Date Received: 2023-07-22
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: Last year I sent a question to MOHELA about PSLF. They waited months, then messaged back to say something to the effect of, " It looks like we haven't answered your question. If you still need an answer, please resubmit it. '' That's totally unacceptable, but I'm even more frustrated now. They have alerts all over telling us to sign up for the REPAYE plan because it automatically transitions into the SAVE plan, so I submitted my application, and now I got a message telling me to log in to view a letter. So I log in, and it says my request to sign up for the REPAYE/SAVE plan was denied, because I need to upload documentation. But the problem is they didn't tell me what documentation to upload, they just said I need to contact them to find out. So I tried contacting them, and it turns out they aren't available outside of standard work hours on the west coast where I live ( Washington State ). I don't have a choice who services my loans if I want to qualify for PSLF. MOHELA has been assigned. But they are woefully ( I would argue, intentionally ) understaffed, and give you the runaround every single time you try to have even the most basic of questions answered. This has to improve. If you want people to make payments on loans, then stop making it so hard to make payments on loans. I'm submitting this to the CFPB because I don't know who else to turn to. I'm trapped into a relationship with this terrible company, and I have no recourse for when they choose to either A ) not answer my questions at all or B ) supply me with intentionally opaque information about what they need from me to proceed. Please do something about this. I have loans through the government. The government chose MOHELA. The government can hold MOHELA accountable. I can not hold them accountable. Please do something. I've wasted countless hours trying to work with them, and it's just not fair to anyone to have to put up with their evasive policies and practices. PLEASE HELP. I'm at my wit 's end, and I'm certain there are millions more out there in my exact situation. PLEASE HELP.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: WA
Zip: 98501
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-22
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I am submitting this complaint due to my student loan servicer and student aid.gov providing inaccurate details related to my PSLF eligibility and failed to update my qualifying payment information timely which prevented me from taking appropriate actions related to loan consolidation. I have worked in public service since XXXX. After the PSLF program was initially announced, I never thought I qualified because I had a FFLEP loans and did not want to loose my payment history due to a consolidation. I took prompt action when the PSLF program was expanded to include the TPSLF option, which allowed me to retain qualifying payments made on the FFLEP, even after consolidation. I immediately consolidated all my federal loans into a direct consolidation loan, with the exception of a newly funded parent plus direct loan I had taken out to help my son with his first year of college. At that time, the servicer advised the parent plus loans could not be consolidated for purposes of PSLF. After consolidation of my FFELP and direct loans, I submitted my employer certification forms and applied for PSLF forgiveness. I submitted employment certification forms and PSLF applications 10 times between XXXX and XXXX to ensure I was able to take advantage of the new program before the deadline. I followed all the steps outlined by student aid and followed up consistently to check the status. After the first 8 denials of my PSLF application and no progress with updating my PSLF status, I filed two complaints with student aid.gov in attempt to gain resolution and advocate for them to properly credit my payment history. I never received any correspondence, updates, or investigation results from my complaints. I waited over two years for my PSLF status to be accurately updated with no guidance from the loan servicers. My history and eligible PSLF payments were never updated in my online accounts with Mohela or studentaid.gov over those two years. When I started applying for forgiveness in XXXX, I estimated that I was close to the 120 required eligible payments to qualify for forgiveness but was consistently told I had no eligible payments. I even downloaded my payment history with XXXX, former servicer, and uploaded that with my studentaid.gov complaint to prove I had over 4 years of eligible payments that was not captured by student aid.gov account, payment history or eligible PSLF payment counts. In early XXXX, I came across an article that indicated a parent plus loan could now be consolidated with the other direct loans and included in the PSLF forgiveness. The concern was that by consolidating that parent plus loan, i would no longer qualify for the income based repayment plan that was affordable for my budget at that time. I made multiple calls to studentaid and Mohela trying to get my updated PSLF status to help guide my decision making, but Unfortunately I was not helped, which prevented me from pursuing the consolidation of that parent loan. My concern at that time was how I was mislead by my loan servicers regarding my pslf status. Due to the loan servicers advising I did not have the number of eligible payments required for PSLF, I decided not to consolidate the parent loan out of fear that I would not be able to afford the payments according to the repayment plan associated with the parent loan. I was mislead to think that I would still have several years of repayments before qualifying for PSLF and I feared how that would impact myself and my family financially.If I had been given accurate and updated qualifying payment information that supported I was within 1-2 years of forgiveness, I would have proceeded with the consolidation loan to ensure the parent plus loan was included in the PSLF forgiveness, once eligible. In late XXXX, I received an unexpected letter from Mohela indicating that I had met the 120 qualifying payments and my direct consolidation student loan had been forgiven through the PSLF program. I was never given any updates regarding my PSLF status until that letter. Even after receiving the letter, my PSLF eligible payment count on my studentaid and Mohela accounts online had not changes and continued to reflect that I did not have any qualifying PSLF payment counts. To date, the information on those online do not match the payment accounts reflected in the letter with the PSLF forgiveness. In fact, my studentaid account summery online continued to inaccurately reflected that my consolidation loan balances had been paid in full, with no reference that the loans had actually been forgiven via PSLF. Even to this day, I can not locate any documents on either website regarding my forgiveness or PSLF status. My complaint is that I was denied the opportunity to consolidate an eligible parent plus loan with the consolidation loan to have it included in the PSLF forgiveness. Since I can only receive PSLF forgiveness one time, I will never have the opportunity for student loan forgiveness of the parent plus loan despite it being eligible at the time the direct loan was forgiven and despite devoting my life to public service for the last 16 years. I am having to start completely over with making student loan payments on the parent plus loan that should have been forgiven. I have attempted to file a PSLF reconsideration request on the student aid website but the form/tool will not populate.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: TX
