Consumer complaint received 2019-05-01
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (CA)

In XX/XX/XXXX my loans were disbursed for the PSLF, which requires me to have automatic withdrawals for the rate I qualified for. My goal was to keep regular monthly payments going so that this loan wouldn't be dragged on longer than 10 years ( 120 qualifying payments ). This goal however has been met with adversity beyond what any hard working citizen should have to go through. Payments started being withdrawn on XX/XX/XXXX by the XXXX XXXX XXXX, already setting me two months behind since my loans were disbursed in XX/XX/XXXX. No explanation as to why. For some reason, my automatic payments stopped after XX/XX/XXXX from my bank, which was the last payment made to the XXXX XXXX XXXX and my loan servicing company was changed to XXXX XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX my monthly payment didn't count as well. From XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX my monthly payments counted ( according to XXXX XXXX ), but those ACH transactions were never sent from my checkings account where the previous automatic ACH transaction were being withdrawn from. In XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX placed me in a forbearance without any explanation why. On XX/XX/XXXX, the first ACH withdrawal from XXXX XXXX  appears. The XXXX program I qualified for, paid XXXX and without my consent, they place my loans in a paid ahead status from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, which does not qualify monthly payments towards the 120 total payments of the PSLF program. This pushed my loan even further from being forgiven. In XX/XX/XXXX they confused my loan with my XXXX XXXX obligation and converted my XXXX XXXX into loans, despite the fact that I met all requirements for the XXXX  XXXX. I spent weeks trying to send them documents proving my XXXX XXXX obligations was met. Finally they converted my XXXX XXXX back into a XXXX, however, they made a mistake and put my PSLF in forbearance instead of my XXXX XXXX while they investigated the situation. Pushing me further back from my goal. Later on, I'm placed on forbearance again in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX due to documentation in which, according to them, will not be received in time that will verify my income for the income based repayment option the PSLF program requires. They blame me for not sending the documents in time when each time I have submitted the paperwork, the paperwork that was submitted was not filled out correctly to optimize the lowest monthly payment I am able to afford due to bad consultations over the phone and poor customer service from people that worked there getting back to my concerns. Their lack of communication and lengthy clerical processes to address any issues put me in a corner with only two options : to pay the regular monthly payment close to approximately {$900.00}, which I can't afford, or place my account on forbearance. The total delay to my PSLF program, due to clerical issues and the mishandling of my loans, has totaled 21 months. That's almost two more extra years that I will have this financial burden after I have done everything on my end to keep my monthly payments on track.