Consumer complaint received 2024-02-19
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (GU)

SUMMARY : Because of Nelnet 's poor communication and action, I have not had all of my loans placed on the SAVE plan, despite having applied for and approved for the XXXX plan since XX/XX/2023. 

HISTORY : I was originally approved for the SAVE plan when it was first announced, back in XXXX of XXXX However, since I XXXX  from XXXX XXXX  in XX/XX/2023 and received a 6 month grace period on some of my loans, those loans were kept in forbearance rather than put on the SAVE plan. On XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX I sent an email about how to make sure that the rest of my loans were put on the SAVE plan once the grace period ended, and they told me that my loans would be automatically considered for the SAVE plan within 20 business days after the end of the grace period sometime in XXXX. They told me to reach back out if I hadn't heard from them by then. This was a reasonable timeline, so I complied and waited until XX/XX/2023, at which point I was told to wait until XX/XX/2023. This is where the problems started. Documentation of all email threads and screenshots of student loan repayment status from Nelnet 's website are provided as attachments. 

I followed up on XX/XX/2023 saying that I had entered repayment but was on the Standard Repayment and not the SAVE plan, and asked when I would be put on the SAVE plan. I received a reply on XX/XX/2023 from a different agent at Nelnet saying that I was still in the 20 business day-wait period after the end of the grace period, which was false, and also contradicted Nelnet 's own statements. I replied the same day saying there was a mistake and I was past the 20 day period already. Then I received a reply on XX/XX/2023 from another different agent that I had to apply for the SAVE plan. He told me this via a template email about how to apply for the SAVE plan, not addressing my issue at all. This was frustrating because 1 ) I had already applied for the SAVE plan, and 2 ) they did not take into account my specific situation but rather send a scripted reply that did not address my issue. I then replied the same day outlining my situation in full, and asking how I could get the rest of my loans on the SAVE plan. On XX/XX/2023, I received yet another template email from yet another agent, which did not address my issue at all, but instead was an outline of what the SAVE plan was. 

I started a new email thread to the same Nelnet customer service email address ( XXXXXXXX  ) on that same day, hoping that this would get a response that was specific to my issue. However, I had not received any replies by XX/XX/2023. At this point, I received an automated email on XX/XX/2023 stating that I had a {$1300.00} payment due by XX/XX/2023 ( see documents ). Apparently I had entered Repayment status on all my loans, and was on Standard Repayment for many of them. I panicked as I was on the hook for more than a XXXX dollars a month. I reluctantly decided to call Nelnet Customer Service, even though I had read on online forums that it would take 3+ hours of being on hold. I blocked out an entire day so I could get this sorted without paying those monthly pa

yments, which I should not have had to pay in the first place since I was already enrolled in the SAVE plan. My call with Nelnet took over 3 hours. I was on hold for around 1.5~2 hours, at which point I was transferred to a customer agent. She told me that the only thing to do was to re-apply for the SAVE plan from scratch. It would take at most 2 months, so my loans would be put on forbearance until XXXX, which meant I wouldn't have to make payments, but I would accrue the {$1300.00} as interest every month. I was skeptical of this plan, because I didn't want to accrue that much interest, and I had been told that my loan would automatically be placed on SAVE once the grace period ended, but since the agent did not offer any other options I went ahead and did what she said. She offered me the option of applying online OR applying via the phone with her, and I chose to do it with her since I didn't trust Nelnet to handle an online application. 

We spent about half an hour going through and submitting the application. At the end, I decided that I still wanted to talk to someone else to see if there wasn't another option, and told the agent this. She proceeded to curse me out for a few minutes before putting me on hold for another half hour, until another higher-level agent freed up. This last agent was somewhat helpful, as she understood my situation, but she also told me that my only option was to submit a new SAVE application and accrue the interest. This meant putting both my standard repayment loans and my SAVE plan loans into forbearance, which meant I would accrue interest on the SAVE plan loans. I would rather have kept the SAVE plan loans in repayment, but it wasn't an option. She tried to mollify me by saying that it will all be forgiven in 25 years because I was eligible for the student loan forgiveness programs. I pushed back, but ultimately was presented with no other options so gave up. After this call, I regularly checked my Nelnet account to see if my loans were put on the SAVE plan, but there were no updates. 

Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, which was 2 months and 14 days later, I saw that some of my loans had exited forbearance and entered repayment. None of the Standard Repayment plans had been moved to SAVE. Many of those Standard Repayment plans had entered repayment, but the ones that had been on SAVE were still on forbearance. It was not clear why some loans were on forbearance and some were not. I assume that my agent placed me on a 3-month forbearance because she thought I would have been placed on the SAVE plan by then, but now my forbearance is expiring and most of my loans are still not on the SAVE plan.

At this point, I do not have it in me to try and figure this out with Nelnet. I have received conflicting information from different agents, sent countless emails, been on a call for 3+ hours, accrued $ XXXX in interest with the possibility of a XXXX more each month, and still have no idea when I will be placed on the SAVE plan. I understand that the backend of student loan processing can be complicated, but my sense is that unless Nelnet is forced to take action by someone else, they will give me the runaround and indefinitely delay putting me on the SAVE plan due to their disorganization and/or possibly deliberate obstruction.