Consumer complaint received 2024-12-18 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: Nelnet, Inc.
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
In early XXXX, I had a notification banner placed on the dashboard of my Nelnet.gov Federal Student loan account. This stated that I needed to have new IDR application submitted by XX/XX/XXXX to have an IDR payment plan on my account when its Administrative Forbearance ended in XXXX XXXX. At this time, my account had not been accruing any interest due to it being placed as a SAVE Plan and then the court issues interfering with the plans implementation. 

I was under the impression that this was required to be done so that my account could continue with some kind of IDR plan regardless of SAVE 's status when my account would go into repayment in XXXX XXXX. Once I submitted my IDR plan, I received multiple emails from Nelnet saying it had been received but nothing stating anywhere that interest would begin accruing on my account as soon as the application had been received. 

Email received XX/XX/XXXX : " Dear XXXX, Thank you for submitting your income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plan application, including Saving on a Valuable Education ( SAVE ) Plan. We will begin reviewing it shortly. 

We ask that you continue to make any payments due on your current repayment plan until you receive confirmation of the outcome of our review. Also, please keep an eye out for any emails from us, as we XXXX need additional information to complete our review of your application. 

Email received XX/XX/XXXX : " Dear XXXX, Thank you for submitting your income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plan application, including Saving on a Valuable Education ( SAVE ) Plan. We will begin reviewing it shortly. 

We ask that you continue to make any payments due on your current repayment plan until you receive confirmation of the outcome of our review. Also, please keep an eye out for any emails from us, as we XXXX need additional information to complete our review of your application. '' Email received XX/XX/XXXX : " Dear XXXX, Thank you for submitting your income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plan application, including Saving on a Valuable Education ( SAVE ) Plan. We will begin reviewing it shortly.

We ask that you continue to make any payments due on your current repayment plan until you receive confirmation of the outcome of our review. Also, please keep an eye out for any emails from us, as we may need additional information to complete our review of your application. '' I noticed that my account had began accruing interest when previously it had not and reached out to Nelnet on XXXX XXXX in regards to the interest. At this point in my history with Nelnet, I have filed multiple complaints with the XXXX. of XXXX in regards to their communication. Phone lines would often have hours long wait times and with my job as a teacher XXXX XXXX this did not leave time for me to communicate with them over the phone. When I would reach out via email, they would take months to respond to my inquiries. This effectively made it completely impossible to gain information regarding my loans and status. Due to my distain with their ability to communicate, I sent this email requesting information : " Hi, I recently submitted an IDR application and went to check if it had been processed yet. However, I saw that interest had begun to accumulate on my account. When did interest payments resume because I have not received any notifications about interest accruing? There no new statements or communications from you stating that this was the case and the last communication I have regarding interest was from XX/XX/XXXX stating that my loans were in forbearance and were not accruing interest. My IDR application email that is still processing also does not say that interest is accruing and that my loans are in forbearance. Please let me know what is happening asap or I will file a complaint with the Dep. of Education. You have been absolutely horrible at communicating with me for the past year and have already filed multiple complaints against you for failing to communicate in a timely manner about my inquiries. Your subsidiary Firstmark services my private student loans and has no communication issues, so I know you are more than capable of answering questions. '' Nelnet responded with : " Dear XXXX, Thank you for contacting Nelnet. 

We understand that you have questions about the current status of the income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plans for federal student loans. Below is a summary as well as common Q & As on the topic. 

IDR Plans The U.S. Department of Education ( ED ) offers four IDR plans : Saving on a Valuable Education ( SAVE ) Planformerly the REPAYE Plan Pay As You Earn ( PAYE ) Repayment Plan Income-Based Repayment ( IBR ) Plan Income-Contingent Repayment ( ICR ) Plan To repay your federal student loans under an IDR plan, you need to fill out an application.

IDR Plan Court Action A federal court recently issued an injunction preventing ED from implementing parts of the SAVE Plan and other IDR plans. ED is monitoring the court action and has set up a webpage with developments as they occur. Visit StudentAid.gov/SAVEaction for the latest information. 

SAVE Forbearance Affected borrowers have been put into a forbearance on their federal student loans as a result of the federal court action affecting the administration of the XXXX plans. Specifically, ED directed Nelnet to put accounts in forbearance for : Borrowers already on the SAVE Plan prior to the court injunction.

o Under this general forbearance, interest does not accrue. It may show on your account, but it will be waived once the legal situation changes or servicers are able to once again bill borrowers at the appropriate monthly amount.

o In addition, time spent under this forbearance does not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) or IDR plan forgiveness.

Borrowers who applied for an IDR plan, for whom more than 60 days have passed while their application has not yet been processed.

o Under this processing forbearance, interest will accrue.

o Time spent in a processing forbearance ( up to 60 days ) is eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) and IDR plan credit.

Additional details about the forbearance are provided in the Q & As below.

Common Questions and Answers Im on the SAVE Plan, but with the court action, do I need to recertify? If so, when?

