Consumer complaint received 2019-01-08
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: AES/PHEAA (IA)

On XX/XX/XXXX I submitted paperwork to XXXX XXXX to see if my current student loans applied for the PSLF program. I had been working full time as an employee for XXXX  XXXX XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received a rejection letter from XXXX XXXX stating that my current loans were not eligible for the PSLF program. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX XXXX and asked what I needed to do to have my loans qualify for the PSLF program. The customer service representative at that time said I needed to consolidate my current loans with my current lender at the time ( XXXX  ) in order to have them qualify for the PSLF program through XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
I then called my current lender at the time and started the process of consolidating my Direct Stafford loans and they were officially consolidated on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I then reapplied for the PSLF program and was accepted. My loans were officially transferred to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 
At this time I had already been working for a XXXX job for six years and had been in repayment status for my student loans. All those qualifying payments over those six years should have been applied to my PSLF repayment schedule. 
I then received an email in XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX stating that I could view the amount of qualifying payments that were applied to my PSLF over the course of the last year. When I went to check I expected to see an accumulation of 7 years of payments, but there were only the payments I had made since my loans had officially transferred to XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX.

I then called XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to see why there were not more payments applied to my running balance for the PSLF and I was informed by a customer representative from XXXX XXXX that when I consolidated my loans prior to transferring them to XXXX XXXX that it null and voided any previous payments I had made on those loans. 
I was extremely upset, because the only reason I applied for the PSLF program is because I knew I had 6 years of payments that would set me up well to have my loans paid off in the 10 years or 120 payments whichever came first. If I would of known that consolidating my loans would null all those qualifying payments I WOULD OF NEVER DONE THAT. No one from XXXX  educated me on this crucial point. 
I then spoke to another representative from XXXX XXXX on that same day because I could not wrap my head around why I was told to consolidate when this would start me completely over on my repayment. I was then told directly from the customer service representative on XX/XX/XXXX that I was misinformed from XXXX XXXX and wrongly sent a denial letter that stated my loans were not eligible when in fact my Direct Stafford loans were eligible for the program and they did not need to be consolidated prior to transferring. 
I am seeking to have this fixed and to have my payments that I made over those six years prior to being told I had to consolidate applied to my running balance of my payments for my PSLF. 
This whole situation makes XXXX XXXX look extremely devious and further enforces the stigma around the PSLF program and why people are so frustrated with the process. 
I have attached official documents from XXXX, showing my loans prior to consolidation and documents showing the consolidation process and the denial letter from XXXX XXXX.