Consumer complaint received 2026-04-28 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone
Company: MOHELA
State: ID

Complaint narrative:
To Whom It May Concern, I am submitting this complaint against MOHELA XXXX Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri ) regarding a servicing error that has resulted in an unwarranted late payment notation on my otherwise perfect credit record. I am requesting that MOHELA be directed to remove the late payment from my credit report. -- - BORROWER INFORMATION Name : XXXX XXXX Email : XXXX -- - SUMMARY OF EVENTS On XX/XX/XXXX, my student loan entered administrative forbearance. During the forbearance period, no payments were required and my account was inactive. On XX/XX/XXXX, when my loan returned to repayment, I enrolled in MOHELA 's Auto Pay program and received a confirmation email from MOHELA acknowledging my request ( Subject : " MOHELA Account Information, '' XXXX XXXX ). I set up Auto Pay using my active Capital XXXX checking account ending in XXXX, which is clearly reflected in MOHELA 's own Manage Auto Pay portal. On XX/XX/XXXX, MOHELA emailed me a billing statement summary confirming that my Auto Pay payment of {$17.00} was scheduled for withdrawal on XX/XX/XXXX. Critically, this email stated only that payment would be withdrawn from " the financial institution you provided '' with no account number or institution name specified, making it impossible for me to verify which account MOHELA had on file. On XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX XXXX, I received XXXX simultaneous emails from MOHELA : 1. A notice that my loan was " XXXX payment past due '' 2. A notice that my " loans have been removed from participation in Auto Pay '' 3. A new Auto Pay billing statement for the next payment cycle The autopay removal notice referenced account ending in XXXX an old bank account that I did NOT designate when I enrolled in Auto Pay in XX/XX/XXXX, and which had been closed in XXXX, during my forbearance period. MOHELA attempted to withdraw payment from this long-closed account rather than from my XXXX XXXX account ending in XXXX, which I had designated at enrollment. Upon receiving these emails, I immediately took action. By XXXX XXXX the same morning within approximately XXXX and a half hours of MOHELA 's notification I had : - Manually submitted payment of {$150.00} ( Confirmation # XXXX, scheduled XX/XX/XXXX ) - Initiated cancellation of Auto Pay on the incorrect account ending in XXXX I then called MOHELA 's customer service line to request removal of the late payment notation from my credit report. I was told by MOHELA 's automated phone system that they do not offer late payment removal. WHY THIS IS MOHELA 'S ERROR 1. I correctly enrolled in Auto Pay using my active XXXX XXXX account ending in XXXX. This is confirmed in MOHELA 's own Manage Auto Pay portal. 2. MOHELA attempted to debit account ending in XXXX an account I never designated for this enrollment, and XXXX that had been closed since XXXX. My loan was in forbearance from XX/XX/XXXX onward. MOHELA 's system appears to have retained and defaulted to a pre-forbearance bank account on file, overriding the new account I explicitly provided when re-enrolling in XX/XX/XXXX. 3. MOHELA 's notification emails are materially misleading and prevented me from catching this error in advance. The XX/XX/XXXX autopay confirmation stated only that payment would come from " the financial institution you provided '' with no account number disclosed. No reasonable borrower reading that email would have any way to know a wrong account was being used. Had MOHELA 's emails displayed even the last XXXX digits of the designated account, I would have identified and corrected this error immediately. 4. This failure is consistent with documented systemic problems at MOHELA. The CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman 's XXXX annual report found that MOHELA committed processing errors including taking the wrong amount of money from borrowers ' bank accounts, and MOHELA received more complaints than any other student loan servicer in America. The American Federation of Teachers ' XXXX lawsuit against MOHELA alleged, among other things, that MOHELA illegally debited borrowers ' bank accounts without proper authorization. 5. I responded within approximately XXXX and a half hours of notification, demonstrating unambiguous good-faith intent to pay. IMPACT I have maintained a credit score of XXXX with a completely unblemished payment history XXXX late payments across my entire credit file. This late payment notation is the sole blemish on an otherwise perfect record and is entirely the result of MOHELA 's internal processing error, not any negligence or financial difficulty on my part. The reputational and financial damage to my creditworthiness from a single servicer error of this nature is significant and unjust.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response