Consumer complaint received 2023-09-14
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA (UT)

I am writing to make a complaint on the various issues I have had with my student loans since XXXX. I am sure you are receiving numerous complaints and I am sorry to add one more but after all these years, I still am continually given the wrong information and led down the wrong path to resolve my student loan debts. I am going to start with a basic time line and issues around what I have faced since XXXX. 
Timeline : XXXX XXXX XXXX and student loans moved to payment options. My husband ( Ex-husband now ) also had a student loan debt from XXXX. Interest rates were really high and started having children so working parttime. Got into the consolidation trap and took my exs student loan and my student loan and consolidated into one loan under my SSN.

XXXX  consolidated loan was transferred from one private company to another. No clear guidance or options provided on how to deal with monthly payments and was always just told to put into deferment. 
XXXX XXXX husband lost job and was without a job for 3 years and only living off one income. Again, multiple companies and same issue of putting loans into deferment vs other options to pay. 
XXXX Fighting to get PSFL program for student loan to no avail. Things are falling apart at this point with courts and working toward divorce with ex-husband. 
XXXX XXXX finally going through. I called fed loans to try again to get help with student loans since I was now responsible for the full amount of the debt in the divorce because it was under my SSN. Thank goodness due to my divorce, they were able to do a consolidation to put me in the correct direct loan to be a part of the PSFL. 
XXXX XXXX Finally started making payments toward qualifying payments on PSFL.

Kids are finally starting to go to college and my PSFL was mine and then I was also taking out parent plus loans toward their education. Fed loan was great. My PSFL was treated as a separate entity and my IDR paperwork was for the PSFL to ensure I still met all the requirements. I had two payment plans, one for the PSFL that was XXXX and credited my account with the qualifying payments, while my parent plus loans were standard and applied specifically to those obligations. 
Of course, I had those weird months that were not qualified payments due to XXXX paperwork being processed and having to pay the {$5.00} so of course I figured 10 years would actually be XXXX due to XXXX month a year not being given qualifying payments. 
XXXX XXXX Everything goes to XXXX again and I am spending months on the phone due to XXXX mess up after another, documents getting lost because contracts have changed and my fed loan is now moving to Mohela. My payment counts go from XXXX to XXXX to XXXX to XXXX to XXXX. Mohela says it is student XXXX responsibility and student aid cant give me any answers. Everyone around me who just got in during the consolidation in XXXX have their debt forgiven with the one-time adjustment and I am still fighting over just the payments and counts from when I was in the program since XXXX. 
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX send email to Mohela to address payment counts. They respond with student aid needs to tell them the count and maybe by spring XXXX they XXXX get to me. I can understand but when I am showing that my payments are much higher than theirs and I should only have XXXX payments left just based on XXXX being in program when they are telling me I still have XXXX payments left to pay it can be a little frustrating. 
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I send a complaint to the student aid site about the payment count issues and discrepancy and they respond on XX/XX/XXXX with the same canned comments that Mohela did about being patient and they may get to me by XXXX  XXXX. 
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX call Mohela to discuss payment plans. Currently they have me on standard repayment at XXXX a month and have parent plus loans and PSFL as one payment plan. They told me to go to student aid and do IDR. Student aid says XXXX would be XXXX a month and then tell me to consolidate my parent plus loans. Seriously I am this close to the finish line and they want me to consolidate and start back at XXXX counts. Mohela wont treat them as separate plans so I know my qualifying payments are going to the XXXX while my parent plus is getting payments so the interest does not cap at the end of the year. ( That is why I am in this current situation for a student loan that started at XXXX and is now XXXX ) I have to start making payments in XXXX and play catch up on interest for XXXX and still have no clear end in sight on how I am going to pay and make sure my qualifying payments dont get messed up like they currently still are. 
Based on the new one-time payment adjustment, prior to entering into PSFL in XXXX, by pure luck, I met the rules of 32 months of deferment ( divorce and court issues ) for any reason and yet they cant seem to give me those credits. There are also at least XXXX payments that are not credited that qualify just for the XXXX time period. With all of these simple to validate payments, I would be way past the XXXX and the PSFL should be forgiven just like the rest of those who have already had their forgiven. 
If I could get the PSFL resolved, there would be no issue or confusion paying on my parent plus loans. I am sure there are quite a few folks in the same situation with me that have parent plus and PSLF and they should not be treated as the same loan and payments in XXXX chunk that Mohela determines where the money will be applied. They do say you can go in and put specific payments to specific loans but there is nothing on whether those payments that you as a borrower break up would still count as qualifying payments on the XXXX. Student aid is taking no stance or has no understanding on this as well and is leaving it up to Moehla. 
I dont think I am asking for much but I have been battling this since XXXX and have been battling it even more since they moved over to Mohela as well as the one-time payment adjustment and COVID qualifying payments. It is just very frustrating to still keep fighting this especially since I have worked for the same government qualifying employer since XXXX. 
I cant afford the IDR payments and will barely make the XXXX standard. I just want the PSFL to finally be forgiven based on the payment counts and new rules on what qualifies as a payment count. I am so close to the end and cant seem to get either agency to come to an agreement on how my counts should be handled or even how I should be making monthly payments. I know that if I make standard payments, I will probably not get qualifying payments put to my PSFL. My other fear is that they will take the one lump sum and put it all toward my oldest debt which is the PSFL and my parent plus loans will have the interest continue to accrue and be capped on the principle at the end of the year which will put me in the same situation I am in from my personal student loans back in XXXX. I also feel there should be clear guidelines for those borrowers who have personal student debt and parent plus to have the ability to treat them as different payment streams so payments are applied correctly, especially if you have some in PSFL and some in parent plus loans. Borrowers should have the right to have clear guidelines and understandings in place when it comes to multiple type loans and how those payments could be applied without causing issues with PSFL or other types of forgiveness options.

I have included the various emails I discussed in this letter as well as the PSFL employee verification that I have uploaded to Mohela and documents showing what payments are missing from my qualifying and which ones they list as non-qualifying. 
I have been very patient throughout this whole process but with payments now coming due and no clear guidance and still having issues just getting qualifying payment counts addressed, and having no clear avenues to make complaints, I just want fair treatment for borrowers and not a pick and choose and how do they even pick and choose who they will look at compared to who they will keep putting off. I am so close to the end, I did not pursue any of the other forgiveness options that were available to me and I figured why when with the one-time adjustment, I was way past the XXXX. I did send a similar complaint to my state representative as the website suggested and their response : It would be fiscally irresponsible for the government to pay off your student loan debt. Didnt even address the issue of policy and procedure needs to be in place to address these issues in the first place around student loans and moving to a better path forward. I also called the Ombudsmen group and they also told me they could not help me with this issue and to be patient. 
Thank you for your time and hope this helps in building a better repayment option for borrowers in my circumstances for monthly payment plans.