Consumer complaint received 2016-06-20
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (NC)

While attending a XXXX program at New York XXXX I applied for and received Federal student loans ( opting not to take out any private loans ). Having finished my final semester, I had only XXXX " course '' remaining : a specially listed course that entailed only my meeting and collaboration with the professor overseeing my work on the thesis. Leading up to this XX/XX/XXXX semester, XXXX, communicating on my behalf with student loans -- and completely without my knowledge -- somehow incorrectly assumed I would be " XXXX. '' XXXX communicated this full-time status to Fedloans, prompting them to offer me a larger loan ( i.e., that which is appropriate for a full-time student ). 

Seeing the unnecessarily large amount that I had been disbursed, I went to my Fedloans account and sent back {$10000.00} in XXXX, XXXX ( at the beginning of the semester ). What XXXX subsequently did without my knowledge would result in the punishing financial burden I have born since XXXX -- XXXX that was impossible to anticipate and that has been impossible to manage. Four months after my XX/XX/XXXX i.e., in XXXX of XXXX, XXXX realizing their own error with regard to my XXXX status, and once more completely unbeknownst to me, XXXX sent back {$9700.00} of its own money to Fedloans. Incomprehensibly, in that moment, my debt to the federal government -- an unwieldy yet anticipated debt whose repayment I had, prior to XXXX XXXX, consciously accepted and planned for -- was compounded with a debt to XXXX that I had never consented to. 

Shocked by a sudden balance owed to XXXX ( from whom I never agreed to take money ), I spent weeks and weeks in order to finally ascertain that instead of simply passing the federal loans along to me, XXXX had incomprehensibly taken it upon themselves to become my lender. In essence, Fedloans lent money to XXXX who then lent money to me. 
According to this logic, my sending back {$10000.00} to Federal Loans in XXXX of XXXX did not correct things for XXXX. Though unidentified as such to me, they had ( apparently ) acted as my lender, and their mistake in requesting loans for a XXXX student meant that they ( not me ) would send back {$10000.00} to Fedloans ( 4 months after I 'd XXXX and moved on, that is ) and that I should owe them ( not Fedloans ) that amount. 

The result was finishing XXXX school with an absolutely unmanageable and unjust debt to XXXX. Not only would I have to repay my Fedloans according to difficult but anticipated and just terms, but I would have to repay XXXX immediately for a loan I had not solicited and something I could have never foreseen. 

XXXX has since had me trapped. Without any other apparent recourse, I argued and then pleaded, protesting that this was all a result of their error and unscrupulous practices. Recognizing this, they consented to helping me with a " budget appeal form '' that would make me eligible for a new temporarily no-interest loan from XXXX. They allowed me to put this loan towards the remaining balance and thus lower it. Meanwhile, according to our unofficial agreement, I would make monthly payments towards my student balance while also working to repay the new loan. 

I fought this for a long time, speaking with Fed Loans at length and being assured by their offices that something was not right. Finally, without the financial resources available to seek legal help, I simply accepted my predicament and have lived with it ever since. Having recently been made aware of this bureau, I am submitting this claim with hope that things can be made right ; and, moreover, that someone can explain to me what seems absolutely inexplicable.