Consumer complaint received 2017-01-29
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Don't agree with fees charged
Company: GREAT LAKES (AK)

I have US Dept. of Education Stafford and Consolidated loans being serviced by Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation ( " GL '' ) under the Income Based Repayment ( " IBR '' ) program. I am writing because I have suffered significant economic harm due to GL 's recertification-related loan servicing practices. 
On XX/XX/2016, I received an email from GL, subject " It 's Time to Renew Your Student Loan Repayment Plan ''. 34 CFR 685.221 ( e ) ( 3 ) requires that this notification provide the borrower with a date by which the recertification information must be received, and the consequences if that information is not received " within 10 days following the annual deadline specified in the notice, including... the effective date for the recalculated monthly payment amount.... ". The email notice I received did have a date : XX/XX/2016. However, the effective date for the recalculated payment specified in the regulation was not included. In addition, there was no mention of the required 10-day grace period. Due to these omissions, this notice was not compliant with federal requirements. 
9 days later, on XX/XX/2016, I received an email from GL ( " Keep Your Payment Low : Renew Your IDR Plan. " ). It does not mention any deadline or the consequence of interest capitalization. I did not receive any further notices from GL. To this day, I am still not sure what the actual deadline for submitting my renewal request. The fact that this email did not mention a deadline, given that it was my final notice from GL, the deadline was apparently imminent, and the financial consequences severe, is deceptive and unfair. 
On XX/XX/2016, I visited GL 's website and begun the recertification process. I was referred to student loans.gov, and continued the recertification process promptly and as instructed. 
On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX Alaska time, I received an email from GL with the stating " you 're no longer eligible for a reduced payment because we did not receive your paperwork '' and that interest would be capitalized if not paid by XX/XX/XXXX. Two minutes later, at XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from GL telling me that " We received your income-driven repayment application. '' Clearly, GL had received my application when it sent the email saying that it had not and was therefore capitalizing interest. 
On XX/XX/2016, GL charged my accounts a total of {$7500.00} in capitalized interest. 
I was subsequently forced into forbearance because my payment increased by nearly {$1000.00} per month. I requested to keep making my previous payment while my paperwork was processed, but this was refused. As a result, I am in jeopardy of losing a qualified payment for the PSLF program along with the other negative consequences of forbearance. 
These loan servicing practices by GL are unfair, deceptive, and not in compliance with federal statutes and regulations governing the applicable student loan program. As a result, of this inconsistent, obscured, non-compliant trickle of information from GL, I became confused about how much time I had to renew. In fact, I still do n't know what my hard renewal deadline was. 
I have spoken with several people from GL over the past week about this. None have contradicted or disputed the content of the aforementioned communications, or the fact that they were the only communications I received from GL regarding renewal. 
The last person I spoke with was an Account Supervisor at GL named XXXX. I requested that GL reverse the XX/XX/2016 interest capitalization charges to my accounts, and that I be able to pay my previous XXXX payment while my renewal was being processed. She said she would do some research. A couple of days later, XXXX left me a voicemail that stating that I could contact the FSA Ombudsman about my concerns.