Consumer complaint received 2024-03-25
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA (IL)

MOHELA - I am enrolled in PSLF and IDR with repayments beginning XX/XX/XXXX. Despite having created my account and enrolling in auto debit in XX/XX/XXXX they messed that up and I had to manually pay on XX/XX/XXXX which I did in the full amount owed, XXXX. Auto-debit began from my bank account to MOHELA XX/XX/XXXX and continued to pay on the exact XXXX date of every month : XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email and letter from MOHELA stating that I missed my XX/XX/XXXX payment. My bank statement said I paid and the account online stated I paid but claims the payment posted on XX/XX/XXXX. When I called MOHELA on XX/XX/XXXX I spoke to XXXX who apologized for the errors and stated that my account had posted payment on XX/XX/XXXX. I also received an email letter from MOHELA stating that they received my payment on XX/XX/XXXX. I have never once missed a payment on IDR and PSLF since enrolling XX/XX/XXXX through all now 4 different servicers. ONLY MOHELA is problematic. In addition to claiming I did not pay, they added a late fee of {$67.00}. I was informed by XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX that this would be rectified and removed by end of business on XXXX. It was not. In fact, on XX/XX/XXXX my online account showed that I owed {$1200.00}. I called to inquire and s/w XXXX who was very incompetent and gaslit me telling me i never paid in XXXX and I owed {$1200.00} as my regular payment. I am in IDR and auto debit for XXXX. She then confirmed I was correct and repeatedly put me on hold to talk to her supervisors and team lead but was adamant to me that I was not allowed to s/w them as they arent allowed to come on the phone. Then it was confirmed to me that I did make my XXXX payment on the XX/XX/XXXX date in full and it was auto debit. Then I was told I still owed the {$1200.00}. Then I was told that the reason my payment was so high was because I paid too much at once. I was confused by this. She then told and and I saw on my online account that all my monthly payments from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX were paid on XX/XX/XXXX. This is fraud. I have bank statements to prove this and on XX/XX/XXXX my account did not show that but showed the actual dates I paid. I sadly do not have a screenshot of that but should have taken one I knew it. They refuse to fix my account. Calling them is always 1-3 hours on hold and then another hour on the phone to not resolve anything. I was told a supervisor would call back the next day. AT XXXX I received a call from an automated machine telling me that I missed a call. How?! I answered it. So they had XXXX intent to follow up and the automated machine told me i missed the call I answered and then also I had to call back the main XXXX number which is another 3 hours on hold to not even speak to someone who can help me. We go round and round for weeks with the same nonsense and nothing gets resolved. Additionally, my IDR plan was scheduled to change for payments on XX/XX/XXXX coming up - I had applied when mine was due- the reapplication in XX/XX/XXXX. MOHELA did not touch it yet my other loan company did in XXXX. I was told this would be expedited. As of XX/XX/XXXX I was informed my IDR was denied and also cancelled. My account shows both and no reasoning as to why this happened. No one could answer this for me when I called and wasted another 3 hours of my life on hold. Federal student aid states all IDR was put on hold b/c MOHELA needed to catch up. Well my account in one section states my IDR is still XXXX and not scheduled to renew until XX/XX/XXXX. However, my account now also says I was denied XXXX and that my XX/XX/XXXX payment is XXXX and ALSO that i owe {$1200.00}. I do not owe this. I can not pay this. I have never missed payments for XXXX. This is absurd and no one at MOHELA will fix this or take care of it at all. I have to work and can't call daily. Every time you call it's extreme absurd hold times and everyone gives a different answer ; it's bordering weaponized incompetence. I can't have this amount of money taken every month, that is a whole paycheck and then I can't pay rent or eat. They refuse to work with me and my income and family size has not changed since pre-covid so how they are denying and also fraudulently messing my account up is beyond me! They seem to clearly be trying to reap as much repayment as possible since i'm almost done with PSLF and trying to boot me out of it on purpose so that I am trapped. This is completely absurd. I also went to a predatory lending school and am already in a nightmare on top of this nightmare. ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS OF EVIDENCE I WOULD LIKE TO UPLOAD HAVE PRIVATE INFORMATION ABOUT MY ACCOUNT OR MY BANK ACCOUNT SO I CAN NOT UPLOAD THEM BUT AM HAPPY TO SHARE WHEN SOMEONE TAKES MY CASE.