Consumer complaint received 2020-06-24
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (DC)

I started repaying my student loans ( 4 loans totaling about {$12000.00}, made for the XXXX and XXXX academic years ) 6 months ago, after the 6 month grace period from my XX/XX/XXXX graduation. I entered a standard repayment plan, which would allow me to finish repaying after 10 years/120 payments. I was notified by Nelnet that my monthly payment under this plan would be about {$95.00} per month, and chose to repay about 150 % of that amount every month ( {$150.00} every month, set on auto-debit ). I made this payment on time every month from XXXX through XXXX. I opted not to apply over-payments into the next period, so there is no way my over-payments are reducing the next period 's payment and creating some mis-represenation, unless there is a serious issue with Nelnet 's systems, which is cause for great concern given that Nelnet 's main ( if not only ) job as a servicer is to calculate and collect monthly loan payments. 

In XXXX, the CARES act was passed and my account was placed into a forbearance with a 0 % interest rate, and I was notified that my monthly payment was reduced by just over 20 % to about {$75.00} per month, and the forbearance would stop payments for the next 6 months, putting my next due date in XXXX of XXXX. This didn't make sense -- how would the overall cost of my loan over the 10 year life in standard repayment be so drastically lowered by a drop to 0 % interest for just 6 months? I ignored that for the time. I called Nelnet in XXXX to remove the forbearance to make progress toward paying my loan down while interest rates were low, as I still am fortunate enough to have a stable job, and made two payments in XXXX -- one to catch up for my XXXX payment that was not debited to my account because of the forbearance, and one on my regular monthly schedule as I voluntarily resumed repayment at my previous monthly auto debit amount of {$150.00}, now twice the monthly payment amount. 

Now it's XXXX -- I've made XXXX payments, each {$150.00}, on my balance. I wanted to know when I will have this loan paid off, as I plan to attend graduate school in the future. My future plans depends on the information I have now, including what my student loans will look like when I need to begin to consider how to finance graduate education. I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation in my head, and it looks like while paying what I am told is about double the required monthly payment at the moment, it would take just under 8 years to fully pay off my loans. 

I reached out to a friend who calculated the amortization for me, and he confirmed my suspicions -- the monthly payment Nelnet is telling me is necessary is FAR to low for me to pay off in a standard repayment plan over 10 years. My real payment should be about 66 % higher than I am currently told it is. Doubtful, I checked out the XXXX loan payment calculator and amortization calculator, and it re-confirms what my friend told me and my initial suspicions : Nelnet is drastically under-representing to me what my monthly payments have to be, thus impeding me from accurately planning for my financial future and potential higher education. 

I have been told that my monthly payment would have to be half of what my monthly payment actually should be. This thought -- that my student debt burden over the next decade of my life will be double what I thought it would be due to what seems like a miscalculation on Nelnet 's part has caused me great distress. I can only XXXX the fate of those who are willing to take Nelnet 's word at face value.