Consumer complaint received 2025-06-02 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: MOHELA
State: WI

Complaint narrative:
I submitted for forbearance on XX/XX/XXXX. I've been doing forbearance for about a year now and I've never been denied. I was being given administrative forbearance because the repayment plan I requested was put on hold. The processing window passed for that request and it still showed as open. Because of that, I was advised by a MOHELA rep, XXXX, not to make my payment because I'm waiting on forbearance, who I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX. That led to me missing that payment by their direction. Following that, I had a delinquency on my account. She told me she put in another request for forbearance and the XXXX plan, or whatever the auto renewal forbearance request was. She also said she put in a request to speed up my XX/XX/XXXX request. She said wait XXXX business days. That window passed, and I still had not received an update on my XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX requests. 

On XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, a MOHELA rep, who told me she could see both requests were still open, and she was of no help to me. She told me a supervisor would return my call, never heard back. 

I then called again on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and spoke to XXXX, a MOHELA rep, who told me she could see they were both still open and she transferred me to a supervisor, but I was told they would call back in XXXX business days. I'XXXX XXXX XXXX so it's very difficult to answer random phone calls during the day. This caused a great deal of stress and XXXX as I was showing a delinquency and did not want a negative credit report hit because of their inability to process paperwork on time. As I said, I've never been denied in the past, and I didn't know what was taking so long for those requests. I asked for a helpful and reassuring response, and was never responded to. I then submitted an online message to leave a paper trail. Below are my call log history notes. 

XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  - XXXX - There will be a delinquency on my account. 
- I currently have two requests open 1. 60 day renewal 2. Auto renewal ( FARM ) and this is the one that was initiated on XXXX XXXX XXXXor me. She requested that they push this through for me. 
- SAVE will disband, choose new plan. 
- Allow XXXX business days for the auto renewal forbearance ( FARM ). This will auto renew for me every 60 days. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX - XXXX - She could see that they put in for the speedup process on both the XX/XX/XXXX forbearance request and the XX/XX/XXXX forbearance request. Both of these requests are showing as " processing ''. Still no progress made. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX  - XXXX - Before being transferred, the first woman told me not to worry. No help. 
- She's looking into why they are still showing as processing and how we can speed up the process. Which we apparently already did, but no update on that. 
- She transferred me to a supervisor and of coure I wasn't able to talk to anyone. They say they will call back within XXXX business days, but this happened last time and I never heard back. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX PM XXXX - XXXX - She finally set me up with a 60 day forbearance. 
- She told me that apparently some of the reps at MOHELA are unable to help with this type of issue which makes no sense to me. So, you need to ask for a certain type of agent which I was never told prior to this. Seems like call deflection to me. 

I feel it was extremely inappropriate of them to explicitly tell me NOT to make a payment on a federal loan because they weren't processing their paperwork on time and that a delinquency was going to show on my account, which it did. Had I not called them every single free second I had in the day, my credit report would've taken a hit because of their mishandling of my loans. I was also never told why there was a difference in the amounts to be paid between my online account and over the phone. 

My online account was showing a balance in the {$350.00} range, however, over the phone, their automated system kept telling me I owed approximately {$900.00} and I wasn't sure where the additional charges were coming from. This led to uncertainty and anxiety about what exactly I owed and when it was due. 

Additionally, my loans are showing that I've been accruing interest over time and I have no idea why. Federal student loan interest was on pause under the XXXX administration following COVID, and I even did a back to school deferment form and that was approved when I returned to school for 2 years. My student loan interest should've been on a complete pause this entire time, not only because of the XXXX pause, but also because I returned to school for a short period. I'm showing that I have outstanding accrued interest for several consecutive months stretching almost XXXX years. This amount has continued going up on all of my statements as far back as I can go. 

Now I'm beginning to worry about if they are processing my loans correctly, and if I will be qualified and setup for XXXX, as I am a public school teacher. I feel wronged by my provider and hope for this issue to be escalated to avoid further issues. At this rate, I fully expect to go through this same headache once again when my 60 day forbearance needs to be renewed and I have to go through this process again.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation