Consumer complaint received 2024-03-08 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: OK

Complaint narrative:
MOHELA has been mishandling my loans, giving me misinformation, changing the information I am given, and mismanaging my payments. I was notified on XX/XX/XXXX that my loans were placed on administrative forbearance from XXXX of XXXX and was told I could request a refund of the payments that I made during that time period. I called MOHELA on XX/XX/XXXX and requested the refund, and was told after processing, it would take 30-60 days to receive my refund of {$510.00}. It has been 42 business days and I have not received my refund. I have been notified in XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX that I have missed loan payments and my account is past due, even though I have set up auto debit and they have taken my payments on time each month. When I called about this issue on XX/XX/XXXX, I was on the phone for a total of 2 hours and 53 minutes. In that phone call I was told that receiving my refund now could take up to 90 days, and there is no way to track the status. When explaining to them the issue of my account being past due I was repeatedly told that was not true although my account was marked that way and was reading as owing double what my monthly payment is. The first representative I spoke to told me it had to do with an error in my refund process and transferred me to another department. The wait time for that transfer was 104 minutes long. I requested a call back. The next phone call I had, the representative could not tell me the reason for my account being past due as she could see that I have made my payments on time. Her solution was to turn off my auto debit so that I could manually pay my monthly payment amount, and told me the past due amount would be taken care of. I told her that I did not want my auto debit turned off, but she did it anyway. I manually initiated my monthly payment on XX/XX/XXXX, and as of XX/XX/XXXX my account continues to have a status of past due. The other issue I have had has been regarding my repayment plan. I was originally on an IDR plan, and applied to change to the SAVE plan through studentaid.gov. I completed all necessary forms, and uploaded all of the paperwork that it requested from me and was told it was sent to MOHELA for processing. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a message on my MOHELA account dated XX/XX/XXXX notifying me that there was a delay in my request. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a message in my MOHELA account dated XX/XX/XXXX stating that my request for SAVE could not be approved due to missing income information. I was not sent email correspondence notifying me of this message and only saw it when I logged on to my MOHELA account to check if my request was processed. On XX/XX/XXXX I sent a message to MOHELA through my portal requesting more information about the status of my application. I received a response notifying me that they received my income documentation on XX/XX/XXXX, and were processing my application, although in my account my request was marked as denied. I then called MOHELA to discuss what the issue with my application was and they told me that my income verification was too old. I explained that the documentation was timely when I submitted my application and was only outdated due to their slow processing time. I was told on the phone my the representative that she could apply for SAVE again for me through our phone call. I agreed to this and self-reported my income at that time. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a message through my account notifying me that there was another processing delay. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a message through my account notifying me that I was approved and my loans were changed to the SAVE plan, and I was given my new payment amount. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter in my MOHELA account that was dated XX/XX/XXXX notifying me that they received my request to switch to and IDR but could not process that request due to being unable to verify my income. I have not submitted a new request for an IDR, and have no context of where this letter is coming from.

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