Consumer complaint received 2023-12-28 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
I applied for consolidation through student aid.gov, as well as the IDR Save payment plan. I specifically applied for this plan as I am pursuing public service loan forgiveness. I applied for both consolidation and the Save plan XX/XX/XXXX. I received my XXXX bill, I was set up for auto pay only to receive a late payment notice. Auto pay did not work. I then paid my XXXX bill manually, and I turned off autopay. Five days later, my account was drafted for another XXXX payment through the autopay that I had disabled. I called three times, waited on hold for up to ninety minutes each time to get through to a human. The first two times, after waiting 90 minutes, mohelas agent placed me on hold only to disconnect my call. The third time I did get through to an agent and they were able to make my secondary XXXX payment credit to XXXX. 

My loans officially consolidated XX/XX/XXXX, and I was placed in a consolidation forbearance prior to my payment due date of XX/XX/XXXX, so my XXXX payment was superfluous. 

I was placed on the Level/standard plan XX/XX/XXXX. This plan is not eligible for pslf, so I called and asked why I was placed on this plan. They told me that my IDR plan was still processing and to wait 5 business days and call back. When I called back, they told me there was a glitch in their system and that they were escalating my application and to call back in 5 business days. When I called back, they said the application was on the desk of the manual reviewer and that it should be done within the week. I called back XX/XX/XXXX only to be told that there was still a glitch in their system, that it was an error on their end. They placed me on an administrative forbearance XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX to figure it out. I asked if I needed to resubmit a new application, and they said no, but they would escalate my application again. I asked if that would reset the processing time and she said no. 

I called again XX/XX/XXXX and asked for an update, they said to wait 15 days and call back XX/XX/XXXX, as that is the only day they can extend the forbearance. 

I called today, XX/XX/XXXX, and received a case number for the first time. They stated they would extend my administrative forbearance until XX/XX/XXXX. 

I asked the agent today, XXXX, to update me about my application. She told me that my consolidation never finished processing, and that that was the reason my IDR application was not processing. This is not true. My loans are consolidated and I had a Bill due XX/XX/XXXX, and I told her this. She put me on hold several times and was unable/unwilling to escalate me per my request to a specialist or supervisor. She told me there is a paper trail of all the times my application has been reviewed and all the times Ive called, but she only was able to list XX/XX/XXXX ( reviewed and noted as having an error with no further information ) and XX/XX/XXXX ( assigned to a new agent, marked as in review ). There is no record of my other calls or the other times the agents told me they would escalate my application as previously noted in this complaint. 

Today I was told that there is a note ( did not disclose the date ) saying the error had been fixed and that I needed to wait 15 days from XX/XX/XXXX. The note attached to my request to escalate my XXXX application from XX/XX/XXXX is only noted as a review of my PSLF forms. 

I am so fed up and frustrated with this company. The info and dates they have on their end does not even match with what is listed on the website in my account. They give wrong information, mess up what you have asked them to do ( review IDR vs PSLF ) and constantly tell you to just keep waiting while screwing up at every turn. 

I have 9.5 years of PSLF eligible and qualifying employment and I am being made to work for low income employers for longer than necessary due to being placed on an ineligible plan by an incompetent loan servicer. I was on PAYE ( an eligible IDR plan ) prior to this consultation and save application, and I am furious that mohelas incompetence is making it so that my months of hard work do not count towards the forgiveness guaranteed to me by law when I took out these loans. I am doing everything in my power to meet the requirements for Pslf, earning half the wages I could earn if I worked in the private sector. I have paid advice and beyond the total of my original loans over the last 9.5 years and with interest my loans are larger now than they were when I started.

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