Consumer complaint received 2024-01-12 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: ME

Complaint narrative:
MOHELA became my loan servicer during the COVID payment pause. I would call and no one would pick up. Eventually payments resumed for XX/XX/XXXX. Since MOHELA didn't send my statement in time, I was placed on admin forebearance until XX/XX/XXXX. I applied for SAVE/REPAYE on XX/XX/XXXX, and spoke to a phone represetative for MOHELA on XX/XX/XXXX. The phone representative told me it would take 30 days to process. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I had a payment due. My SAVE/REPAYE had not processed. I attempted several times to call MOHELA but the hold times were over 30 minutes and I was not able to get someone on the phone. I had been sending several emails a month through MOHELA 's website portal, but every email had an automated response that either said " You spoke to someone on the phone, we will consider your inquiry handled '' or it would say " Please allow 15 business days for us to respond ''. These automated responses would come weeks after the initial email, and then no one would ever respond. I finally got another representative on the phone on XX/XX/XXXX after being on hold for 10 minutes, who told me she couldn't help me and I needed to speak to the " Advanced Team ''. I was transferred to the " Advanced Team '' representative XXXX XXXX employee XXXX. We discussed the following : XXXX XXXX XXXX MOHELA Advanced Team Submitted a letter asking to remove me from deferment on the MOHELA website, so that I have to specifically request a deferment in order for it to process. Confirmed receipt and was told by MOHELA phone rep that this means they will never put my loans in deferment unless I request via phone or email to put my loans in deferment. I had already submitted this request previously, but the MOHELA phone rep told me that she couldn't find this request and some, but not all of my loans showed in deferment. 

She issues a request to expedite my SAVE/REPAYE application. She advises it would take up to 15 business days to process from XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 

She issues a request to put my loans in processing forebearance. Reports takes about a week to process. She initially states no interest will accrue during this time, but later when she reads the disclosure she states interest WILL accrue. I confirm that interest WILL accrue. She states it will postone payment until XX/XX/XXXX. She states there will be no interest rate reduction on autodebit, and no PSLF or benefits for loan forgiveness will be issued during this time it's in processing forebearance. I was told I could use buyback on processing forbearance once my SAVE/REPAYE processes, and there is no limit for how many months I could buy back. I asked why my forebearance is until XX/XX/XXXX if it takes 15 days to process. She said that's if it takes longer than 15 days to process. 


She sends request sent to accounting department to have my interest and capitalization removed and not applied to my account until the SAVE is approved. 


She sends request sent to the IDR department to have my loans amounts put back to XX/XX/XXXX where no interest, capitlization, fees, or other charges, and that amount will be used when SAVE repay processes. She states she doubts they will do this, and initially refuses to send request. I explain that I have no way of communicating with the IDR or accounting department except through her, and given all the issues I have had with MOHELA up to this point, I think this is fair for them to do. Currently interest and capitization are applied to my account, and I explain to her my understanding is that every month I am in forebearance, th e {$1600.00} payment MOHELA says I owe each month is going to get tacked on the end of my loan as principle, and will be used to calculate interest. So every month my loans are growing by {$1600.00}, plus the 5-7 % interest on top of that. So if MOHELA takes 6 or 8 months to process my SAVE/REPAYE, my loans will have grown by tens of thousands of dollars for no other reason than MOHELA can't process a form. That is not fair to me. She has no response to that other than to try to wrap up the call. 

At present I am waiting for MOHELA to process my requests, and I am not hopeful this will occur in any timely fashion. They have had 90+ days to process my SAVE/REPAYE, and my loans have grown by several thousand dollars in that time from what I understand from documents on my account on the MOHELA website.

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