Consumer complaint received 2024-04-14
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA (CA)

My loan servicer, Mohela, is not allowing me to make payments on my student loan. I set up auto pay in XX/XX/2024. The XX/XX/2024 payment did not get debited from my account. However, the XXXX XXXX  payment did get debited via auto pay in XX/XX/2024. Then the XX/XX/2024 payment did not get debited. I took note of the due date for XXXX ( the XXXX ) and when no payment was debited as of XX/XX/XXXX, I called Mohela to find out what was wrong and to confirm my bank information. My bank never received a debit request from Mohela for XXXX, XXXX or XX/XX/2024. Mohela said my payment was returned for insufficient funds in XXXX, XXXX or XXXX which is not correct as my bank has no record of Mohela attempting to debit my account. I confirmed my bank information with Mohela during the call XX/XX/XXXX. I asked if the XX/XX/2024 payment was auto debited from my bank account. The representative said yes and that she could not explain what was going on. I made a payment over the phone XX/XX/XXXX since the auto payment was never received from my bank. I asked if there was another way to pay and the representative said no, that only bank accounts could be used ; no debit or credit cards are accepted. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and my bank has not received anything from Mohela. I am now {$500.00} behind in payments due to Mohela refusing to process my payment, neither via auto debit or over the phone. My credit score has gone down XXXX points already due to Mohela being unable to accept my payment. I do not have time to deal with this issue and it is going to ruin me financially as I am working very hard to repair my credit score and ensure I am paying my bills on time. I am very frustrated as I will lose the interest reduction for auto payments, I now owe several XXXX in missed payments due to Mohela being unable to accept my payments. The representative was rude with me and basically said it is not their problem and had no resolution except for me to default on my student loans which has never happened in some 10 plus years. Please help me resolve this very stressful situation. I can barely get by financially and now I am in danger of default due to Mohela employing abusive practices meant to harm borrowers and make a profit off of making it nearly impossible to make monthly payments. I should not be forced to pay interest, late fees, default on my loans, or have my credit score destroyed because Mohela has chosen to make it extremely difficult to pay off my loans. Thank you for any help you can provide as it is already too late with my credit score going down fast, my loan is in danger of default and Mohela will not accept any payments from me. My education was already expensive enough, now Mohela wants me to default on my loans, make a profit and prevent me from ever getting out of debt. Mohela should not be allowed to servi e loans and I wish I had a choice in service providers. Mohela is not set up to service loans and their representatives are trained to make borrowers feel at fault and not resolve payment issues in order to profit from it. I have already spent countless hours and effort trying to pay my loans and it was for nothing. Please help me, thank you!