Consumer complaint received 2016-12-16
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (IN)

Hello. I am having trouble with student loans which I believed to be under the loan forgiveness repayment plan. I have been making payments for almost 5 yrs and am just now being told that the repayment plan Im in is not compatible with loan forgiveness. 

I had a XXXX and in 2007 went back to school for my XXXX. I was divorced with children and all that entails, and at the time of graduation I had approx. {$100000.00} in federal and approx. {$120000.00} in private loans. I heard about the loan forgiveness program through the XXXX for nurses in qualifying institutions, had my loans consolidated and was told to choose a repayment plan. ln order to ensure that I chose the right repayment plan, I had someone from XXXX on the telephone, guiding me in my choice, to be absolutely sure that I made the right choice. She told me to choose from XXXX payments, XXXX of which was the standard repayment plan-fixed. The others were income contingent, graduated repayment, and extended repayment. She told me that after I had made XXXX payments I could apply for loan forgiveness. During this time my loans have been transferred to different servicers. At no time, until this latest transfer have I been told that I was not in the proper repayment plan. The current servicer has informed me that I am not in the proper plan, that none of my payments so far ( approx. {$50000.00} ) will count toward forgiveness, and that if I now want to be in this plan my payments would increase to $ XXXX. I have no paper trail for the original advice that was given me, as it was via telephone. Was this representative misinformed? Was she a government employee? She worked for the XXXX is all I know. These loans at 7 % have only decreased to approx. {$100000.00} in 5 yrs. though lve paid {$50000.00} I could see this only slight decrease but my thinking was in another 5yrs ( XXXX payments total ) I would have basically paid off the loan anyway and they would really only be forgiving the interest. I am enclosing a couple of relevant documents, XXXX of which says that I am eligible for loan forgiveness, XXXX stating I am not in the proper plan because it is standard -extended. I am also including my original promissory note, pgs XXXX and XXXX which outline the terms and which also state I am in the standard plan, not standard extended as my current servicer insists. My initial payment plan of {$720.00} lines up with the standard plan also. 

My other issue is that the government claims it is helping grads get out of student loan debt, yet the way the 7 % interest is calculated, it is NOT helping those of us who are making our payments every month, on time for years. Again, lve paid {$50000.00} on a {$100000.00} loan with only a decrease to {$100000.00} in almost 5 yrs. t am XXXX XXXX XXXX, I will not be able to make this $ XXXX payment for another 15yrs. I have used any extra money to pay off my private loans and am getting close to that end, but because of this have nothing for retirement. Add mortgage, car payment, kids, college etc etc,. I really need some help with this, I need a champion