Consumer complaint received 2023-10-12
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc. (AL)

I have been in contact with AidVantage since XX/XX/XXXX to discuss my federal student loans as payments start to resume. I enrolled in the SAVE program, which, as I understood, was supposed to be 5 % of my discretionary income. I am a poorly paid postdoc, my take-home pay is XXXX, my " raise '' this year was roughly 2.3 %, if I round up. However, since our rent increased by more than my raise, I'm basically taking a pay cut, my husband makes less than I do, he's a XXXX XXXX XXXX  with a base salary of XXXX. When I completed the 'loan simulator ' on the Dept. of Education website, it gave me a payment estimate of approx. {$130.00} - XXXX. I can not afford this. In addition to my federal loans, which are all for my XXXX  degree, I have 4 separate private loans that I had to take out to complete my XXXX degree. My final year and a half of XXXX occurred during the XXXX recession, and I was unable to qualify for federal loans. In total, I have {$42.00}, XXXX in private loans ; 3 of those loans are approaching interest rates with double digits. Throughout the pandemic, I had no choice but to continue making private loan payments. In XXXX, I took about a 30 % pay cut when I had to change jobs, and I was still making these private loan payments. I have no savings. I have a car payment, medical bills, rent ( which keeps increasing ), and some weeks I can not afford groceries. As of now, I pay {$440.00} a month for my private loans. According to AidVantage, my monthly payment is {$200.00}, which would bring my total monthly student loan amount to ~ {$650.00}, approximately 22 % of my monthly take-home salary of ~ {$2900.00}. That amount is NOT my discretionary income, which would be substantially lower after taking rent, car payments, medical expenses, private loan payments etc. into account. I explained ALL of this to the AidVantage representative I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX, and she said I qualified for a decreased monthly payment of {$52.00}, which took a huge weight off my shoulders. However, when I received my first payment notice from AidVantage on XX/XX/XXXX, I saw the {$200.00} payment was still showing. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called AidVantage again and spoke to a new agent. He told me the previous representative I spoke to back in XXXX never completed my new payment application, so that's why my monthly payment was unchanged. I explained the same information I included above when I spoke to the first representative in XXXX. I reiterated that I could not afford an additional $ XXXX, and he immediately said, well if you can't pay, just go into forbearance. That was the ONLY option he offered. I WANT to pay my loans ( which at this point, I owe well over than the original loan ), I just need help with manageable payments, especially when my other loans have much higher interest/principal. I said I registered for the SAVE plan, but he said that wasn't what I registered for? To be honest, he was very evasive whenever I tried to ask questions or tried to clarify details. He told me I had to exit whatever my " current '' payment plan was, pay {$5.00}, and then my application for an income-based payment could be processed. He cited my new payment would be {$52.00}, which was consistent with what the first representative told me. He said it would take a few weeks, but I should hear something by XX/XX/XXXX, and if I did not hear something by XX/XX/XXXX, I should contact AidVantage. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX, I received an email from AidVantage saying " We can't honor your payment directions '', this message included information on consolidated loans. I called AidVantage again on XXXX and spoke to an agent, ( name redacted ) at XXXX. I explained my information again, and told him about the email I received this morning. He was incredibly dismissive and said No, Oh no, that doesn't mean anything. All it means is that it is still being processed. He assured me that my application was still in processing, but I should not expect to hear anything until XXXX, there's no way they would have an answer by XX/XX/XXXX. He told me to be patient and wait until XXXX, and to ignore the payment of XXXX that is currently showing as due in XX/XX/XXXX. At this point, I have received very different information from three separate AidVantage employees. They do not seem to grasp the concept of discretionary income. A decent chunk of my income HAS to go to rent, medical bills, car payments, and private student loans. That leaves very little with respect to my discretionary income.