Consumer complaint received 2024-05-03
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA (MD)

My student loans have been with MOHELA since I finished XXXX in XXXX. I have had continuous issues with MOHELA since the student loan pause has resumed- including it taking XXXX months to resolve them miscalculating my standard repayment plan in excess of {$80.00}. On approximately XX/XX/XXXX, MOHELA transitioned my loans from their old platform onto their new platform. On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a {$1500.00} payment towards XXXX of my loans using a tax credit. I received access to my account on MOHELA again approximately XX/XX/XXXX on the new platform. To the date of this filing, that {$1500.00} payment has still not shown up on my account, so I am being charged interest on a higher rate. 

Additionally, and more frustratingly - I have been twice double charged by MOHELA. My monthly amount due is around {$400.00}. Since the beginning of the pandemic in XX/XX/XXXX, I have not been signed up for autopay. Once I had access to the new system, I had no access to any previous payments that were scheduled and understood that those payments would not be transitioned over to the new system. As such around XX/XX/XXXX, I scheduled a payment of {$430.00} to be made on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I schedule a payment of {$430.00} to be withdrawn on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed that MOHELA withdrew {$430.00} from my bank account on XX/XX/XXXX, but also {$430.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I cancelled any scheduled payments on XX/XX/XXXX, including the one scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX. I called and spoke with customer service to report the unauthorized withdrawal and was told that all they could do was issue a refund, which would take XXXX business days to process. I asked to speak with a supervisor, who told me that they didn't even see XXXX transactions and it would take XXXX days for a refund to process and that there was no way to expedite the situation. I called my bank and reported the second withdrawal as unauthorized and the bank returned the funds to my account. The next day, I received a letter from MOHELA to notify me that the " electronic payment authorized '' by me was refused, despite MOHELA knowing that the payment from me was in fact not authorized. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I mailed a letter to MOHELA providing documentation regarding the double charge, the dispute, the authorizations. As of the date of this writing, no response has been received from MOHELA in response to that letter. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I rescheduled the payment for XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$430.00}. As of that date, I had received no explanation as to why my account had previously been double charged. As of the date of this writing, I have been provided with no explanation as to why my account was double charged. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my bank account and noticed that for the second month in a row, MOHELA once again double charged my bank account - XXXX withdraws, both in the amount of {$430.00} were showing as processing on XX/XX/XXXX. I called my bank to confirm that MOHELA had submitted separate requests for withdrawal. They confirmed that MOHELA had. They indicated that because the transactions were processing, MOHELA had to cancel the payment. I called MOHELA and spoke with someone for XXXX minutes, who was unable to provide an explanation and was working on " investigating '' before I had to disconnect the call because I lost service on my way to work. I called someone back and was told I had to start the whole process over - I was on the phone with that person, who was rather aggressive, for XXXX minutes before I had to end the call because I had a work obligation - still no one seemed to understand the issue or be able to provide an explanation. 

I called back several hours later and spent another XXXX minutes on the phone with a customer service representative, who was unable to provide me with an explanation and insisted that there was only XXXX payment until I uploaded a copy of my bank showing the XXXX pending transactions. I was then transferred to a supervisor- which was actually being transferred to a line that said a supervisor would call me back in up to XXXX business days. Within an hour a supervisor called me back and said he would put in a request to cancel the payment while they figure out why I keep being double charged. When I asked for a letter confirming that the payment was cancelled, I was told I could not expect to receive any kind of documentation for XXXX business days. In short, I have twice been told by MOHELA that there is no kind of immediately resolution to them double charging my account. They have at this point essentially twice illegally taken my money in the amount of {$430.00} each time. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my bank showed both of the transactions as having gone through. I am currently working on having XXXX of the transactions marked as unauthorized.