Consumer complaint received 2017-09-05
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Fedloan Help (NC)

I have XXXX XXXX XXXX. When my XXXX XXXX is high or low I lose my abilities to see clearly and comprehend what I read. I have come to rely on my auditory senses more and more as my health has started to decline. Because of this I have come to rely on the customer service representatives I speak to. 

I was told about Public Service Loan Forgiveness in the Fall of XXXX. I graduated in XXXX of XXXX. I worked with XXXX XXXX as my sole source of information to repay my loan. I was lead to believe that I was enrolled in this program beginning in XXXX and I have made payments each month on time. I call each year to make sure I am keeping up with everything I need to do so that my loan with be forgiven. This is very important to me since I am a single mother with a XXXX. 

Several years later, a coworker suggested that I ask about the XXXX loan forgiveness program and I did. When I called I asked specifically if this would affect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and I was told it would not. I applied for this and it was paid toward my loan. I was told it would reduce the amount of my entire loan and the Public Loan Forgiveness Program would pay less. This {$5000.00} did not benefit me as my entire loan would have been completely forgiven anyway. At this time, I had no information outside of what I was being told. 

During another call I asked if I needed to complete an application for the Public Service Loan and was told it wasnt necessary until XXXX XXXX. I decided on my own to do this and have sent in one complete Employment Certification. During this process no one mentioned how one impacted the other. 

At some point in time my loan was handed over to FedLoan. I have continued to call multiple times each year to make sure I was on track for my loan to be forgiven. I asked specifically in XXXX about my number of payments and was told there was no problem it would be repaid in XXXX. My due diligence was performed when I asked about the XXXX loan forgiveness and with each call I have made since XXXX. Not one person explained that the XXXX Loan Forgiveness would impact the Public Service Loan Forgiveness until I asked about my number of payments In XXXX of XXXX. Having spoke to FedLoan, I called XXXX Services and basically, Fedloan claims it was XXXX 's fault that this was not explained to me and vice versa. I requested a customer service supervisor from FedLoan to call me on my cell phone and I was never contacted. 

If I had access to this information would never have agreed to the XXXX Loan Forgiveness. I asked but was not made aware that the year of services and the number of payments would be affected. In short, five years and 60 payments have been taken from me without my knowledge or consent. I even asked this about this directly and was told it would not affect the Public Loan Forgiveness at all. 

I should have 10 years of public school service this month with 120 faithfully made payments in XXXX counted toward forgiveness. If I had been told of the implications, I never would have agreed to the XXXX Loan Forgiveness. This did not benefit me at all.