Consumer complaint received 2025-08-20 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: AZ

Complaint narrative:
I am currently ( and have been since spring XXXX ) XXXX payments away from PSLF on XXXX of my loans. I have made several phone calls to Mohela, waited on hold for XXXX hours at a time, requested call back from supervisors, submitted documents per advice of representatives, and been told that things would be handled in " XXXX days '' for over a year and a half. On XXXX different occasions ( XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX ), I have applied for an XXXX plan, specifically asking to be removed from the XXXX plan so that I could make the final payments on my loan. The first was entirely dismissed with no action. The second was left in limbo until Mohela announced that any request submitted prior to XX/XX/XXXX would not be processed and borrowers would have to apply again, so I applied on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I received correspondence indicating that my XXXX application had been approved and my payments would begin on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Then on XX/XX/XXXX I received another correspondence indicating that my loans were placed back in a forbearance on the XXXX plan. Despite this, I received and paid a bill due on XX/XX/XXXX, which, theoretically, never should have been generated since I was in ( incorrectly ) another forbearance. On XX/XX/XXXX I spend XXXX hours and XXXX minutes on a call with Mohela XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ) who confirmed that she could see that my XXXX request had been processed and approved by couldn't tell me why it wasn't reflected properly on my account. She verified that it should have been effective as of XX/XX/XXXX and submitted a request for this to be updated... she told me this could take up to XXXX  days. On XX/XX/XXXX I spent XXXX minutes on a call with Mohela where they indicated that my XXXX request is still being processed, and mentioned that my loans were placed in a processing forbearance for only XXXX  days and then placed back in a XXXX forbearance despite the protocol that states I should have been in a processing forbearance for XXXX days ( which would have brought me to the PSLF qualification, as time spent in processing forbearances do count toward your payments ). It is not lost on me that Mohela has held my loans hostage long enough with administrative " errors '' that they are now, as of XX/XX/XXXX, collecting interest. The agent placed another work order requesting a correction but indicated that this, too, would take up to XXXX days and advised me to " wait '' and allow more time for processing. She transferred me to a supervisor, though no one was available, but I was able to request a callback, which indicated it could take up to XXXX  days. I received a callback on XX/XX/XXXX, and was on the phone with XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, for XXXX minutes. She advised that she could see all of the actions I had taken, verified that work orders were submitted, and indicated that the wait time could not be expedited. However, she also advised that she could see that despite the incorrect categorizations that have appeared all over my account for the last year and a half, there were XXXX months that would qualify for XXXX without my needing to wait for Mohela to make their corrections ; XXXX of XXXX ( XXXX ) and XXXX of XXXX ( XXXX ). She explained that my loans were placed in a processing forbearance during both of these months, which covered my payment date and therefore make them eligible as qualifying payments toward PSLF. The only thing I needed to do for these to count was to certify my employment, which I did while on the phone with her. During my call, federal student aid sent me a notification that my employer had signed and confirmed employment and that my form would be processed and payment counts updated. Today, XX/XX/XXXX I received the updated payment and they only change made was that the payment I never should have been billed, the XXXX due last month was added to all of the other loans on my account, but there was no movement on the XXXX loans that remain, despite my best efforts to pay, correct, or buy back ( I submitted a buy back request XX/XX/XXXX with federal student aid and this, too, despite a XXXX day processing request, has still not been reviewed ), in forbearance. When I called the Dept of Education ( FSA ) today to inquire as to why the months Mohela told me would be counted were not, the agent indicated that FSA can not update information, but only Mohela can. Mohela, on the other hand, has repeatedly told me that only FSA can update my account. Neither institution seems to be responsible for updating, correcting, or addressing errors on my account, and so, I am still in limbo with no recourse and no resolution. I have been reduced, at this point, to tears, as I have never in my life experienced such incompetence, negligence, and outright intentional mishandling of loans. It shouldn't be THIS hard to correct something everyone agrees was a mistake, but beyond that, even if Mohela/FSA doesn't want to correct the mistakes, it shouldn't be this hard for a person to pay their loans!

Company response to consumer: Untimely response