Consumer complaint received 2024-01-25
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (WA)

I received my first post-COVID-forbearance bill for MOHELA for my student loans on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$150.00}, due XX/XX/XXXX. I paid my bill on XX/XX/XXXX. I then applied for loan consolidation ( as I am working toward XXXX XXXX XXXX, and was told the limited waiver could result in a higher count of qualified payments made ). I completed the consolidation application, which included my application for the XXXX income-based repayment program ( I was previously in the REPAYE program ) at this time, toward the end of XX/XX/XXXX. I did not receive a billing statement from MOHELA in XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received by email a " repayment schedule and disclosure agreement '' but as the consolidation had not finished processing, I could not login to MOHELA 's website because it stated that I did not have an account associated with them. On XX/XX/XXXX I received by email a " consolidation payment received '' notification, but MOHELA still did not recognize me as an account holder for them. I did not receive a billing statement in XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received via email a billing statement which showed a past due amount of {$490.00}, which does not show a prior billing date. This billing statement included the XX/XX/XXXX due payment of an additional {$490.00}, so my total bill was {$990.00}. This showed that my payment schedule was the " Standard '' or " Level '' payment schedule, not the XXXX I had applied for or prior REPAYE income-based payment. My account showed as XXXX, although again, I had not received a billing statement since the XX/XX/XXXX bill, which I paid XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted MOHELA 's customer service for this issue on XX/XX/XXXX and after waiting an XXXX  to reach a XXXX XXXX XXXX, was told that my account should have been placed in XXXX  due to incorrect billing in XXXX, as I was not billed at least XXXX XXXX before my due date. As my account was delinquent from the incorrectly billed " XXXX '' balance, I asked that this be corrected. I was transferred to another customer service representative who reviewed my account for about XXXX XXXX before telling me he could " see the issue, but didn't know how to resolve it. '' He offered to request a forbearance, including an administrative XXXX  for correction, to end XX/XX/XXXX. I asked him to please make that request. My account was then placed in delinquency XXXX  until XX/XX/XXXX, followed by an administrative XXXX  ending XX/XX/XXXX. Due to the issues with billing, at this time I contacted the XXXX  for the Department of Education and was told by a representative there that I would need to file a complaint on the studentaid.gov website, and should received a response within XXXX business XXXX. I filed that complaint on XX/XX/XXXX, including multiple documents with the history of billing/communication from MOHELA. To this date, I have yet to receive any response to that complaint, which is still listed as " pending. '' On XX/XX/XXXX I received information for an " income-contingent repayment plan XXXX ' '' for a repayment plan of {$620.00} per XXXX. To be clear, this is HIGHER than the prior standard payment amount of {$490.00}. I therefore call MOHELA XX/XX/XXXX and spend almost XXXX XXXX  on hold, was finally put through to a XXXX XXXX XXXX, who told me that was " just the payment amount due until the XXXX application is done processing. '' I asked if she could explain how that XXXX amount was determined, given that it is higher than the standard repayment. She said she didn't know. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was put on a call list. The supervisor called me XX/XX/XXXX and reviewed the XXXX plan of {$620.00} per XXXX, and said that he also could not see on what income that was based. He escalated the issue up to be resolved " within XXXX business XXXX  '' including processing of the XXXX application which " should resolve all of this. '' On XX/XX/XXXX my payment plan was changed back to the standard, now in the amount of XXXX XXXXXXXX. My SAVE application from XX/XX/XXXX has still not been processed, and my administrative forbearance now ends XX/XX/XXXX, with that {$840.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. The Dept of Ed has never contacted me to assist with this complaint, since it was filed XX/XX/XXXX. MOHELA is unavailable on XXXX  and XXXX, so I have to take time out of work to call. I have never had a wait time shorter than XXXX XXXX, and XXXX  was disconnected after an hour and had to call back to wait yet another hour to be connected to a XXXX 
MOHELA still shows an overdue interest charge to my account from the " XXXX  '' payment I was never billed for. I did request and receive a letter from MOHELA stating they would not report this XXXX, as it's the result of improper billing, to any credit unions/agencies. So far, my credit report does not have a negative remark on it from that delinquency. 
To date ( XX/XX/XXXX ) none of the issues outlined above have been corrected, other than the XXXX  I was placed on. Due to the timeline for XXXX  being near its end, I will AGAIN have to call MOHELA to request an extension of the XXXX  until they process my XXXX application and the correct payment plan is in place. As a taxpaying XXXX, I am concerned to have to deal with the amount of stress associated with each incorrect, and higher, billed amount which seems to be the result of MOHELA ( a government XXXX which therefore receives some funding via taxpayer dollars ) having absolutely no quality assurance process for billing whatsoever. I am also concerned with the lack of response from the equally XXXX Dept of Education . I work XXXX, and am having to repeatedly step away from my job duties to try to resolve this issue as there is not XXXX XXXX XXXX outside my working XXXX. I do not get to choose my loan servicer -- as I am working toward XXXX, MOHELA is the only contracted loan servicer which can process those applications.