Consumer complaint received 2022-10-12
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (PA)

To whom it may concern, I am about to apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ), however I have a significant issue as it relates to income recertification and my current servicer that I think would be easiest to resolve prior to my transferring to XXXX upon submitting my PSLF application. As someone in the process of applying for PSLF, I felt I was provided misleading information by my loan servicer, My Great Lakes, which resulted in an increase in my IDR payment plan from {$0.00} a month starting XX/XX/XXXX to {$450.00} a month, and they continue to provide me conflicting information each time I contact them. Unfortunately, in my efforts to resolve this issue with My Great Lakes directly, they have declined to provide any clear and convincing evidence my issue has been ( or will be resolved ). They have provided misleading instructions and conflicting responses towards resolving my issue multiple times ( as detailed below ). 

My Great Lakes in their prior email instructions to me from XXXX and as instructed on various parts of their website, instructed that I was required to recertify my income annually to keep my Income Driven repayment plan ( IDR plan ; required to be eligible for PSLF ) while simultaneously omitting key information from me that income recertification was *not required this year, * rather at the earliest it needed to be done was XXXX XXXX something I found out by chance using social media rather than from my loan servicer. Please see attached emails and attached web pages from My Great Lakes, consolidated to one document for each, all of which explicitly state I must recertify each year to maintain my IDR plan while also making no reference to inform borrowers this was not required until at earliest, XX/XX/XXXX. Relevant text is highlighted for ease of reference and relevant documents are titled : " XXXX IDR application and income recertification '' and " My Great Lakes Webpages. '' Moreover, when navigating to studentaid.gov to recertify as directed by my servicer, there is no mention on the recertification webpage either to inform borrowers of the updated guidance that it is not required until at earliest XX/XX/XXXX, rather the opposite which is outdated ( see document from studentaid.gov webpage and relevant highlighted text for ease of reference, Apply for or Manage Your Income-Driven Repayment Plan _ Federal Student Aid ). 

After it recently came to my attention that I had been misled by my servicers instructions to recertify 1 year earlier than necessary, which was not required and subsequently increased my monthly payment while trying to pursue PSLF, I called My Great Lakes on XX/XX/XXXX requesting that I be returned to my previous IDR payment plan as I was provided false information. 

The customer service representative on XX/XX/XXXX ( whose name I do not recall but who was very understanding of the situation ) spoke to their supervisor on how I could be helped and they returned back saying their supervisor ( name not provided ) had told them my only recourse was to return to studentaid.gov and to resubmit a new income recertification saying my income was {$0.00}. This did not sound appropriate but in case they were right I went to studentaid.gov to submit a new recertification and as previously thought, this would be fraudulent. So the next day I called My Great Lakes back ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and spoke to a different representative, XXXX, to discuss the removal of the unnecessary early income recertification and explained to her what I was instructed to do on XX/XX/XXXX, reportedly by a supervisor, was not permissible due to fraud. In a rather confusing interaction I can not rationally explain, XXXX said she could help me but in order to do so I needed to reconfirm information I had provided in the income recertification I wanted removed and that she could not proceed in helping me without this reconfirmation ( she also would not explain why she needed this information again which she already had and I told her I did not know the information off the top of my head and to reference the information she already had ). She then proceeded to tell me she manually calculated my payment ( $ XXXX unchanged from the income recertification I wanted removed ) and this number was calculated based on the information that was in the income recertification I wanted removed. Confused, as this was not what I had asked for and she did not help me as she had previously said she could, I asked instead to speak directly with a supervisor. 

