Consumer complaint received 2021-07-10
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (TN)

In 2018, I enrolled as an online XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX student at the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I called my servicer, FedLoan, and explained that I was enrolling in this program and asked if taking out a small loan of about {$6000.00} would affect my account, credit towards public service loan forgiveness, or anything else. I was told no. I explained that I would continue to be working and making payments and expected for my months to continue to count towards PSLF while I went to school ONLINE in an accredited online program at a flagship institution designed for working professionals. What I was NOT told was that I would need to fill out waiver to remove any in-school deferment. I was not aware my account was placed in in-school deferment until after the XXXX XXXX XXXX had submitted notification to Department of ED and received by FedLoan that I was in school at least half time. In fact, I paid my XX/XX/2018 payment BEFORE FedLoan notified me they had placed my account in an in-school deferment and then FedLoan retroactively applied the in-school deferment on my account to include the entire month of XXXX, even after accepting a payment in full. 

I called FedLoan multiple times about this situation. I was told I had to fill out a waiver to remove the in-school deferment and have my payments counted. I submitted the waiver three times before the deferment was finally removed, in part, I believe, because FedLoan was repeatedly notified that I was in school. In short, this was all a continuous electronic process between my institution, the department of education, and FedLoan that removed me from notification processes and disallowed me from taking any proactive action to protect my account from the harmful impacts until after the electronic notifications and domino-effect actions had occurred! 

I included my start date on the waiver of XX/XX/2018 each time I submitted and intended for the waiver to cover any and all deferment periods. I NEVER asked for and took any direct action on my end to place my account in deferment!!! After the 3rd submission, FedLoan finally removed the in-school deferment, but only to the date of processing, excluding XXXX and XX/XX/2018 from the waiver of deferment. The impact to my account was my payment for XX/XX/2018 and XX/XX/2018 being rendered an ineligible month for XXXX because, according to Fed Loan, " You do not have a bill due for this payment period. You were not required to make any payments during the period for the following reasons : - in your grace period, in a deferment, in a forbearance. '' In fact, I did have a bill due for XXXX which was paid on time and in full. The deferment was retroactively applied by Fed Loan to include XX/XX/2018 ( a month they actually issued a bill that I paid in full ), after XXXX XXXX XXXX completed its notification. 

I want a review of my account for XX/XX/2018 and XX/XX/2018, the 2 months, which I made on time in full payments that were named on my waiver for in-school deferment, included in my count for eligible payments towards XXXX ; because currently they are not! 

Additionally, I recommend an informed consent process be established so that students can opt-in or opt out of an in school deferment, especially for online students who may be working full time and seeking public service loan forgiveness while attending a program. This should not have been an automated process outside of my disclosure and outside of my ability to affect the outcome until the harm had been done.