treat this issue as a regular missed payment event with a request for forbearance after the fact. They refuse to even consider the fact that my payments should have been {$0.00} all along or that I had no knowledge the accounts weren't on the payment plan. I just don't understand why I would never have received anything until 6 months too late and they are unable to explain this to me either.