Date Received: 2023-12-28
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: My account lists an income recertification date of XX/XX/XXXX for my current income-driven repayment plan. According to the laws around restarting of payments and income recertification this should be pushed back a year. To make this clear, the Federal Student Aid office published the following response to the question of when we would have to recertify after payments restart : " The earliest you could be required to recertify is XX/XX/XXXX. On your account My Aid page, you may still see a recertification date that is earlier than XX/XX/XXXX. We are working to get those updated, and we thank you for your patience. If your recertification date falls between now and XX/XX/XXXX, it will be pushed out by one year. For example, if your account says your recertification date is XXXX XXXX, XXXX, that date will be pushed out to XXXX XXXX, XXXX. '' XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX I sent a message to Mohela to have this corrected and they have not responded and I am reading many online reports of them not updating this information in a timely manner with potentially major financial ramifications. As my date clearly falls before XX/XX/XXXX they are required to push back my start to sometime around XX/XX/XXXX. It is now only about a month away and I need Mohela to take action now.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: CA
Zip: 920XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-28
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I have several complaints about the way the Federal Student Loan servicers is conducting business, examples are below : XXXX. Making account changes without giving written notifications, their form of notifications is via their application which unless you log in more than a month you would never know of any issues. XXXX. Not being notified of payments being due, once again you have to log into your account multiple times to even know there is payment due. XXXX. Interest being capitalized on loans, when you are on a XXXX plan or have been in a forbearance where the interest should not be capitalized. XXXX. Sent email communication to the company over 2 months ago and have not heard back, call wait times are 2+ hours.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: PA
Zip: 17403
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account information incorrect
Consumer Complaint: Duplicated student loan/accounts reported by mohela. Accounts were reported/opened on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX with the highest balance of {$24000.00}. XXXX monthly payment and Last reported on XX/XX/XXXX. The second account was also reported/opened on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX with the balance of {$24000.00}. ( With a highest balance of {$25.00}, XXXX last reported XX/XX/XXXXXXXX ) Also the balance due on my student loan is reported incorrect. Last payment being made to mohela in the amount of {$270.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Current/correct balance as of today XX/XX/XXXX is {$24000.00}
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: TX
Zip: 77459
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I write to apprise you of an issue I am having with the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Missouri ( MOHELA ). This issue relates to the Department of Educations on-ramp, in which a retroactive forbearance will be applied for payments missed between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Representatives of MOHELA have provided myself and other borrowers with incomplete and misleading information about the on-ramp. This afternoon, I spoke with a MOHELA representative, asking her to confirm that I would be eligible for the on-ramp. Although I knew about the on-ramp through my own research, I wanted to confirm, for the avoidance of doubt, that my account would be eligible. MOHELAs representative denied having any knowledge of the on-ramp or of any retroactive administrative forbearance. It was only after I explained to her that I was an attorney and knew the details of the program that she finally acknowledged its existence, although she still did not confirm that I was eligible. ( When I asked to speak to a supervisor, the representative told me that this would entail a hold time of two to three hours. ) I do not understand why it should be this difficult to get basic information about my student loans from MOHELA. And it concerns me greatly that borrowers who are unaware of the on-ramp are being given incomplete and misleading information, potentially causing them to lose the benefits of this important provision. I note that this is not the only issue that I ( and other borrowers ) have had with MOHELA. My request to be enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan was denied twice without adequate explanation, and call hold times to clarify the matter have spanned hours. Processing times are unacceptably long I submitted all requested supporting documentation on XX/XX/XXXX ; MOHELA has yet to take action on my request. It is my hope that your office can address these problems, for myself and millions of other student loan borrowers.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: NY
Zip: 11102
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Consumer Complaint: Mohela denied me opportunities to lower my monthly payments. Mohela charged off my account without any warning when I only had {$10000.00} left to pay on the account. Mohela did not explain the consequences of a charged off and that the default date would happen on XX/XX/2023. This timeline establishes that a least week before the discharge/default, Mohela did not give me any warning that my loan would be in default on XX/XX/2023. XX/XX/2023 I received an e-mail from Mohela with the subject line, Final Notification, which stated : Your private education loan is being reviewed for assignment to a collection agency. I called Mohela immediately to discuss a repayment plan. I was and still am unemployed, but I was willing to use the last bit of money I had to avoid default. I spoke to a representative and applied for a Loan Modification. I was denied. Apparently, my expenses exceeded my income, so I could not qualified for the lower payment. My monthly payments were {$1000.00}. I could not qualify for a lower payment of {$200.00}, which I offered to pay right then on the call. This did not make any sense as the reason why I am experiencing a hardship is because I do not have sufficient income to meet all my expenses. XX/XX/2023 I receive a letter from Mohela with this date in which they said that my request for a Loan Modification was not approved. The reason for the decision in the letter is : Your current stated cash flow is not sufficient to repay the loan within the parameters of the loan modification. XX/XX/2023 The account was discharged ; I did not receive any calls from Mohela on this date to warn me about what was going to happen and to try to work with me to make a payment. If I knew this would happen, I would have asked my friends or Dad to borrow money to delay the default.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: CA
Zip: 90230
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Consumer Complaint: Called to request Mohela adjust PSLF cumulative months as the total # payments made is not accurate - XX/XX/XXXX Ive solely been employed at institutions eligible for PSLF since XXXX, documentation has been submitted with job changes etc. My current loans with Mohela were eligible loans consolidated when my loan servicer changed. My total accumulative payments shown on my current loan is 54 months which is incorrect. It should reflect 84 months as I started my loan payments in XX/XX/XXXX and have consistently paid monthly since.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: TX
Zip: 79423
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I have been attempting since XX/XX/2023 to get my payment amount corrected with Mohela. According to multiple applications through the FSA website, Mohela website, and with phone applications, my payment should be {$0.00}. However, they continue to post it as {$0.00}. Every time a ticket has been submitted or I have been told that they are fixing the payment amount to the correct amount of {$0.00}, it never happens. Many of my applications are marked as duplicate or sent back with a continued payment of {$0.00} even though the calculators and Mohela themselves have stated the payment is supposed to be {$0.00}. This is in addition to multiple attempts to have my payment counts under PSLF updated as I have at least 4 payments that previously showed as qualified payments under Mohela 's tracking system and have since disappeared all together from my tracker. Mohela is not meeting its contractual requirements to respond to phone calls in a timely manner, secure messages within a timely manner, or to accurately calculate payment amounts, process applications within a timely manner, or to accurately report account information. As to date they have absolutely refused to accurately document all of my monthly payment statuses. I am still actively missing 23 payment months from my payment tracker. They have stated that this is FSA 's responsibility and not theirs. However, their contract states otherwise and some of these payment statuses were previously listed on their website. With this being said, my most pressing concern is that for over 6 months and with multiple applications through Mohela and FSA, they continue to not correct my payment amount which is supposed to be at {$0.00} and is still listed at {$0.00}. Further, they are instructing customer service reps for PSLF to actively deny access to knowledgeable PSLF supervisors and to actively put customers on hold while they " contact '' a supervisor rather than simply connecting them with a supervisor. Then after extensive hold time, these reps will come back and say they have instructed by a supervisor to do a, b, c and submit requests that never actually get submitted. When you demand to speak directly to said supervisor they actively refuse or connect you back to the original wait line for a normal customer service rep. Alternatively, if they have deferred the time long enough and then finally connect you to the supervisor line, it is past hours and they refuse to answer. They give you an option for a supervisor to call you back and if you leave your number, they never call back. I have had reps tell me on more than one occasion that they are putting in requests to stop my current {$0.00} payment from processing or to change the payment to {$0.00} and none of these requests are recorded when I call the next rep and none of them have reflected on my online account. In one instance, I had a rep lie to me and say he was a supervisor and when I caught him lying, he lied again and then started actively talking bad about me to his peers with me still connected on the line so I could hear everything. When I called him on this he then proceeded to connect me to the Spanish PSLF line to get rid of me after telling me he would connect me to a supervisor because the PSLF supervisors actively told him he was not allowed to transfer me to them. At this point in time