Date Received: 2022-04-25
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: American Education Services/PHEAA has been purposely delaying responding to complaints that have recently been submitted. For the several complaints that have been submitted, AES/PHEAA waited the minimum 15 days and then marked all the complaints as Needing additional time which would increase the deadline to 60 days from the 15 day mark allowing the company to respond within 45 additional days. In most cases, they respond by closing the complaint AFTER they wait the 15 minimum days, but in expert opinions, AES/PHEAA 's response did not warrant over 15 days to respond, as it was claimed to be a " duplicate '', which is also false for all the complaints. I am going to be proposing to Congress that AES/PHEAA be charged fees for delaying responses going forward, because I believe they are taking advantage of the 15 day rule. The individual or individuals who close these responses without providing an accurate resolution are not diligently performing their job and the expectations they have as part of their performance should be highly scrutinized. AES/PHEAA has even made remarks in previous complaints that allude to me submitting " too many complaints '', but AES/PHEAA can be assured that with their agency, there are never too many complaints, and other parties have copies of my CFPB correspondence. There are a plethora of borrowers who share these concerns about the Agency. AES/PHEAA should stop pretending not to acknowledge that their agency is a corrupt organization who even the Federal Government no longer trusts.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 178XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-25
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/XXXX I received an update to my payments remaining for XXXX that did *not* include my current employer for which I have submitted an employment certification form in the Fed Loan Servicing document upload for it. The last month my employment certification has listed qualifying payments for is XX/XX/XXXX ; however I have remained employed consistently with the same qualifying employer since then. It is not XX/XX/XXXX. I have uploaded the completed updated employer certification and now that the eligible payments have been recalculated, I need them to be updated with the latest documents.
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 333XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-25
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I submitted the Public Service Loan Forgivness application in XX/XX/XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX I received an electronic letter stating that my employer had failed to include my termination date or indicate that I was still employed on the application. In reviewing the application, the check box for " Still Employed '' was clearly marked. I called the PSFL hotline with Fed Loan Servicing - after approximately 45 minutes of hold time, a representative answered and stated she would have to connected me with a PSFL specialists. This required an additional 1 1/2 hour hold time. Once answered, the representative confirmed the said missing piece of information was in fact on the original form and that she would request a re-review. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a second letter from Fed Load servicing stating that my employer failed to include their Federal EIN number on the application. Of course, this piece of information is clearly in the appropriate field on the form ( section 3 line 2 ). I again called Fed Loan, held for 38 minutes and again was told that I would be transfered to a PSFL specialist. Hold time so far 46 minutes with no connection to a representative. It is beginning to appear that Fed Loan Servicing is again intentionnally creating a hardship/delay for borrowers to access this program by creating erroneous reasons to prolong the application process and having extended hold times to speak with their representatives to potentially deter attempts to resolve.
Company Response:
State: SC
Zip: 29687
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-25
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Consumer Complaint: I've been faithfully paying on my federal student loan for years but HARDLY anything go to my principal. I would like to pay the same amount while it applies to my principal otherwise I will have this loan forever.
Company Response:
State: SD
Zip: 57401
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-24
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Don't agree with the fees charged
Consumer Complaint: Collecting on debts that have been discharged through bankruptcy might not only violate the Consumer Financial Protection Act 's prohibition on unfair, deceptive, and abusive practicesit could also violate the order of a United States bankruptcy judge this includes student loan debt.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 78254
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I accrued around $ XXXX in multiple loans serviced by FedLoan in XXXX while I was pursing my XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX at XXXX University XXXX The way these loans were disbursed is that I would receive a new loan each semester based on my financial needs for that semester. Ultimately this ended up in me having several different loans within a short period of time. Upon graduating and entering the workforce I began making payments. My goal was to my payments as high as I could afford to help pay them off faster. Since all of these loans were under the same account I only had to make " one '' payment which would be applied to all of the loans. I took some periods of forbearance when I was making moves between jobs and the loan servicers told me how easy it was to simply take forbearance as needed. I kept these periods to a minimum just as much as I needed to recover from moving expenses. It wasn't for several years that I stopped to take a closer look at the handling of my payments. Not having had experience with significant debt, it was not until a later stage in my life that I realized that FedLoan had been taking my one monthly payment and spreading it out across all of my multiple loans. As a result I was barely making an indent in any one loan and simply paying interest for all of these years. When I realized how they were handling my loans I began to dig deeper and spoke to representatives to find out that I could now choose how my monthly payments were applied to various loans. At this point I chose to focus my efforts on one loan at a time to pay down the one with highest interest while keeping the others in good standing. I began to make some progress in my loan repayment but it was very discouraging to realize that I'd already paid around $ XXXX over the years only to have my principal balance be higher than when I started. Today with all of the federal government 's talk about student loans, I revisited my payment history and have found that I've paid {$42000.00} of which {$19000.00} has been applied towards my principal and {$23000.00} to interest. I am filing this complaint because I believe the loan servicer to be predatory and reckless in the handling of my payments. Any reasonable loan counselor would have realized it best to apply my payments to ONE loan at a time. In my opinion since there was ONE servicer of my loans which were all under the same account they should have recognized that I was making my payments and therefore kept all loans in good standing while focusing repayments to one loan to help me recover from the debt in the most efficient way possible. Instead they chose to apply my payments across all loans, very possibly intentionally choosing to keep me in debt for as long as possible. When I realized what had been happening those first several years I reached out to FedLoan to speak to them about this. I spoke to them so many times and escalated my concerns. Ultimately I was told that I ended up speaking to the highest person I could reach and even they were of no help to me. They scolded me, lectured me about being responsible with my payments. They told me that they had to help their own children with student loans. They told me that I should look into loan consolidation with an outside party. To me, this signals a major flaw in the system if the employees themselves are unable to provide any real guidance to succeed within their own system. Personally I have ZERO PROBLEM paying back any debt I owe. However, I feel that the federal student loan program has failed many people in many ways. In my experience the loan servicer was XXXX and XXXX with the handling of the payments. I feel that to some extent I should receive forgiveness for some of my loans. I understand the principals between accruing interest and such, so I realize that I would've have always paid over the original $ XXXX however I shouldn't have paid over $ XXXX at this point and STILL OWE $ XXXX. I am at a point in my life now where I am married, I have XXXX children, and until the pandemic was working full-time. Even with myself and my husband both working full-time we can not afford to purchase a home for ourselves. The pandemic required me to quit my job and be home with my children as school when into virtual mode and now we have to go into our savings each month to make ends meet. I feel that I have done the best with my circumstances in my student loans up to this time and the idea of still owing $ XXXX when payments resume is gross to me. My hope and plea is that there is an individual on the other side reading this complaint and recognizes that perhaps there is something to what I am complaining about and can look into my situation further. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 92614
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have applied for the XXXX forgiveness program under the new waiver that was announced in XX/XX/XXXX. FedLoan acknowledged receipt of my application for forgiveness on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, they confirmed my employment was confirmed as eligible. On XX/XX/XXXX, FedLoan transferred all of my loans to them and they became my new servicer. On XX/XX/XXXX, they loaded my application results. Under the old rules, I had 7 qualifying payments. I was then told they'd transfer my application to Federal Student Aid ( FSA ) to review my payments from XXXXXXXX to present under the new waiver. FSA was then to get back to FedLoan with the results. Over the past XXXX XXXX months, I have called FedLoan 5+ times, including talking to their ombudsman line 3 times, to confirm everything was in order. Each time I was told all I had to do was wait for FSA to review my application under the new waiver. However, when I called Fedloan on XX/XX/XXXX, the employee agreed that he felt something was wrong and maybe someone had dropped the ball and that he'd get it fixed. Because this seems to be taking a lot longer than it has for many others and because of my call on XX/XX/XXXX, I called the FSA ombudsman line on XX/XX/XXXX. ( case # XXXX ) I was informed that my XXXX application was not uploaded into their XXXX system. Without FSA being able to access the application, of course they can not review for forgiveness. I then immediately called FedLoan to let them know they had failed to send over my application to FSA for review. I spoke to an ombudsman at FedLoan, XXXX, employee number XXXX. He told me my application is showing up in the National Student Loan Data System and he isn't sure why FSA can't access it. I called FSA to let them know that FedLoan believes they sent over my application on XX/XX/XXXX but I had to leave a message and no one has called me back. At this point, there seems to have been a failure to communicate between FedLoan and FSA re : my request for XXXX forgiveness. I feel helpless to rectify the mistake and no one seems to know how to assist me. I am desperate for FSA to review my application for forgiveness as I believe I qualify and we start paying loans in just a few short months.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 92124
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-23
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Don't agree with the fees charged
Consumer Complaint: My school loan is overpaid. AES ' defense, " It just looks like we charged you twice ''. No, I was charged twice and the mistake happened when the loan was consolidated. Their records show that and my records show the same. Thus far I have paid {$87000.00} and owe another {$2300.00} which will equal around XXXX on a loan that was originally XXXX. They have a balance of {$69000.00} because they charged me twice. The interest paid from XXXX to XXXX is {$11000.00} on XXXX NOT XXXX at a supposedly 3.25 interest rate but was actually charging me 6.5 on a fixed rate. The department of education has no record of this because AES never reported my information. However, other lenders/servicing companies sent all my school loan information. They were so transparent they can't be questioned -- but not AES. So, why hasn't AES refunded my money. Simply, stating " It just looks like I overpaid doesn't cut it because it's OVERPAID. Also, I received a promissory note that I never signed which is fraud. AES has misapplied and misappropriated my loans for years. AES is just as bad as XXXX.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 92705
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-22
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have not been updated on the status of public service loan repayment application. I am XXXX XXXX military. More than two months after I submitted the application, I called for an update because the application status isnt listed on the website. As I type this, Ive been on hold for more than XXXX minutes. Im on XXXX XXXX and my baby is napping so Ive had the time. But now hes waking up and I still dont have an answer. What do people at work do to stay on hold this long? Why isnt the information I need available online and easily accessible?
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 92123
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2022-04-22
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I have submitted complaints on the XXXX website and they close my cases, but do not resolve. I have requested Fedloan payment history from the. new loan servicer XXXX but they replied that Fedloan did not transfer that over. The Fedloan payment history disappeared. I am a victim of Fedloan and XXXX XXXX adding on capitalized interest amounts to my principal loan balance to prevent the loan balances from ever going down. I borrowed {$63000.00} in XXXX XXXX loans for my daughter, XXXX XXXX. I have paid {$56000.00} ( could be higher ). The unpaid balance is {$48000.00}! This is due to both XXXX XXXX and Fedloan adding on huge amounts of capitalized interest at repayment, during forbearances, and after I paid ahead {$25000.00} and was told by Fedloan that no payments are due until XX/XX/XXXX. Then in XX/XX/XXXX, Fedloan added on {$5000.00} of Capitalized interest. I have a letter from Fedloan dated XX/XX/XXXX disclosing loan repayment terms. On page 2, under Anticipated Interest to be Capitalized : it states " Not Applicable ''. However, Fedloan added on Capitalized interest after this date, and before this date. I am XXXX years old, and retired from XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX I worked XXXX years for the XXXX XXXX That should qualify for public service forgiveness in itself. Sadly, the Administration and Dept of Education has overlooked retired XXXX XXXX who gave a lot more than XXXX years of working for the XXXX XXXX There is no record keeping available for payment history. All the payment history has disappeared online. The Dept of Education has been looking at eliminating interest capitalization on federal student loans. I am aware of issue paper # 3 Interest Capitalization XX/XX/XXXX I am a victim of this interest capitalization. XXXX XXXX added on {$14000.00} of capitalized interest to my principal balance when these loans initially entered repayment! Fedloan added on capitalized interest multiple times : {$1400.00} on XX/XX/XXXX during a forbearance. They added on {$5000.00} in XX/XX/XXXX after telling me month after month that NO PAYMENTS are due since I paid in excess. My loans need to be cancelled. I want my complaint sent directly to XXXX XXXX. I am a good example of a retired XXXX XXXX drowning in XXXX XXXX loans because the loan servicing providers were abusing capitalized interest. My XXXX XXXX pension is 50 % of what my salary was. The answer is not applying for an XXXX loan. I can not be paying these loans back another XXXX years when I am XXXX years old. I have already paid back over {$56000.00} for just XXXX XXXX, and only borrowed {$63000.00}. My loan balance can not still be {$48000.00}. I have submitted cases on XXXX XXXX. I have requested payment history from Fedloan and XXXX. I have received nothing. I want the XXXX to see this complaint, and the Department of Education. Also, President Biden should see my complaint. Thank you
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 19020
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2022-04-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A