Consumer complaint received 2017-11-14
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: AES/PHEAA (WA)

I have a very large student loan on the income based repayment plan with plans to request writeoff in 10 years as I work for a nonprofit. Every summer, I am asked to submit income information to reset the loan amount based on that year 's income. Each time, I am forced into several months of back and forth with the loan company to get the amount reset correctly, and my loan is temporarily put into forbearance because the student loan agency is taking so long to process my documents. This year, it has gotten so bad i felt compelled to make a complaint. I started the process in late XXXX. My loan was forced into almost 6 months of forbearance because the student loan agency has been misdirecting me, and has made the process so complicated it is beyond reason. 

I initially turned in my taxes and asked them to readjust the loan for my new income and it came back with an amount of over {$1000.00}, which is just astounding. That is more in disposable income than i have each month. I called back in and got directions on a different way to fill out the form. I asked at that time and still dont understand ... why cant you just check a box telling them to find the lowest payment and tell you what that is? Why do i have to call numerous times each year and ask them to look at it again before they finally come back with the lowest payment??? 

During the second call, I was told over the phone how to complete the form differently and that based on the operator 's estimate, payments would then be {$500.00} due to an unpublished explanation about how to report my income. Okay. So that was more in line what I expected. However ... .Several weeks later I learned, It didnt work again. I had to call again and get different instructions about a box to check. 

It finally worked, but THEN it just stalled in process. I called several times over two months time to ask them to expedite service. FINALLY ... ..they agreed to expedite service. They told me I had to wait a few more weeks, then pay them {$20.00}, then once they received THAT payment i had to wait a month before they would recalculate the loan??? I dont understand on what planet this is a reasonable practice ... I finally got THAT back and now have received two different letters ... one stating my  payment was due XX/XX/XXXX for {$460.00} and another letter the next day stating my loan payment was {$520.00} and it started in XX/XX/XXXX. There is NO EXPLANATION of why there is a difference between these two letters and I am on hold again ( over an hour so far, hung up on twice after sitting on hold over 25 minutes the most recent time ) as I write this letter. All told they now have an additional 6 months worth of interest from me, and I am sucked into another 6 months of payments into this loan. At this rate, it will take me 20 years to reach the 10 year forgiveness plan due to them putting my loan on forbearance every summer. This is absolutely unfair and out of my control. I am not happy and I want help fighting this practice!! 

The process is so confusing and unreasonable that it is clearly to give the loan company the advantage of getting more interest and has NOTHING to do with helping the customer. This needs to be stopped.
I am attaching the last two letters I receieved, one day apart, with two different payment amounts and two different payment start dates, with no explanation as to why the payment amount changed in that 24 hour period, and again, six months after i started the yearly process to readjust my loans based on income.