Zip: 774XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-22
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-21
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Hello, I have submitted multiple requests for consideration of XXXX and XXXX directly through XXXX and current student loan servicer MOHELA. For now MOHELA has updated the payment count to XXXX out of XXXX using only the XXXX payments I made. MOHELA has not received authorization to use the payments I made through XXXX to count for XXXX eligibility. I believe I have made XXXX payments to date and may be eligible for a refund of overpayment for about {$36000.00} to {$55000.00}.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: NC
Zip: 28115
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-20
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I am writing as I have been having an ongoing issue with the status of my loans since returning to school. I took out student loans over 10 years ago while attending XXXX XXXX XXXX, and my loans have been in repayment status since XXXX. During the XXXX XXXX XXXX, my loans were placed in the XXXX Forbearance, and all was fine. I returned to school in XXXX, XXXX, and at that time, I did not take out any new loans, nor did I even file a FASFA as I decided not to use student loans to pay for school. When my school, the XXXX XXXX Nevada at XXXX, notified MOHELA that I was enrolled, my loans were automatically placed into an " in-school deferment, '' and I quickly requested that this status be removed and returned back to the XXXX Emergency Forbearance as I had no need nor desire to place my old loans into deferment. My plan is to remain in active status, retaining the XXXX Forbearance, and then resuming payments when the student loan pause ends. I have had to request that this happen multiple times, however, as each time I requested that my loans be taken out of automatic deferment, they would return to automatic deferment a few days later, and this took place on multiple occasions from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. Finally, I was advised that my loans would be marked as having a permanent denial of automatic in-school deferment status, which is exactly what I wanted, and this lasted through early XX/XX/XXXX. I could see that this was working as I would get notification that MOHELA was notified of my in-school status, however the letter would show that I declined automatic deferment. In XX/XX/XXXX, however, some of my loans were once again placed in automatic in-school deferment after MOHELA was alerted that I was in-school, despite being advised on XX/XX/XXXX that my loans were noted as having permanently declined automatic in-school deferment. I have been told multiple conflicting things from MOHELA since that time, stating that I need to fill out a form that I would be sent separately to permanently decline automatic in school deferment ( I have not yet received this form, nor can I find it online ), that my loans would be taken out of the automatic deferment ( this still has not happened ), and that I am ineligible to decline automatic deferment since I am in school ( this is incorrect according to FSA 's Web site... I am eligible since these are not new loans, and only people with new loans are not able to take them out of automatic deferment ). I am writing as, based on the payment tracker with PSLF, if I certify my employment in XX/XX/XXXX, I will have accumulated enough qualified payments to achieve PSLF on all of my loans, and since some of them keep being placed in automatic in-school deferment, it keeps jeopardizing my ability to do this. Also, after calling, I was advised that even with deferment waived, my loans were now in " in school '' status, something they said could not be waived, and none of my months would count toward PSLF. According to FSA 's Web site, I have a right to reject this, but MOHELA is refusing to do so. Again, I do not want any of my loans to be placed in automatic in school deferment, and I want them all to remain in the XXXX forbearance until the student loan pause ends, and then I plan to make my monthly payments until I apply for PSLF. This is incredibly frustrating, especially since I keep being told different things, and by reviewing my loans, it is obvious that the loans are not new, have been in repayment for many years, I have no new loans, and I have, on multiple occasions, requested that the automatic deferment for in-school status be permanently removed.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: NY
Zip: 11226
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-20
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-21
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Greetings, I applied to Mohela the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program by submitting the PUBLIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS ( PSLF ) & TEMPORARY EXPANDED PSLF ( TEPSLF ) CERTIFICATION & APPLICATION on XX/XX/XXXX. All of my supporting documents were provided at the time of my application. On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email stating that my application was being processed. I had XXXX qualifying loans with an origination date of XX/XX/XXXX. I made my XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX. I made qualifying payments on these loans in excess of the required XXXX payments. The amount I paid after the XXXX payment was : {$17000.00} I am due a refund in the amount of : {$17000.00} I have called MOHELA on several occasions and have gotten different answers each time. I have been provided with inconsistent information and no refund has been issued at this time. MOHELA has failed to process my refund in over XXXX months. Nor have they provided any additional correspondence regarding my case. Please work with MOHELA to correct this and compel them to issue the correct refund. I have provided all documents that I have provided to MOHELA for your review. Thank you, XXXX XXXX. XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: NY
Zip: 11561
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-19
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: On numerous occasions throughout the years, I have reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX to understand my loan program as well as how interest accrues and was never provided with the correct information or put on the correct program. My loans continued to accrue interest when i was told that they would not. My balance increased on the back end even though i qualified for XXXX or minimal payment based on employment status and income. I complained to them numerous times but no action was taken. I filed a complaint here against them and i was told that i need to take it up with MOHELA who the loan has been transferred to.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: CA
Zip: 92656
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-19
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Hi, I am on the IDR plan ( REPAYE ) to repay my federal student loans. I was with XXXX and then transferred to MOHELA last year. At the time when I was with XXXX, during the COVID forbearance period, XXXX had emailed me to tell me it was time to recertify my income even though no income recertification was required since it was during the COVID forbearance period. With XXXXXXXX XXXX incorrect guidance, I recertified my income online on XX/XX/XXXX which resulted in a much higher payment compared to the previous year. I should not have to pay the higher payment due to my original servicer ( XXXX ) providing me with false information. It is unfair for me to be punished with an almost 5x higher payment because I was trying to do the right thing and follow their guidance. I should be provided with the same benefit afforded to everyone else as no one was required to recertify their income during the COVID forbearance period. I have tried to call the new service provider MOHELA but the call has not been successful. I have searched online and seen that others have been able to undo their income certification so I was hoping I could get that courtesy extended to me as well.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: MO
Zip: 64151
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-19
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Hello, I am at least XXXX qualifying payments in toward completing the XXXX necessary for PSLF ( Public Service Loan Forgiveness ). Last year, a submitted ECF ( Employment Certification Form ), the result of which raised my qualifying payment count to XXXX. Recently, I submitted another ECF to update my payment count, with my expectation that I would now be around XXXX qualifying payments after it was processed. This time, I used the tool via the studentaid.gov site to trigger them to directly email my employer for information. My employer promptly followed up and completed the form electronically. The assessment by studentaid.gov however was that my employment reflected on the new form does not qualify. I am very confused and frustrated - not to mention upset. I am in the same job, with the same employer, the same number of hours worked per week as last year. Why would there be a different outcome? I have reached out to MOHELA, Studentaid.gov, and you, in the hope to get some clarity. In my partner 's past efforts to pursue PSLF, he found that different entities ( servicer, Dept of Ed ) would occasionally have conflicting answers or change their answer if called out for not adhering to PSLF requirements and other student loan related processes. Thank you for your assistance!
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: OR
Zip: 97035
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-20
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: There are three student loans showing up on my Mohela account that were paid off. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with a principal of {$1300.00}. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with a principal of {$2200.00}. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with a principal of {$3300.00}. These three loans were PAID off when the servicer was XXXX. These loans were not present on my account a few months ago. It is the responsibility of MOHELA to communication with XXXX to ensure what loans were paid off. MOHELA has also started charging interest on student loans when the Biden Administration has stated Student loan interest will resume starting on XX/XX/2023, and payments will be due starting in XXXX. I have tried numerous times to call MOHELA and only a machine answers that eventually just disconnects after waiting an hour.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: CA
Zip: 93313
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-20
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-07-20
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report
Consumer Complaint: I have my student loans serviced through MOHELA from a consolidation in XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXXXXXX I started receiving alerts from all three credit bureaus regarding my credit score plummeting and a high debt ratio. Upon checking all three bureaus it was revealed that MOHELA had reported my {$69000.00} account twice. I have only one account with MOHELA. I put disputes in to the bureaus and notified MOHELA. By mid XXXX I called MOHELA again and was informed by the Resolutions Department that matter would be handled at the end of the month around XX/XX/XXXX stating the one account would be " taken off " or put as " paid in full '' because that is when they report to the credit bureaus. I waited until XX/XX/XXXX and checked with nothing changing on my reports I contacted MOHELA again. The Resolution Department Representative looked into the matter and explained that they only had one account, but when I told the rep that the accounts had different numbers with the same balances she looked again. She then said that one of the accounts was the initial consolidation loan and it should report as {$0.00}. I told her it says that, but it says '' paid as agree '' making an open account. The rep placed me on hold and then returned stating that everything is good on their end and to check with the credit bureaus on Monday. I kept my composure on the matter that is completely unacceptable although I am completely upset. MOHELA refuses to contact the credit bureaus and rectify the matter correcting their reporting error. Pure laziness. MOHELA seems to be racking up loans to collect interest for XXXX reinstatement since the Department of Education suggest to that many borrowers refinance to qualify for forgiveness in XXXX. They are greedy and will ruin your credit in order to keep ghost accounts to have active accounts to collect interest in XXXX. Consolidating with them has been the worst decision I have ever made. MOHELA is terrible and will damage your credit never correcting the wrong they have done. Borrowers beware.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: MI
Zip: 48076
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-07-20
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A