It is necessary to recertify your IDR plan on an annual basis ; however, due to the recent court action, for those borrowers whose anniversary dates are currently set within the period of XX/XX/XXXX, through XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX has informed servicers to move those dates out for a period of 12 months. Nelnet will notify affected borrowers. 

I submitted my application for the SAVE Plan, when can I expect that to be processed?

Because of the court action described earlier, Nelnet and other servicers are not currently allowed to process SAVE Plan applications. We will place your account into a processing forbearance until the legal situation changes and we are able to proceed.

I submitted my application for the SAVE Plan, but I wasnt given the temporary forbearance and my account is now past due. What do I do? 

Please contact Nelnet at XXXX about your account so we can discuss your eligibility for forbearance and additional options while we are in this SAVE Plan processing freeze.

Beware of Scams You never have to pay a fee for help with your federal student aid. If you have questions or concerns about your loan payments, you can contact Nelnet for free help through Nelnet.studentaid.gov. 

You might be contacted by a company via phone, email, or postal mail saying they will help you get loan discharge, forgiveness, cancellation, or debt relief for a fee. Make sure you work only with the U.S. Department of Educations loan servicers, like Nelnet, and never reveal your personal information or account password to anyone. 

Learn to avoid student aid scams at StudentAid.gov/scams. Our emails to borrowers come from@Nelnet.studentaid.gov. You can report scam attempts to the Federal Trade Commission by calling XXXX or by visiting reportfraud.ftc.gov. 

Questions? Were here for you. Log in to your nelnet.studentaid.gov/ account or reach out to us at nelnet.studentaid.gov/content/contact. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX Nelnet Customer Service Team '' To which I responded : " Hi, This response does not calm my concerns and seems unfair if not fraudulent due to the nature of my account prior to the IDR application. On my Nelnet homepage in early XXXX, there was a banner stating that I needed to submit an IDR application to keep an IDR plan by XX/XX/XXXX. My account was also listed in Forbearance with 0 % interest until XX/XX/XXXX and currently states that no payments are due until XX/XX/XXXX. This seems like a scam where you were attempting to get me to submit an application to begin interest accumulation regardless of the previous statuses that YOU had put me in. At no point in the application process through the Dept. of Education did it ever say that interest payments would begin resuming as this application was being processed and this was only told to me afterwards when you received the application but only when I inquired about it and was not included in the emails that you sent on XXXX and XXXX regarding the application. 

I'm going to file a complaint with the Dept of Education regardless of whether or not you rectify the situation. '' To which Nelnet responded : " Dear XXXX, Thank you for contacting Nelnet. 

Your Nelnet account is currently in a new administrative forbearance. The forbearance was applied on XX/XX/XXXX when we received your income-driven repayment ( IDR ) plan application. The reason this new forbearance was applied is that the XXXX Department of Education ( ED ) has issued guidance to student loan servicers to place any borrowers with pending IDR applications into a 60-day processing forbearance. Your new forbearance is scheduled to end on XX/XX/XXXX. During this short-term period, interest accrues ; however, time spent in the forbearance will be credited toward IDR forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ).

Before this processing forbearance was applied, your account had been placed in a Saving on a Valuable Education ( SAVE ) forbearance because, due to a court injunction impacting some SAVE and other IDR plan provisions, Nelnet is unable to bill you at the amount required. During that forbearance, which started on XX/XX/XXXX, interest did not accrue, and time in the SAVE forbearance did not qualify toward IDR forgiveness or PSLF. If your new IDR application has not been reviewed by the end of the 60-day processing forbearance, your account will be placed once again into this SAVE forbearance. 

If you do not want to remain in the new processing forbearance, and want instead to return to the SAVE forbearance now ( which would require canceling your recently submitted IDR plan application ), please call us at XXXX to discuss next steps. 

For additional information about the latest on the SAVE Plan and the various court actions that impact its implementation, please visit StudentAid.gov/saveaction. 

Questions? Were here for you. Log in to your nelnet.studentaid.gov/ account or reach out to us at nelnet.studentaid.gov/content/contact. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX. 
Your Nelnet Customer Service Team '' I have not responded to this email as of today. My attempt to file another complaint with the Dept of Ed was met with a weird screen stating that they can not accept complaints at this time. Since I have filed multiple complaints with them at this point, I do not see them having any ability to solve problems with the companies they directly work with/oversee loan servicing. Once I am into Winter Break for my school year, I'll be calling Nelnet, most likely waiting hours, and reverting my account back to SAVE according to their information to postpone payments as long as possible. 

Nelnet has been poorly communicating or failing to communicate with me for years and this attempt to get IDR applications submitted seems misleading if not fraud to get borrowers to have interest accruing on their accounts when there was absolutely no reason for it to happen. This coincides with Nelnet posting one of its worst quarterly results where their returns and profits vastly underperformed with a 94 % drop in profits ( https : XXXX ). This seems like a blatant attempt for them to boost their books and the overall debt people owe them to cover for their XXXX XXXX results.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation