Consumer complaint received 2026-05-06 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't temporarily delay making payments
Company: MOHELA
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
I am filing this complaint against MOHELA regarding multiple serious servicing failures that have resulted in an unjustified payment increase effective XX/XX/XXXX that I can not afford and did not cause. For context : I originally borrowed {$100000.00} in federal student loans. Despite payments totaling at least {$36000.00} in documented payments, I currently owe {$140000.00}. My balance has grown by {$37000.00} despite consistent payments. I work XXXX jobs to earn an adjusted gross income of {$170000.00}, which does not reflect my actual financial reality. After federal and Illinois state taxes I take home approximately {$9000.00} per month. Beginning XX/XX/XXXX my student loan payments will total {$1300.00} per month across XXXX servicers 15 % of my actual take-home pay plus all remaining expenses for a single person in Illinois. I have detailed loan statements, federal student aid data files, and credit report documentation supporting these figures and am prepared to provide them upon request. Issue XXXX Broken XXXX website and wrongful payment increase : Beginning in approximately XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX, I made multiple attempts over several weeks to recertify my IDR plan at XXXX. Each attempt failed I could log in but the submission process was non-functional, displaying only a loading indicator. I was unable to proceed past the initial stages of the application despite repeated attempts. I never reached the point of submitting income documentation. This occurred during a documented nationwide crisis as of XX/XX/XXXX the Department of Education reported over XXXX pending IDR applications stuck in processing with delays of 60 days or more. The nationwide IDR processing crisis of XXXX specifically affected Direct Loan IDR plans serviced by MOHELA. Despite this documented government-caused processing failure affecting hundreds of thousands of borrowers, MOHELA increased my payment to {$790.00} beginning XX/XX/XXXX and penalized me for failing to complete a process that was functionally impossible during this period. MOHELA sent IDR renewal reminders on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX after I had already been attempting to recertify and then on XX/XX/XXXX sent written notice that my payment was increasing to {$790.00} beginning XX/XX/XXXX with only 16 days notice. On XX/XX/XXXX they notified me my IDR plan had expired. Critically, MOHELA sent me an IDR renewal reminder in XX/XX/XXXX at a comparable income level. I did not renew and my payment was not increased at that time. It was not until XXXX when the website was broken and IDR processing was in documented nationwide crisis that I was penalized. This demonstrates inconsistent and arbitrary enforcement of recertification requirements. Furthermore, studentaid.gov currently shows my MOHELA payment as {$100.00} due XX/XX/XXXX contradicting MOHELAs own XX/XX/XXXX notice of {$790.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. This discrepancy between the federal student aid system and MOHELAs own billing suggests the payment increase may not be properly reflected in the federal system and was improperly applied. Issue XXXX Forbearance denial : I requested a general forbearance due to financial hardship. My request was denied online immediately. MOHELA did not provide a regulatory basis for the denial. Discretionary forbearance eligibility is not income-restricted under federal regulation. I am a borrower in good standing who is being denied basic hardship relief with no regulatory justification provided. Issue XXXX Disaster forbearance offered but never delivered : MOHELA sent emails in XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX stating natural disaster forbearance had been applied to my account. I received no corresponding relief and no follow-up communication. XXXX portal contains no records prior to XX/XX/XXXX making it impossible to verify what actually occurred during that period. Issue XXXX Incomplete account setup and missing payment history : Upon transfer to MOHELA in XX/XX/XXXX, only XXXX of my XXXX loans appeared in my payment schedule for the first 3 months. The XXXX missing loans were absent with no explanation. This incomplete account setup is documented in my Experian credit report which shows no payment data reported for XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX corresponding exactly to the period when the XXXX missing loans were being reconfigured on my account. XXXX XXXX contains no payment history prior to XX/XX/XXXX despite my loans being in active repayment since XXXX approximately 12 years of missing payment history. Additionally XXXX portal only displays documents dated XX/XX/XXXX or later, making it impossible to verify account changes, forbearance outcomes, or communications from before that date. My loans were transferred from XXXX to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and then to MOHELA in XX/XX/XXXX multiple involuntary transfers during the documented federal student loan servicing crisis. On XX/XX/XXXX I received written assurance from XXXX that my loan terms and benefits would remain intact upon transfer. Despite this written promise, 12 years of payment history is now inaccessible to me as a borrower. During my transfer to MOHELA in XXXX, both MOHELA and my previous servicer simultaneously reported my loans to credit bureaus, creating duplicate tradelines and causing significant damage to my credit score. This dual reporting during servicer transfers is a documented consumer harm that I experienced directly as a result of XXXX failure to properly coordinate the transfer of my accounts.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response