Consumer complaint received 2026-04-30 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: MD

Complaint narrative:
Complaint Regarding Payment Miscalculations, Account Access Failures, Unilateral Forbearance, and Resulting Financial Harm MOHELA I am submitting this complaint regarding inconsistent payment determinations, account access failures, unilateral forbearance, and resulting financial harm caused by my student loan servicer, MOHELA. This complaint is related to a prior CFPB complaint ( Complaint XXXX submitted on XX/XX/XXXX, which included documented issues with MOHELAs platform preventing account access. At that time, I recorded and documented my inability to log into the system and provided a video demonstrating these access failures. During MOHELAs platform transition, other borrowers and I were unable to access our accounts or make payments. By no fault of my own, I was prevented from making timely payments due to these system issues. Despite this, the delay has effectively prolonged my repayment timeline. Because payment amounts are based on current income, this delay has resulted in significantly higher quoted payments than would have applied when I initially attempted to enter repayment. More recently, I was quoted a specific monthly payment amount by a representative within MOHELAs Ombudsman office, which I relied upon in good faith. I have retained a full recording of this conversation, documenting the payment amount quoted and the guidance provided, and I am prepared to provide it upon request. However, following congressional outreach on my behalf, MOHELA reversed this position and issued a new payment amount that is approximately XXXX to XXXX times higher, unilaterally cancelling my approved IDR most recently in XXXX of XXXX. During this period, I was also placed into a forbearance status without my request or consent, reportedly due to MOHELAs internal system updates. This unilateral action further delayed my ability to make payments, first in XXXX and then again in late XXXX after speaking with the MOHELA rep, and contributed to the escalation of my account balance and payment amount. Additionally, MOHELA contacted me just recently, regarding missed payments of a highly inflated amount. In response, I spoke with both a resolution agent and an Ombudsman representative, asking for the person whom I had originally spoken with, and they told me that due to some law, they were unable to connect me. They advised that they would research the issue and instructed me to give them a follow-up call. However, I have been consistently unable to reach MOHELA using their published contact number. Calls are routinely met with automated messages stating they are unable to take the call or connect me to an agent. As a result of these combined issuesincluding inability to access my account, lack of customer support, inconsistent payment determinations, and involuntary forbearancemy account has accumulated months of delinquency. This has caused substantial financial harm, including a significant drop in my credit score ( approximately XXXX points ), despite my repeated good-faith efforts to resolve the matter. This sequence of events raises serious concerns regarding ( 1 ) conflicting guidance provided at the Ombudsman level, ( 2 ) material changes in payment terms without documented justification, ( 3 ) failure to provide reasonable access to account systems and customer support, ( 4 ) unilateral account actions that negatively impacted repayment status and my credit, and ( 5 ) borrower harm resulting from inaccurate account handling and prolonged servicing delays. Sincerely, XXXX

Company response to consumer: Untimely response