Consumer complaint received 2024-08-24 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: MOHELA
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
Starting around XX/XX/XXXX I began trying to contact and try to work with Mohela over the phone. There were multiple hours spent on hold on the phone with no one ever handling my calls. My first issue was getting Mohela to accept my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and my loan forbearance, also from XXXX. Mohela rejected the forbearance request and the payments multiple times and when student loan repayments were set to resume in XXXX I began receiving letters to make payments based upon loan balances which excluded the funds they received and rejected by them on multiple occasions from XXXX. I filed a complaint with the department of education and messaged Mohela through their online messaging system which if I recall correctly claimed to make responses within 7 business days. After multiple messages and months of waiting I got a reply in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Mohela had finally accepted the funds and put my account in forbearance, they told me interest would still accrue during forbearance during that time period. I looked into my XXXX benefits for the year I was in my program partnered with XXXX  and found out I no longer qualified for interest payments to be reimbursed so I began contacting Mohela again in XXXX of XXXX requesting they end my forbearance. I repeatedly called and messaged Mohela for months while receiving no contact back whatsoever. I eventually began to lose hope at receiving any contact back before my forbearance period from XXXX ended in XXXX of XXXX. 

I then lost the ability to even message Mohela in XX/XX/XXXX. I received an email on XX/XX/XXXX informing me that my account was transitioning to their new student loan servicing platform, this completely prevented me from being able to log in, message them or view how much interest was accruing on my loans. I couldnt even have found my account number to help with this complaint process if I had not saved pdf copies of digital communications from Mohela because I no longer have access to any past paperless communications due to being transferred to a new online platform. If I try to login to view communications I was emailed about I merely get told my account is still being transferred. It is a week away from being XXXX and my account still has not been transferred. My account has been placed on administrative forbearance since XXXX. 

In addition to not wanting interest to continue to accrue I also wanted to leave forbearance once I had gotten on the SAVE plan to start making eligible payments towards my PSLF. In XX/XX/XXXX Mohela reviewed my application for counting past payments while working at XXXX XXXX public schools when payments were paused during COVID but those months were allowed to count as payments. Mohela rejected a majority of those months despite receiving letters from employers verifying my employment through qualifying organizations during almost the entirety of that time period with the exclusion on maybe 2 months. Now that the SAVE plan has been challenged Ive been put on yet another administrative forbearance starting in XXXX of XXXX. If it were not for Mohelas refusal to respond or process my phone calls and messages to remove me from forbearance and their administrative changes, I would have been able to have made qualifying payments for PSLF for 6 months ( XXXX ). Instead, interest has accrued for those months which means whenever Mohela deigns to remove me from forbearance my balance owed will have increased and I will also have to wait at minimum an extra half year to receive forgiveness through PSLF, this practice effectively makes it so that Mohela will make more money off of my student loans than if they were responsive to my repeated attempts at communication. 


I just want to be able to make payments, reduce my balance, and get balances forgiven from federal programs designed to help borrowers in a timely manner. Mohela seems driven to prevent that from happening for as long as possible so that they can continue running up the interest on my loans and making more money in the long run.

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