Consumer complaint received 2026-01-13 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Don't agree with the fees charged
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I applied for the XXXX repayment plan after completing exit counseling and received written confirmation in XX/XX/XXXX of my approval. Then in XX/XX/XXXX I got got verbal confirmation from Nelnet -- that all my loans would be converted to SAVE automatically. Under XXXX, with a {$0.00} payment, no interest should have accrued because of the interest subsidy. Instead, my loans were placed on the standard repayment plan without my knowledge out of grace, and they began accruing interest. In XX/XX/XXXX, when I called again, Nelnet acknowledged the mistake, initiated a new XXXX application, and placed my loans in administrative forbearance. I was told the erroneous interest would be reversed. That never happened, and there was no communication explaining why. I was later told that Nelnet " missed sending an important letter, '' and that this contributed to the problem. I was also told ( later ) my XX/XX/XXXX XXXX application was cancelled because it could not be processed during the grace period. No one told me this or that it was cancelled. I recertified in XXXX and XXXX, that application was apparently treated as a " recalculation '' rather than a new application, which no one told me, and which made it ineligible to apply to my loans since they were not already on an IDR plan. Then apparently, when my loans exited grace, those applications were too old to be used, but no one told me. None of this was communicated to me until XX/XX/XXXX after years of phone calls with agents. A second issue occurred once my loans were finally placed on XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. Interest continued to accrue however until my first payment due date, which was delayed until XX/XX/XXXX. I was told to understand ( in XX/XX/XXXX ) that the XXXX interest subsidy only activates once loans are in payment status, but because servicers have XXXX days to set the first due date, they did not set a XXXX due date, and interest continued to accrue for that period as well. I have repeatedly contacted Nelnet by phone to seek clarification and correction, and I have been given inconsistent explanations. I have not received the corrections I was told to expect. Steps Already Taken Submitted multiple SAVE/IDR applications in XXXX -- XXXX. Called Nelnet several times to confirm status, correct errors, and request interest reversals. Followed all instructions provided during exit counselinG I submitted this case to the department of educations ombudsman office, and the only response has been from nelnet by closing my case saying they did not do anything wrong. 

This explanation from nelnet in the response still does not match the response I was provided by nelnet previously - that the interest would be reversed due to error - following the note that I was accepted into the save plan and noting no loan exclusions. 

The department of educations ombudsman group seems to be infiltrated by nelnet. The dept of education advised me that it was indeed not appropriate or correct that nelnet would respond and advised me that if I escalated the case, the only people who would be able to respond would be the dept of education, but nelnet again responded and no one from the dept of education ombudsman group has responded, so this seems to be a major conflict of interest within the department of education handling federal student loan services as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation