Consumer complaint received 2024-12-09 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Getting a loan — High pressure sales tactics or recruiting
Company: MOHELA
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
I initially submitted a complaint to XXXX XXXX, initially my loans were through XXXX XXXX but they transitioned. During my previous complaint my loans were transitioned again to MOHELA. XXXX responded to say the complaint does not belong to them, I'm attempting to do another complaint to see if I have a change to have my private loans properly dealt with. Below is the original write up detailing the events from my enrollment at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX til now. 


I am writing to express my concerns regarding the student loan [ predatory ] practices at XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ), a branch of the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, which have led to significant financial difficulties for my family and me. The servicer they used for Private Student Loans was XXXX XXXX. I enrolled at XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX, I like many of my classmates were compelled to pursue private student loans ( second chance loans ) as that called them, to continue my education at the school. These loans in question were agreed upon in high pressure situations in which the school would round up its students at the beginning of the quarter, where we would all stand in line to hear the XXXX counselors tell us we were all behind, or missing loans for our next semester of classes. The would then instruct us to call XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ( XXXX ) to receive a private loan with higher interest rates and without the guidelines that federal loans or loans with better flexibility would allow. it led to my credit being destroyed for many years. The XXXX counselors would intentionally wait or dismiss our meetings in favor of rounding us up. Many times over my time at the school when it came to my loans I'd hear i was a week or two behind instead of being actively notified when I needed to apply, thus making me ineligible to receive federal loans. I attempted to change counselors, but it was to no avail there was not much assistance in the way of any other options, There was no way available to file or address any complaints about this. The loans were I took out for the school were for both my tuition and housing, there was no breakdown or transparency, no lease agreement or utility costs. When I started my housing cost XXXX per student and there was 4 students per apartment, with 2 sharing a bedroom. By the time I left XXXX the price had ballooned to XXXX. Housing provided us with 2 XXXX XXXX, XXXX dollars each, but was reduced to just one XXXX XXXX  my last 2 years. I couldn't afford to leave for the day, housing was in the XXXX XXXX district and the XXXX was in XXXX, there was limited options for food, and the school provided no assistance in that. XXXX course structure constantly changed as I progressed through my years. Classes became obsolete, and others were added, there were times additional courses were added which extended my stay at the school, which required more loans. The teachers at XXXX were mostly new graduates from XXXX, averaging only a few years older than the students that came through XXXX, there was no set structure when it came to standards, or grading. there were times 80 % of a class would fail and have to retake a course, just for the same teachers to change tactic and acted a totally different way the next semester. There was no standard, no way of knowing your work was " of quality '' to be ready to find a job within the field upon graduation. It seemed solely based on the teachers discretion, some would seem to be fed up and just hasten a student through knowing their work wasn't of good quality. On the last day of school, all the future graduates were brought into a classroom, and the XXXX counselors handed you a black folder. Each folder had your total bill, over the course of my 3 years at XXXX, my bill was XXXX.While I and the rest of my graduating class sat in bewilderment, none of us truly understood how this would effect us over the course of the next decade and a half. Being that the school was located in such a high government location, one would've assumed maybe we would have job recruiters from these various entities come out to recruit new graduates, or many of the game companies at the time. There was very little in the way of potential employment in this area, what little employment was available the new graduates started to fight over the same small jobs, the school would entice and encourage it's students with the idea of working with big game and animation companies but unbeknownst to us the school had already garnered negative press about not having graduates who had a decent quality of work fit for employment. Nor did we realize the school had lost accreditation, which added to the struggle of finding employment. After 6 months I received my first statement, the payment amount was XXXX per month. The amount was impossible on my XXXX dollar an hour job. I was able to find a roommate, and this enabled me to afford a payment of XXXX a month. Over the course of almost a decade, I was hounded relentlessly and received multiple calls everyday by random numbers, and collections, they employed fear tactics, aggressively told me I needed to pay more, even suggesting I move by home with my mother to make the XXXX a month payments in full. For years it destroyed my credit, which dwindled into the XXXX XXXX  I was unable to purchase anything on my own. It was only around the year XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) offered a income based repayment plan after they wanted statements of my bank account and all my bills, the amount agreed upon after I showed them all my expenses totaled {$540.00} I barely had enough left for groceries and gas. This amount did not cover my federal loans, which up to this point I attempted for years to keep in forbearence. but they didn't offer it every time I applied, which also led to multiple negative remarks being added to my credit score. in XXXX it was agreed upon the amount of XXXX XXXXI had taken up a second job to help with my payments, but the fear that persisted is any extra money that I could use to attempt to have for any semblance of a better well being would result in the mandatory employment review in which they would readjust my repayment plan to leave me with nothing. The amount XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) agreed upon never made any headway on paying back the loans, only the interest. In addition the " consolidation '' the offered took the money you paid, and dispersed it among the 5 private loans. which all stay in a perpetual state of " late '' and having an additional late fee attached to each of them. Even when paid on the agreed upon date before the end of the month. Currently the totality of my student loans is XXXX after making payments sinceXXXX on my private loans of an average of XXXX would place my total over XXXX in addition I've been making the federal loan payment of {$250.00} monthly since XXXX XXXX is roughly about XXXXEven with the payments I've been making since XXXX XXXX, I owe more today than my initial bill given to me the last day of school in XXXX. The pandemic awarded me some relief of student loans, with the government placing all federal student loans in indefinite forbearance it allowed me the ability to attempt to get myself into a position where i wasn't in the negative before my next paycheck. this didn't extend to the private loans, which i continued to make my monthly payments. Once the government lifted the forbearence, the pressure and difficulty to repay the totality of the loans returned. Over the years loan consolidation and assistance sites have sprung up, most predatory scams. In desperation, i thought these were true and the solution to my ever increasing issue of paying back the loans, which at this point resulted in me only paying interest and not making any headway to the loans themselves. I found myself having to file a fraud case with these consolidation companies to get the money they took from me back. Here recently I was given hope. The XXXX XXXX case allowed my federal XXXX loans to be discharged. Specifically, XXXX was one of the schools listed in the XXXX XXXX XXXX settlement that would receive automatic discharge. XXXX was guilty of using fraudulent practices, illegal recruitment and enrollment tactics, etc. and preyed upon students for their own financial benefit. Then after withdrawal XXXX XXXX and XXXX were insensitive, uninformed, and were just as guilty as XXXX in unifying with them to offer private predatory student loans

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation