Consumer complaint received 2025-09-21 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: TN

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/XXXX Dear CFPB, I have been having problems with making payments on my Federal Student Loan Mohela account since XX/XX/XXXX. After becoming behind on my monthly payments, I tried to pay my regular amount of {$240.00} XX/XX/XXXX. This amount was reversed- described as " payment reversal '' on my mohela account. However, it looks like the payment initially went through and was then reversed, so I did not initially notice that my payment was not successful. 
By XXXX I was getting continued emails about being behind on my student loan payments ( * see bottom for more information ). Therefore, I tried to catch up on the payments I was behind on so that my account would not go into default. Therefore, XX/XX/XXXX, I tried to make a payment in the amount of $ {$1600.00} to catch up on my payments. However, that amount resulted in a " payment reversal '' as well. 
I just got a new job so have been calculating how to catch up on my behind payments or get lower payments as I try to move out into an apartment closer to work and transition to pay rent ( only getting XXXX hours of sleep a night while commuting to my new work and going to law school XXXX nights a week ). Therefore, I have tried to make new payments on my account to avoid default and noticed the " payment reversals '' for the first time today ( XX/XX/XXXX, and have found that they extend back until XX/XX/XXXX ). 
Even after researching what reversals are, the reversals on my account do not make sense and I am struggling to figure out how to fix them. Furthermore, I can not now payback the full amount as I attempted to in XXXX because I have new expenses and fully believed at the time that the payments had gone through. Besides this, I think my interest rates have increased because none of my payments have gone through since XXXX, despite there clearly being enough in my bank account to satisfy the amounts I attempted to pay. 
I did not try contacting Mohela first this time because I have had issues resolving things and getting help from them in the past, despite hours of phone calls and taking time on off days ( they were only open for me to call during working hours... I think their hours might have changed to being longer since then, so I can try to call them this weekend but am not very hopeful ). Last time I called to try and set up student loan forgiveness, they did not even send me the documents I needed after telling me they would and being transferred to several people and confirming the necessary docs and email address several times. 

* I knew I was behind. I started going to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX several years ago ( about XXXX ). My first year at XXXX I was able to make my required payments on time because I was being paid a teaching salary of around XXXX a year. However, starting my second year I had to go back to tutoring, which cut my monthly salary in half. This meant I could not afford my law school payments and loan payments. I attempted to obtain a deferral based on student status, but was not successful. I contacted Mohela and XXXX and obtained the necessary paperwork. However, after sending the paperwork to XXXX and contacting more people, I found out my school was not listed on the XXXX XXXX XXXX ( I think that is what it is called but might be wrong- I know XXXX allows me to obtain a law degree to practice in TN but not other states ), the only box on the paperwork not filled out was the # for the college accrediation system ( found out XXXX was not recognized for student deferrment status after calling Mohela again ). Therefore, I became behind on my student payments for a while as I failed to obtain a higher paying job until recently. I tried to pay back what I was behind on in XXXX though, but had another payment reversal I was unaware of. Now I am VERY behind in my payments and can not pay them back in a timely manner unless I somehow get a deferral or some other solution. Not even sure if any payments are going through at this point since I tried to pay a certain amount this month too and the payments are still " pending ''... likely going to result in another reversak. 

I know this was long winded. Thank you for your time. I'm not sure what to do at this point as I am trying to work student loan payments into my budget again while also moving into an apartment for the first time and keeping up with higher XXXX monthly payments as I have added necessary electives to graduate on time.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response