Consumer complaint received 2024-01-08
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (MI)

I have been wanting to start auto-paying my student loans since XX/XX/XXXX and my student loan provider, Nelnet, is not allowing it while they capitalize interest on my account. 

It is my firm belief that Nelnet is being purposely unethical and predatory on my student loan account, racking up accumulated interest that they claim will not be applicable for forgiveness on the SAVE Plan, even though the DoE has stated otherwise, due to a forced administrative forbearance that I did not know or consent to. I have done everything on my end that I can to do to get this administrative forbearance off my account, yet they keep applying it. My payment due date has now been pushed to spring of XXXX and my XXXX application is still in process. 

History of Correspondence : On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my application for the XXXX XXXX XXXX. I received confirmation of this email by the U.S. Department of Education. When I submitted the application, I selected the prompt that I wished to start paying back my student loans IMMEDIATELY. I did NOT select forbearance. I also selected the option for recertification through the IRS tool. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I reached out to Nelnet Customer Service for clarification as to what was happening with my account. After an over 2 hour wait, I spoke to a female agent who told me my account was placed into administrative forbearance, because of the volume of applications Nelnet was receiving, and that this administrative forbearance was a " courtesy '' to allow them extra time to process everything ; A courtesy, that can not be removed and was applied to my account without my knowledge or consent, as again, I selected that I wanted to start repaying immediately in my application when I first submitted it. She told me I could start repaying as soon as I want, but manually, and so the auto-debit discount would not apply. Furthermore, she told me that I would be responsible for ALL interest accured on my account due to this administrative forbearance. She confirmed my application was still in process and that I should receive additional communications stating my loan applications have been approved no later than XX/XX/XXXX. She also told me that applications take an average of XXXX business days to process and that my first payment is due in XXXX, XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I reached out to Nelnet Customer Service for clarification, again, as to what was happening with my account. I spoke briefly to a female agent by the name of XXXX who was at a loss on how to assist me. I asked to be transferred to her supervisor. Her supervisor, XXXX, told me that proof of income was needed for both mine and my wife 's IDR application. When my wife questioned it, XXXX replied that this is standard procedure from studentaid.gov based on " new legislation '' that was passed by Congress. But, we can bypass providing all this " tax information '' if I provide proof of income in the form of a self-wrote declaration letter. My wife inquired if this was standard procedure for student loan borrowers looking to switch to an IDR plan for the first time, then why wasn't it disclosed during the application process so I could've provided this information in advance to speed along my application without hiccups. XXXX replied, " it's in the fine print. '' My wife and I expressed concern and frustration at lack of transparency. XXXX said that after about 15 days of uploading this letter to my account that I should receive additional communications on the status of my application, and that if my application is not processed by XX/XX/XXXX when my first payment is due, that the administrative forbearance will be extended on my account. He echoed what the first customer service agent said, and stated that I am responsible for paying any interest due on my account even with administrative forbearance preventing my auto-debit from occuring, and the only way around this is to make manual payments. 

I have not received any update or communications on the processing of my XXXX application since.