Consumer complaint received 2024-03-21
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
Company: MOHELA (KY)

*I had all this neatly spaced but seeing the final version it's one block of text. Sorry. XX/XX/XXXX, I started the process of consolidating my student loans to move them over to Mohela. I was told then ( I think by someone at XXXX, which previously held some of my loans ) that the process would take XXXX weeks and my new loan payment would end up being $ XXXX. I was dealing with all this stuff in XXXX because I wanted to be in a position to buy a house in XXXX, XXXX. Based on the info I was given in XXXX, this seemed very reasonable and I even had a month or so buffer between when the XXXX weeks would be up and when I wanted to start shopping for a house. I'm a first time homebuyer, this is a very big deal. I've been trying to get everything in order for the past year to be able to do this. 

Specially, in early XXXX, XXXX, I asked for my loans to be consolidated, and my payments to be recalculated in whatever way would make them the cheapest. I am enrolled in the PSLF program, paying off the total loan amount is not the goal, I just need to get through the 10 years of payments. Actually Mohela messed up my PSLF info too, though that seems to have been resolved now so not what the complaint is about. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I was approaching the XXXX week mark that I was told would be when I should expect my consolidation and new loan calculation to go through. There was no information anywhere. The Mohela site said nothing. Like, literally nothing. My account showed up but there was no info even about my total loan amount. I called Mohela. They told me to call XXXX so I did that. XXXX told me the consolidation was done so it was all up to Mohela now. Called Mohela again, they said there's nothing they can do. So I called the XXXX XXXX XXXX, they also said there's nothing they could do, I have to go through Mohela. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a complaint to the XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, explained the situation, they said they'd respond within XXXX days. They did not respond. 

XX/XX/XXXX, Called Mohela again. Spoke to XXXX, who could not help me with anything and didn't know anything but she transferred me to someone who supposedly would be able to help with everything. That person never picked up, I waited on hold for about XXXX minutes and then had to go to bed. 

When I called on XX/XX/XXXX, I did ask XXXX if there was any way I could get a sort of promissory note or something that would provide an estimate of what my new loan payment was expected to be. She seemed to think that was ridiculous. In any case, it didn't happen, is apparently not something they do. I was just thinking if I had something showing that my recalcuation is in progress and the estimated payment amount is {$330.00}, this is much better than me having no information to give to the bank. Anyway that didn't work either. 

XX/XX/XXXX, Called Mohela again. Spoke to XXXX. At this point the consolidation is finally showing up on Mohela 's site, but they never did the recalculation. It shows that my loan payment is $ XXXX and not the {$330.00} I had been quoted before the process began. XXXX says she'll put the XXXX XXXX XXXX request through again and request that mine be completed within XXXX business days. 

XX/XX/XXXX, called Mohela again. Spoke to XXXX. Day XXXX has come and gone, I get an email about a " correspondence processing delay '' from Mohela. Now they are saying they'll process that information within XXXX business days. Which is obviously much different from XXXX business days and basically means I won't be able to buy a house in the timeframe I need. XXXX tells me that IDR recalculation takes up to XXXX days usually, I was told XXXX days incorrectly ( because every time I call, they have different info, it's never the same thing, none of the people answering the phones seem to know anything concrete ). In any case, this ( XX/XX/XXXX ) is day XXXX and I have heard nothing about the IDR recalculation. 

I also submitted a 2nd complaint to the XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, they never responded to the first one ( and I did cite that reference # in the 2nd complaint ).

I am really at my wit 's end here. I feel like my financial information is being held hostage. Now Mohela is also going through this platform transition, and whenever that happens it means I won't be able to access anything for 20 days ( Mohela 's estimate so it'll probably be longer than that ). Basically I need this to be resolved before that happens so I can buy a house. They are really hurting people, all these changes with student loans were supposed to make things easier for borrowers but this has been an absolute nightmare.