Consumer complaint received 2023-12-08
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (MD)

Hello, My federal loans were with Nelnet. But, once I enrolled into the XXXX program, they were transferred to XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.. except for the accrued interest of over {$7200.00} ( the amount that went to XXXX was around {$2700.00} ). That {$7200.00} just mysteriously disappeared. Nelnet said I had a XXXX balance online for a year. I tried several times to contact Nelnet to get an explanation, but they provided none. When I contacted XXXX, they did respond and said the amount I owed them ( the {$2700.00} ) was all I owed. I paid off the small amount I owed to XXXX in XXXX of XXXX. If the {$7200.00} from Nelnet would have transferred to XXXX ( which I expect it should have done ), I wouldn't have paid off XXXX. I had credit already for 51 payments, plus 10 that just needed verification, out of the 150 required to have the rest forgiven under the PSLF program. After I paid XXXX off, I still contacted XXXX to confirm, and they responded with saying my account was paid in full. Every month, for a year, I would check the Nelnet account to see if it magically showed back up. From XXXX of XXXX until XXXX of XXXX, Nelnet showed a XXXX balance. Then, that XXXX ( XXXX ), it suddenly showed a balance- which I was never notified of by Nelnet. When I tried to make a payment, it wouldn't allow me! Not in XXXX, not in XXXX, and not in XXXX. Much less, for the whole year prior. Then, in XX/XX/XXXX, they were demanding a payment of around {$900.00}! And, now the monthly minimum is $ XXXX! I used to pay them much less per month when I owed a lot more. I can not afford that amount, and don't qualify for the SAVE program, or any of the other ones. I can't put it with the PSLF because Nelnet is not a servicer for that program. I contacted Nelnet again, and their response was useless. They had no answer as to why any of this occurred ( just as before ). What Nelnet has done ( and caused as a result ) seems like it can not be legal. They withheld all of this from me for over a year. They wouldn't let me make payments until XX/XX/XXXX, and they are asking for a minimum monthly payment I can not afford right now. After a year of checking that account and it always showing XXXX balance, one would assume it was never going to show up. I did my due diligence to try and get it resolved when it first happened. I don't know why they didn't transfer it all to XXXX - I would like to know that answer. And, I need the minimum payment to be way less - like $ XXXX. Different financial decisions would have been made if I knew this was going to happen. Nelnet denied me the opportunity to pay on it, include it in the PSLF program, or even take it into consideration in my financial planning. I have a daughter who has serious medical problems and needs major surgeries, I have a lot of bills ( like most of us ), and I can't pay what they're asking. As a side note, this isn't the first major issue I've had with Nelnet. For a very long period of time, it wouldn't show the actual balance on my loans. It hid the interest accrued. I contacted them multiple times about this, demanding that they correct that issue. I said then that it was unfair to not show the entire balance owed because it could cause one 's credit to get damaged if they didn't know they still owed anything. Additionally, they did not send statements out every month. That was spotty. This entire thing just feels unfair and illegal.