I then spoke with a supervisor named XXXX, who said she can not accommodate my request. She stated instead, I had been notified by email from My Great Lakes regarding extension of the student loan pause and the income recertification. As I had read all of my emails from My Great Lakes and having never read such an email, I asked for this reported email to be resent so I can confirm this information as accurate, but she said it can not be resent ( no reason provided ). I then inquired about the name ( s ) and date ( s ) of said email ( s ) that were reportedly sent, but she then told me she could not provide me this information or the exact details of what was in these reported emails as she did not know that information; including if there was even any notification to borrowers that the income recertification was not required annually. I subsequently searched my email inbox for *all* emails received from My Great Lakes from XXXXpresent and I could not find any email that mentioned that income recertification was not required until at earliest XX/XX/XXXX as XXXX implied initially. I did find an email from My Great Lakes in XXXX titled, Extension of your student loan flexibilities, which she said sounds like the correct email however at no point in that email did it provide any information to suggest income recertification was delayed, let alone till XX/XX/XXXX ( see attached email, " Important XXXX XXXX  extension of loan '' for said email ). When I mentioned this not being in that email which she had thought was correct, she continued to not be able to provide me any email or information on these reported emails from My Great Lakes that updated borrowers about income recertification no longer being required annually, just that the pause on payments had been extended. She then stated actually the information regarding income recertification not being required until at earliest XX/XX/XXXX was never communicated to me due the chaotic situation as it relates to student loans which necessitated that My Great Lakes maneuver flexibly given the evolving guidance from the Biden Administration ( unlike before when she said My Great Lakes did communicate this to me but could not provide me with said email nor could I find it ). Due to the chaos accompanying the student loan pause/being provided misleading information, I requested My Great Lakes grant me the same level of flexibility given their instructions on recertification were never updated to reflect such changes, however she declined to accommodate without reason. In ending the conversation, I requested to be provided with my customer service history/notes for my record, however, XXXX refused and instead informed me I must have a lawyer submit this request in writing to even be considered. 

Given My Great Lakes had been providing me conflicting information, I called back again on XX/XX/XXXX, and I spoke to XXXX who then stated I can obtain my customer service history/notes, unlike what XXXX had said. She then returned stating she was wrong and unable to. She did say I *can* have my most recent income recertification removed as I had been requesting as long as the recertification was within the last XXXX years, however she advised me not to do this as this would increase my monthly payments, however she was unaware of the recertification deadline being moved back to XX/XX/XXXX and I clarified my prior monthly payment plan would be {$0.00} per month until my income needed to be recertified at XX/XX/XXXX. After discussing further, she said she will have the most recent recertification removed and this request will take ~15 days to process. She stated I should receive a receipt of this request by email within 7-10 days and she has never heard of these types of requests ever being rejected. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, after having never received any receipt regarding my request, I called My Great Lakes again and I spoke with XXXX XXXX ' She stated she did not see any request to remove my most recent income recertification, rather she saw a request was sent on XX/XX/XXXX to reuse the income recertification from XX/XX/XXXX ( the opposite of what I requested which was to have the XX/XX/XXXX income recertification removed ). Paraphrased, she said she will submit another request to have the most recent income recertification from XX/XX/XXXX be removed and for me to be placed on my prior IDR plan from XX/XX/XXXX until my income was required to be recertified again at the earliest, XX/XX/XXXX. She stated she submitted the request at XXXX pm eastern time, XXXX central time, on XX/XX/XXXX. ' She stated that removal of the income recertification will not be an issue at all and it should take 3-5 days to receive confirmation via message on my My Great Lakes account. As I need to be on an IDR plan to apply for the PSLF, I asked and she confirmed that I will not be removed from my IDR plan ( my specific IDR is called 'REPAYE ' should this matter ), rather I will only have my payment amount be reverted to that of XX/XX/XXXX. 

As someone wanting to apply for PSLF, the decision to voluntarily increase ones monthly payments when pursuing forgiveness when not required is one that only makes sense in the context of being misled, in this case by my servicers email instructions, their website, and the omission of key information updating borrowers on student loan guidance. At no point did My Great Lakes ever provide this information to me, instead misinforming me of my responsibilities as it relates to maintaining my IDR plan, stating that I was required to recertify my income when I was not required to do so which resulted in a drastic increase in monthly payments. Meanwhile, their customer service reps/supervisors have also only provided conflicting information which only serves to confuse and misguide borrowers. Though after contacting them today, XX/XX/XXXX, and being told they will remove the income recertification from XX/XX/XXXX and place me back on my payment plan from XX/XX/XXXX, they told me the same thing on XX/XX/XXXX which never came to fruition and I can not trust ( or rely on ) any information provided by this servicer or the representatives. I would greatly appreciate this matter looked into and having the same level of flexibility and patience extended to me as I have with them.