Consumer complaint received 2026-04-22 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: Central Research Inc
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
I graduated from law school in XX/XX/XXXX. Because of that, my graduate student loans were in forbearance under the COVID forbearance program until XX/XX/XXXX. As of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX was my servicer. I began making payments under the standard repayment plan in XX/XX/XXXX, in the amount of {$2500.00} per month. Notably, XXXX correctly showed the payment terms for my loans were between XXXX, i.e.XX/XX/XXXX years andXX/XX/XXXX months toXX/XX/XXXX years and XX/XX/XXXXmonths, because my required repayment started in XX/XX/XXXX, not XXXX. After several months, I realized that I did not have sufficient income to pay the standard amount each month and also be able to pay the mortgage payment, utilities, food, etc. without wiping out all of my savings and likely going into further debt. I asked to change to the graduated repayment program ( with a term ofXX/XX/XXXX years ), and my request was granted on XX/XX/XXXX. I made the standard payment of {$2500.00} per month from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. Pursuant to the graduated repayment plan, my required monthly payment amount starting in XX/XX/XXXX was {$1600.00} per month. I knew that the payment amount would increase after XX/XX/XXXXmonths, or in XX/XX/XXXX. My servicer was transferred to CRI after XX/XX/XXXX. I continued making the {$1600.00} monthly payments through XX/XX/XXXX. At that point, I noticed that the XX/XX/XXXX payment amount was approximately {$2700.00}. I contacted CRI on XX/XX/XXXX to ask why the payment amount had changed, and confirmed that I had not been moved to a different repayment plan. CRI 's representative told me that it was a widespread issue on their end that was being fixed, and offered to put my account in administrative forbearance until they could fix the repayment amount. I agreed to administrative forbearance because I was concerned that if I paid the {$2700.00} it would not be correctly applied to my loans. CRI sent me an email on XX/XX/XXXX that it had adjusted my repayment plan, and I believed that it would be fixing the issue and the payment amount for XX/XX/XXXX would be corrected. I note that I did not complete any exit counseling on XX/XX/XXXX, my exit counseling for my loan occurred back in XXXX. That did not happen. I checked my CRI account on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX and it still showed {$2700.00}. I was not able to call CRI until today, XX/XX/XXXX, as I was working during XXXX 's call hours. I tried to login to my XXXX account today, and although no information had changed, for some reason I could not login and received an invalid username or password message. I called XXXX to ask about the payment amount issue. Unlike the person I spoke with in XXXX, the XXXX representative told me that the {$2700.00} amount was correct and claimed that XXXX had " redisclosed '' my loan. This did not make sense to me, because I was never notified of the payment increase and certainly never received any disclosure or explanation for the increase, and had been told it was due to an error by CRI. I spoke with the CRI representative at length, and confirmed that I was still enrolled in the graduated repayment plan but CRI had " redislcosed '' my loans. I was told that " redisclosure '' did not mean the same way as it does " legally, '' but was a process whereby CRI calculated the increased payment amount necessary to payoff my loan. The CRI representative confirmed that I was not actually provided with any disclosure regarding the new amount or notice other than the monthly statement with the {$2700.00} amount, and the " redisclosure '' was calculated by CRI 's system. The representative could not explain why the " redisclosure '' happened now, or provide a reason why a 60 % increase did not constitute a change in my repayment terms. I asked if CRI could not provide me with documentation to support the new payment amount, and explained that I needed to see CRI 's calculation to determine if the system 's calculation was accurate and consistent with my repayment plan. The representative said that CRI could not provide any information, but assured me that CRI 's system had carefully reviewed. I also had essentially the same conversation with her supervisor, who also could not provide an explanation. The supervisor did say that CRI had to increase the payment because I did not make payments during the almost XXXX-year COVID forbearance period. I tried to explain that that did not make any sense, because my repayments started after that period and I was approved for the repayment plan well after the forbearance period ended, but the supervisor said they could not do anything to fix it. The only assistance they offered was to see if I qualified for a different repayment plan, but with a minimum payment of at least {$1900.00}. I also confirmed with the supervisor that there was no one else at CRI that I could speak with, and she said that if I contacted federal student aid they would just direct the call back to CRI. What CRI has actually done is change the terms of my repayment, without consent or even any prior notice. It looks like this was done unilaterally by CRI 's system, which erroneously shows exit counseling for me for XX/XX/XXXX, when my exit counseling occurred back in XXXX when I graduated. CRI 's payment increase is not consistent with my repayment plan, and my general federal student loan account shows enrollment in the repayment plan as of XX/XX/XXXX, when in actuality I was approved for the plan in XX/XX/XXXX. I suspect that XXXX has recorded this as a new repayment plan, without my consent. I also can see that CRI has made several mistakes when calculating the payment even though it has refused to provide me with any documentation. CRI has apparently decided it can increase my payment amount whenever it wants, although my payments should not have increased until XX/XX/XXXX, and without providing me with any explanation or documentation to support the increase. They have also based the increase on an incorrect loan term, although my repayment term began in XX/XX/XXXX, not in XXXX. I can not confirm if they have correctly applied the payments I have made so far, and the only option they have provided to fix the issue is to agree to a different repayment plan at a higher monthly payment. Even if I did agree to a different payment plan, there is no guarantee that CRI will not " redisclose '' my loans again and decide to increase the payment at its whim. At this point, I am unlikely to have this issue resolved before the XXXX payment is due on the XXXX, and I will have to make the {$2700.00} payment knowing that it is very likely that CRI will not apply it correctly and I have very little faith that CRI has the ability or will be willing to correctly apply it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation