Consumer complaint received 2017-11-07
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)

I have student loans totaling slightly over {$28000.00} through XXXX XXXX. I am currently a graduate student employed full time at a major research institution in California. For two years, I paid my student loans fully and dutifully. I was working two jobs and making less than {$11000.00} a year, but still paying {$300.00} a month towards this loan. I treated it as my most important bill. 

Once I was officially enrolled in graduate school ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I reached out to FedLoan servicing to defer my payments. They put my loans into forbearance ( NOT deferment, though I had submitted the required documents at least three times  throughout the summer ). I had also updated my school on the XXXX website, and called XXXX XXXX onXX/XX/XXXX to confirm my attendance at XXXX and to ask what documents ( if any ) were required from me. I called again onXX/XX/XXXX to make sure my loans were in deferment. The representative ( XXXX ) told me that they were still in forbearance, and that once they ( i.e. FedLoan servicing ) received notification from XXXX they would go into deferment. 

Throughout my entire experience with FedLoan Servicing, I never received a single notification stating that I had any required documents. Additionally, and more troubling, they never sent me an email bill prior to the debit. The debit would happen on the XXXX of each month, and I would receive a confirmation afterwards. I was fine with this untilXX/XX/XXXX. I made an interest payment in early XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) even though my position as a XXXX XXXX XXXX did not require me to pay any amount of the loan then ( while I understood the interest would capitalize ). I made two good faith payments of {$100.00} while the loan was in forbearance (XX/XX/XXXXand XXXX ). I suspended my direct debit inXX/XX/XXXX, with the intention of never paying through Direct Debit again. However, for some reason, without my express written agreement, and outside of any contract that I had with FedLoan Servicing, I was billed ( and worse, debited directly from my checking account ) again, randomly on XX/XX/XXXX for a total of {$300.00}. I did not give FedLoan Servicing any permission to do this. I have been outside of the Direct Debit agreement for months. I had no idea and no warning that this direct debit was going to occur. Additionally, I did not receive a receipt for this debit, so without my due diligence checking the company 's horrendously organized website, I would not have been made aware of the debit. There are many problems with the website, which, conveniently for XXXX XXXX, tends to happen when you try to remove debit information or cancel your direct debit. I have a feeling that these 'glitches ' might have some sort of motivation. 

I understand that there is an obligation to pay student loans, and I have been doing whatever I can to accomplish that. HoweverXXXX XXXX XXXX has been unduly trying in my attempts to pay back these loans in a way that helps my debt and is sustainable. Their lack of notifications and communication, especially regarding direct debiting, has caused me much anguish and stress, and I wonder if there is a way to no longer deal with them as a business. I wish my loan balances could be dealt with through a different, more accountable company that respects me as a worker and a student trying to do my best to pay the loan off.