Consumer complaint received 2023-01-18
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (SD)

I have two student loans that were originally with XXXX XXXX that were recently transferred to MOHELA. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and am trying to qualify for XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I made a large bulk payment of {$27000.00} to XXXX XXXX which was split between my two loans in the amounts of {$14000.00} and {$12000.00}. At the time I did not anticipate continuing to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, so was trying to do the right thing and pay my loans early. The bulk payment was in addition to my regular monthly payments. The bulk payment put me into paid ahead status and I was paid forward many years. Unfortunately, since being transferred to MOHELA my payment history is inaccessible so I do not know the exact paid ahead date. Because I was paid ahead I should have exceeded the XXXX payment for PSLF by a large number. In addition to the bulk payments, I have now been with my employer for > 12 years and have made additional monthly payments that exceed XXXX. 

I contacted MOHELA in XXXX, XXXX, and then XXXX of XXXX via email to inquire about this paid ahead status and finally was able to speak to someone on the phone in XX/XX/XXXX. The representative said I could simply request to have the bulk payment refunded, I just needed to tell them the amount and date of the payments. The representative said she did not have access to my payment history and I needed to request it. I did, and received my full payment history a few weeks later ( on MOHELA letterhead, which is strange since they said they had no access to it ). I then contacted MOHELA again on XX/XX/XXXX and requested that the bulk payment of {$27000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX ( split between two loans of {$14000.00} and {$12000.00} ) be refunded. The representative said no problem, processed the request and sent in on through and said I should receive a refund in XXXX weeks and I could call back to check in XXXX weeks. 

Yesterday, XX/XX/XXXX, I called back to check on my request and was told by a different representative that my bulk payment would likely NOT be refunded, though I was told by XXXX other MOHELA representatives that it should be no problem. I inquired about the paid ahead status and the representative said he did not have information on that. 
In addition to the above, I returned to school from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX to obtain a XXXX  at which time the my loans automatically went into an in-school deferment. I was not asked if I wanted the deferment, it was automatic. I continued to make my monthly payments, again doing the right thing by trying to pay off my loans. Because of this deferment, those payments from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX are not being counted towards XXXX. I was told by MOHELA in an email on XX/XX/XXXX that they would request the deferment be removed for that period of time and that any payments I made during that period would then count towards XXXX and it would take 2-3 days to process. As of today, XX/XX/XXXX, the deferment is still in place and the payments not counting towards my PSLF. Additionally, it is taking months to certify my employment when I sent in the certification from my employer. 

I began this process in XXXX of XXXX and now over a year later I am still dealing with MOHELA to try to sort this out, but am being told different things by different representatives and the timeline keeps getting stretched.