Consumer complaint received 2023-10-13
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA (CA)

Mohela is struggling with providing accurate repayment plan and amount and an incorrect amount is due today, XX/XX/XXXX. Mohela put half of the loans on administrative forbearance but did not put the other half of the loans on administrative forbearance. 

They stated they will be doing this, but when? A payment is already due and I can not pay it. Mohela needs to expedite putting all the loans on administrative forbearance until they can produce an accurate billing statement. 

More details of the history below : XX/XX/XXXX : I submitted a recertification application in XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX XXXX. I was recertifying income ( {$0.00} income ) for loans that were on the XXXX program already ( Loans # XXXX ), and I was requesting my remaining loans ( Loans # XXXX ) to also be on the XXXX program. Upon submitting a PSLF form, the loans were moved to Mohela. Mohela ignored the recertification and did not add the remaining loans on XXXX. 

I have messages from Mohela representatives in which they seem confused about the type of loans they are, and finally when I speak to someone they state they ignored the recertification and guessed my income, therefore stated I was not qualified for income based plans. I discussed this with The XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX who reached out to Mohela to inform them that all my loans qualify for XXXX. Mohela agreed. 

XX/XX/XXXX : A Mohela supervisor called my spouse ( 3rd party authorized person ) to confirm that all the loans qualify for XXXX and that the payment is {$0.00} based on the last recertification. They stated this will take time but that the changes will have to be made manually. 

XX/XX/XXXX : In calling Mohela to check the status of the loan, every person can see this note - manual changes need to be made to the account. However, the changes have not been made. Per Mohela they have been processing the recertification form from XXXX XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX. I have a letter from them stating half of my loans are on Administrative Forbearance ( which I did not request ) and the other half of my loans ( the ones that deserve to be on XXXX ) are not on Administrative Forbearance and they have a payment of {$3500.00} due on XXXX. 

This bill is based on loans # XXXX on " standard repayment '' and not XXXX and in addition not based on the income at my recertification. 

The Mohela representative told my spouse they can put loans # XXXX on forbearance while they make the changes and to call back in XXXX business days if not completed. 

XX/XX/XXXX - Loans # XXXX are still not on forbearance. Mohela representatives are stating that I need to just wait. Every phone call takes XXXX hours to complete due to hold times. After requesting a supervisor my spouse waited an extra hour and they hung up on me before being able to discuss the issues. 

XX/XX/XXXX Loans # XXXX are still not on forbearance. In addition as of XXXX my XXXX application was CANCELLED. The representative was not sure why. Apparently they are still working on the manual changes and pending administrative forbearance. They claim I do not have to pay, BUT I believe that unless these loans are in administrative forbearance I am NOT PROTECTED from non payment. 

I am unable to make this payment but if I do not make the payment it will be reported negatively on my credit score. 


Action that needs to be taken : Mohela needs to process the recertification form prior to the XXXX bill due date. All loans # XXXX need to be on the XXXX plan XXXX The payment should be {$0.00} due to income at the time of recertification. 

If they can not not complete this by the bill date, all the loans should be on administrative forbearance until they get it done.