I am considering all legal options to resolve the inaccurate information on my account to include my payment amount, payment tracker, and the active role on the part of Mohela in denying customer service access to knowledgeable PSLF representatives and supervisors and multiple points at which they are failing to meet their contractual obligations. My XXXX as used to calculate the SAVE payment is {$42000.00} which all calculators state should result in a {$0.00} payment and Mohela has acknowledged that this is supposed to be my payment amount but has yet refused to fix the error or said they are fixing it and there is no documented instance of it being fixed on my account. I have 23 missing months on my payment tracker which do not show up as eligible or ineligible. They are simply missing. At least 4 of these payments previously showed as eligible prior to consolidations and have not been added back in post consolidation. I have multiple IDR applications on my account marked as duplicates or cancelled rather than processed to accurately reflect the appropriate payment amount.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: AP
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-28
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I have been employed by an agency that counts towards the PSLF since before I even started my degree program. Currently Mohela says that many of my payments do not qualify for the program. I'm not sure how they can say this as my employment has been with local government for the entire time. When I reached out to Mohela the only response I get is that they are experiencing a high volume of inquiries and I will be notified when they get to my questions .... It's been over 9 months now and still no answers. When I call, I go through a phone tree then on hold for an eternity. I don't have time to sit on hold all day just to sit on hold and never be addressed. This company needs to be fired and stripped of their ability to handle student loans!
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: MN
Zip: 553XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-28
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have submitted no less than six complaints regarding MOHELA demanding payment in my loans that are subject to discharge under thXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX lawsuit settlement. MOHELA was notified of the same in XX/XX/ XXXX however they have failed to process the discharge and have erroneously placed my account in repayment. As a full-class member, my account should not be in repayment status. I have repeatedly requested for my loans to be placed back on administrative forbearance, but MOHELA has refused to update my payment status. The Department of education has confirmed that my account should be in forbearance status I have provided MOHELA confirmation of the same they have ignored those correspondences.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: VA
Zip: 220XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-12-28
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-12-27
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: This issue began when the XXXX Department of Education transferred the service of our student loan from XXXX XXXX to Mohela on XX/XX/XXXX. We continued to make our standard monthly payments ( which included extra amount in order to pay the loan off early ) as we had been doing since the beginning of the loan. In XXXX of XXXX we received a letter stating that repayments of student loans were starting up again and currently there were no payments applied to our account. The payments we made for XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX totaling {$2000.00} had been paid through the bill payment service associated with our bank and we had conformation numbers showing that the payments were received from XXXX Department of Education Mohela. The bill payment service opened an investigation to help us find out why our payments were accepted but not being credited to our account. After multiple phone calls to Mohela throughout the month of XXXX ( which totaled more than XXXX hours, we faxed and uploaded our bank statements and proof of our payments to our Mohela account as requested by Mohela XXXX they could investigate from their end why our payments were not being posted. We were told that the investigation would be complete within a month and that we would be notified through the Mohela 's website that our account had been updated and the payments would be applied. During the month of XXXX, we again contacted Mohela to get a status updates because there were no changes or notifications in our Mohela account. Mohela confirmed that our investigation was still active and was still in the XXXX XXXX but would be completed within the month. Mohela did put our account in forbearance status so that we would not owe our monthly payments while the investigation was active but that the interest on the account would still be accruing. On XXXX XXXX and after a month had past, we contacted Mohela again to request a status update however we were told that the investigation was not complete, and it would be approximately XXXX of XXXX before it was complete. As of the posting of the complaint our Mohela account is still in forbearance status yet still accruing the monthly interest and our payments still have not been credited to our account leaving our {$2000.00} missing and no answers.
Company Response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
State: GA
Zip: 306XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-05
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A