Consumer complaint received 2025-01-06 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Don't agree with the fees charged
Company: MOHELA
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I am currently on the student loan SAVE plan, and was placed on the 0 % interest SAVE forbearance due to the pending court rulings. 

My initial income recertification date was due by XX/XX/XXXX, and I received notifications from Mohela to submit my income recertification form ( screenshot attached ). I electronically submitted my income recertification form via the Student Aid website by the due date ( screenshot attached ). My total student loan balance at this time was {$180000.00} ( screenshot attached ).

About 2 weeks after I submitted my income recertification form, Mohela sent me a notice on XX/XX/XXXX that my income recertification date was actually pushed out to XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately messaged Mohela to request canceling my income recertification form since I did not need to recertify in XXXX anymore. I messaged them, because I wanted paper trail of our conversation. Mohela messaged me back requesting to call them instead ( screenshot attached ). 

I then called both Student Aid and Mohela in mid-XXXX XXXX to again request them to cancel my income recertification form. There was no electronic option or other way to cancel the form, except to call them. Student Aid told me they did not have control to the cancel the form, and to contact my servicer, Mohela, instead. Mohela told me on XX/XX/XXXX that any form processing had been put on hold, and that my form had had not yet been processed. The Mohela representative told me that they would put a note in my file to not process the form and have it cancelled. I asked for a confirmation email other some sort of proof of this conversation, but they told me they could not send any. The representative reassured me that my form would not be processed, since forms were not being processed at the time anyways. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my student loan portal and was surprised to see my balance had increased from {$180000.00} to {$180000.00}, since I was supposed to be on the 0 % interest SAVE forbearance. 

I called Mohela on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire why this happened, and they told me that my account had mistakenly started accruing interest again. I asked if my balance would be reverted back to the original {$180000.00}, but the Mohela supervisor, XXXX, told me no. Mohela told me that because my income recertification form that I submitted at the end of XX/XX/XXXX had been processed, I was placed on a 60 day processing forbearance, which accrues interest. 

I told the Mohela supervisor, XXXX, that I had called in XX/XX/XXXX and requested to have my income certification form cancelled since my income recertification date had been pushed to XX/XX/XXXX. The form was not supposed to be processed or on my file since I had asked them to cancel it. 

The Mohela supervisor told me that there was no way to cancel the form in XX/XX/XXXX since all form processing was put on hold. I told the Mohela supervisor I understood that, but that a Mohela representative was supposed to put a note on my file in XX/XX/XXXX to not process the application and have it cancelled. But Mohela just went ahead and processed my form anyways 2 months later, without allowing me to cancel it, even though I requested to cancel my income recertification form submission early on. Again, there was no electronic option to cancel the form. 

Long story short, the Mohela supervisor told me she was not sure why my application was still processed if I had requested to cancel it, but that it had been anyways. Mohela told me on XX/XX/XXXX that they would cancel my income recertification application, but that I would need to keep the interest accrued from this processing forbearance, even though I am on the 0 % interest SAVE forbearance. Again, I had requested to cancel my income recertification form couple months prior in XX/XX/XXXX, and the only way to do so was on the phone. And the Mohela representative told me in XX/XX/XXXX, that they would put a note in my file to not process and cancel the application. 

Mohela ultimately reverted my balance to {$180000.00}, when it should be at my original balance of {$180000.00}. That is {$1600.00} extra that Mohela is charging me for a form that should never have been processed anyways. The process of cancelling a form is very tedious ( only via phone call without an electronic option or any receipt of confirmation ). In addition, Mohela representative either falsely told me they put a note in my file to cancel my application, forgot to do it, or ignored my request.

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