Consumer complaint received 2016-04-30
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Don't agree with fees charged
Company: AES/PHEAA (NM)

I graduated with an XXXX from XXXX XXXX U in XXXX in XXXX. XXXX 's student loan officer told our cohort that the loan they recommended meant we would get the Stafford loan rate of 3.9 % as long as we XXXX in a XXXX facility. We were also told after 10 years of paying on the loan the difference would be paid off by the Federal government. 
The original loan company acted like a credit card company and if you were late supplying them with an annual certificate they provided, and signed by Human Resources from your school district, proving you were still working at a XXXX they would revoke your Stafford loan percentage and it would go up to 8 %. 
They made so many " mistakes '' which I believe were to deliberately make you default so they could charge the higher interest, particularly sending a different verification of work certificate each year and sending it with little time to get it signed, especially if you worked in a large district like XXXX, where it went from having your principal sign it to having human resources sign it.I found it so stressful I FAXED them my certificate so it would be on time and I would have a time stamped copy from my school, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX. 
I received a letter a month or so later stating I had never sent in the certificate. I called and said I had FAXed them a copy and sent both a hard and reFAXED the proof with the time stamp on it. They were nasty about it and finally said they would reinstate my Stafford loan rate. 
In XX/XX/XXXX I moved to XXXX to XXXX and help care for my XXXX mother. I was XXXX and still teach at a XXXX XXXX school in New Mexico. I received a letter from the loan company, AES, which had bought out the loan about a year earlier. They stated that because I had left the state of the original loan I no longer qualified for the Stafford rate and my loan went up to 7.9 %. I called and said that was not the original agreement. AES stated that because the original loan company had given me a " one time only '' exemption, when I failed to turn in my certificate of proof of working at a XXXX XXXX XXXX, that they would not give me back my Stafford rate. I said that it was the loan company 's fault for misplacing my certificate, that I had proven I had FAXed it in well before the due date. They were having none of it. The loan company I am with now used it as an excuse to not honor the Stafford loan, stating my problem was with the original loan company! I got no where with either company. My loan rate with AES at present is 6.8 %. Never mind writing off the balance of the loan after I had been paying on it for over ten years and have never missed a payment. 
XXXX XXXX, I later learned, recommended different loans to different cohorts. People with other loan companies did not have to confirm their place of work and still got the Stafford loan rate.This is one of many reasons I do not council students to go into XXXX. The stress level is high enough without even more paper work and being preyed upon financially, as we are expected to keep our degrees current at great personal expense while earning a salary that does not support a family. You will want original documentation from the original lender and will have to get it from AES as I had a fire and lost a great deal of papework, documentation. Shame on all of you. XXXX XXXX XXXX