Consumer complaint received 2025-03-06 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
The issue is with my PSLF payment count. I have been in repayment since XXXX. I have been a teacher since XXXX. I have always paid, even when pursuing another degree in XXXX. During that time I called my servicer every semester to waive the in school deferrment and continue payments, which I was assured would count towards my count. My loans were also sold numerous times, placing me on an administrative forbearance during XXXX and XXXX. My payment information ( IBR ) was never sent to the new providers, so I was told my only option was to go into forbearance or to pay $ XXXX, which I could not do. I was making on time payments before and afterwards, and this period should not count against me. I was capable and willing to make the payments, but the servicer sold my loans. I also have XXXX years of employment certification which I see uploaded to the Mohela website and not counting towards my count. I have submitted a complaint previously and received an email confirmation but no one has followed up. I will escalate this to CFPB. I submitted a previous complaint in XX/XX/XXXX which was clicked resolved the same day I received confirmation of submission, but XXXX never actually did anything. She just closed my claim. Spoke to XXXX in XXXX department today who verified this. At that time, I submitted a letter which I had previously submitted for PSLF payment count reconsideration in XXXX, which also received no follow up. There is no information on either complaint in my dashboard or correspondence. Their website will not take complaints, and hasnt for XXXX weeks. I have tried from multiple browsers and computers, and cleared my cache. I get to the submit section, and it says they are experiencing an error and to try back later. I have attached a pdf which indicates the entirety of this case, including those I have spoken with at each servicer. To date, my complaint from 2 months ago, a complaint from XXXX and from XXXX remain unresolved. From XXXX to XXXX I was working as a full-time teacher in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and continued my service elsewhere. During this time, although I have been in repayment since XXXX, as of this writing I have XXXX qualifying payments. I request this be reconsidered. I have requested this numerous times, through numerous outlets and petitions. My next step is my state ombudsmen and congressman. 
In XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I attended XXXX XXXX XXXX for my XXXX XXXX, and was on an in school loan forbearance. In XXXX of XXXX, I entered a second XXXX XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX I entered a XXXX XXXX. During each of these periods, I continued to make payments. Until XXXX, I had been in a combination of forbearance or deferment. In XXXX, my qualifying payment was {$0.00} due to our low income and family size. I called XXXX XXXX numerous times to ensure that this payment would count for my XXXX, and was assured that, although the physical payment due was {$0.00}, that I was actively in repayment. These payments did not ultimately count. 
Every single semester, I called my servicer and let them know that I intended to accrue months of payments to count towards PSLF by continuing to make payments. I often called a dozen times, every single semester since XXXX. Every single time-no less than XXXX representatives from the various servicers ( I have names and employee numbers at the bottom of this letter ) -assured me that continuing to make payments was the only way for this time period to count towards XXXX. Now I am told that, because I DIDNT go into forbearance, that those payments do not count, which is exactly the opposite of what I was told for XXXX years, by multiple representatives at multiple servicers. It was a struggle and sacrifice to make those payments, as the sole source of income for my family, while in school, however I wanted to repay my debt, and counted on this system to work for me. 
Additionally, there were numerous times I was in repayment and my loan was transferred or sold without the accompanying XXXX paperwork, which skyrocketed my payment amount. I was told the only option was to forebear or defer until I resubmitted everything. This often took XXXX months in which I could have been paying, in which I WANTED to pay, but was told the only option was to pay the entire amount ( $ XXXX ) or nothing and defer/forebear. This happened most recently in XXXX, when my loans were sold to XXXX, without transfer of my XXXX paperwork. I was told that I, as the loan holder had to provide information of WHY my loan was sold, and that the burden was on me to apply all over again. This process took over a year, and resulted in me losing many, many months of payments that I was already making and would have continued to make, if not for this forced deferment. I ask that every period of forbearance-and they are staggered-be reevaluated. I request that every period following the sale or transfer of XXXX of my loans be counted towards my total PSLF payment count. In in particular was from XXXX in which my loans were sold to XXXX, and the period in XXXX when my payments did not count. By the new loan guidelines, periods of over 6 months of deferment are supposed to count. 
A specific period in question was from XXXX which I was in repayment with a low payment amount while in school. This period should be revisited and counted, in addition all others. I should currently have payments counting, yet even during the pandemic period these payments have not due to my being in school. Additionally, I have not received any of the lump sum repayments. 
Please revisit and reverse this decision. I submitted a letter stating such to XXXX XXXX on the advice of a representative. That letter was never evaluated. They have since sold my loan and I am told that I was supposed to have filled out a form, that it took a XXXX representative to assist me in finding on the website. I am told I must fax the form to the new servicer. I am not sure who still has a fax machine to do that. This is a prime example of the level of circular logic related to this program. I was told in XX/XX/XXXX I needed to consolidate again for these to count. I was told in XXXX of XXXX that was inaccurate. Now, a year later, NOTHING has been done on my account. 
I request that this entire period, from the time of my employment in XXXX to present day, be reviewed and counted towards my payment count. 


Examples of employees I spoke with whom advised that my call to restart payments while in school was sufficient to count towards XXXX, and other items related to my PSLF count. 
XX/XX/XXXX spoke with XXXX at XXXX XXXX ID XXXX XX/XX/XXXX spoke with XXXX at XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Began dealing with XXXX, a supervisor at XXXX whom I dealt until they sold my loans. # XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX at XXXX # XXXX

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