Consumer complaint received 2024-07-01
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (MA)

On XX/XX/24, I received an email from loan servicer MOHELA with the subject line " Student Loan Rebate Information. '' The body of the email included the following statement : " Congratulations! The specified loan ( s ) have qualified to receive a rebate. The electronic information, which can be found in your MOHELA account, provides more information. '' I then tried to log into my MOHELA account, but the servicer had recently transitioned to a new platform and I had difficulty creating an account. When I finally succeeded in creating an account through the new MOHELA website, I was able to access a letter with slightly more information than the email. The letter ( attached ) lists two XXXX XXXX XXXX totaling {$7500.00} which I previously paid off. Below this information was the following statement : " Benefit Type : Rebate. Benefit Amount Received : XXXX. '' I called MOHELA to try to find out what this meant ( i.e., how to pursue a " rebate, '' but after waiting on hold for 56 minutes I was told that " unfortunately that letter was generated in error during the transition over to the new platform. '' In other words, a message of " just kidding/sorry. '' When I asked why I hadn't received an email yet stating that this had been sent to me in error, the person simply apologized and said that they hadn't gotten around to doing that yet. When I asked if MOHELA planned to post this information to their website or notify the news media so that other borrowers could find out that they are not eligible for a rebate without waiting on hold for 56 minutes during their respective work days ( I want to emphasize that I now need to work an hour later tonight thanks to the time lost in resolving this incident ), the person reverted to their canned response ( i.e., " we're just telling the people who are calling about those letters that the letter was generated in error '' ). The attached XXXX forum shows that I am far from being alone in facing this issue -- MOHELA has sent these misleading emails and letters to countless individuals, all apparently in error. This is outrageously unacceptable, and it's no way to run a federal student loan servicing company. 

There is a lot of uncertainty around student loan forgiveness right now, and there are new developments with each passing day. When a federal student loan servicer sends an official communication, it should be accurate and not misleading. You can not email a borrower to say, 'congrats on your eligibility for a rebate ' only to elaborate in a letter ( which can only be accessed by logging in to a new platform which is actively transitioning and thus error-prone/buggy ) that the borrower is eligible for a rebate of {$0.00}. This is emotionally manipulative and confusing. There are enough scams out there as it is -- I receive calls all the time promising me loan forgiveness or rebates -- I should NOT need to worry about getting scammed or misled by my federal student loan servicer. 

Furthermore, official communication about student loan payments should never contain emotionally charged statements such as " Congratulations! '' This is manipulative because it makes light of the serious financial burden presented by student loans. A student loan rebate can instantly change the course of a person 's life and future, and it is not something to take lightly. I am saying this as a person with relative financial means ; I can not IMAGINE what it would have been like to experience this sort of emotional let down if I were unemployed or struggling to make ends meet. This sort of casual approach to communication is upsetting and unprofessional. 

It is also unacceptable how difficult it is to reach MOHELA. Even the hold experience was misleading -- I was told that the wait time would be 46 minutes at the start of the call, but the hold was actually 56 minutes. It's a small difference, but it adds up to make MOHELA seem unreliable and untrustworthy. It's also just an unacceptable amount of time to wait on hold. Experiencing long hold times and receiving inaccurate information from a federal student loan servicer is confusing and it makes it challenging for student borrowers to manage our finances and debt. MOHELA needs to hire more staff or take other action to be more responsive to borrowers. This is particularly important at a time when the company is likely receiving calls from countless borrowers who are confused and fearful that they will miss out on a life-changing rebate if they are unable to remain on hold.