Date Received: 2020-03-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I am a participant in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and my federal direct loans are serviced through myfedloan.org. MyFedLoan.org is currently distributing faulty information about the CARES Act and how borrowers can receive qualifying payments through the recently passed forbearance period recently passed by Congress. I have tried contacting them with no response received. This is what their website currently states : " Special Considerations for Borrowers Pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness or Loan Forgiveness Through an Income-Driven Repayment ( IDR ) Plan The time spent on the emergency administrative forbearance will not count toward your required payment count. '' This is incorrect according to multiple sources and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Website. The website upon which that information is housed is here : https : //myfedloan.org/borrowers/covid
Company Response:
State: UT
Zip: 84106
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: There appears to be conflicting information on your website and my loan servicer 's website and studentaid.gov 's website regarding the CARES Act requirements for loan forbearance and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program ( PSLF ). Section 3513 ( c ) of the CARES Act says " the Secretary shall deem each month for which a loan payment was suspended under this section as if the borrower of the loan had made a payment for the purpose of any loan forgiveness program '' Your website ( https : //www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-student-loans-and-coronavirus-pandemic/ ) says " I am working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness , what impact can this have on my progress? If you are working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) you need to be aware of a few key items. For your Direct loans, even though your payment is suspended, those months WILL count toward loan forgiveness programs as long as the other the PSLF program requirements are met. Please note that only Direct Loans are eligible for PSLF. All Direct Loans are owned by the federal government. If you have other types of federal loans and are working in public service, you can consolidate most, if not all, of those loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan, which could potentially become eligible for PSLF. Learn more about the PSLF program requirements. '' However, this appears to contradict these sources, which were checked today ( XX/XX/2020. ) : However, my loan servicer 's website ( https : //myfedloan.org/borrowers/covid ) says " Special Considerations for Borrowers Pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness or Loan Forgiveness through an Income-Driven Repayment ( IDR ) Plan : The time spent on the emergency administrative forbearance will not count toward your required payment count. If your income has changed as a result of COVID-19 you may be eligible for a new lower IDR plan repayment amount. Find out if you qualify for a lower payment at StudentAid.gov/idr. '' Student Aid 's website ( https : //studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus ) says I'm making payments and hoping to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) , but I can't work right now due to coronavirus. If I miss a payment, can I still qualify for PSLF? If you dont make a payment for a month, or enter a deferment or forbearance because you can not afford your payment, that month will not count toward PSLF. However, qualifying payments do not need to be consecutive, so you will not lose credit for payments that youve already made. As a reminder, all borrowers seeking PSLF should enter an income-driven repayment plan, which bases monthly payments on income instead of on loan debt. If you believe that your work will be impacted for a long period of time, you can recertify for your repayment plan early, to take into consideration your drop in income. Of course, PSLF also requires you to be working full-time for a qualifying employer to receive credit toward PSLF for a month. If your employer does not consider you to be working full-time during this period, then this month or these months will not count toward PSLF even if you make a payment. However, paid sick leave or other leave time may be counted by your employer as hours worked for the purposes of PSLF. To learn more about PSLF, visit StudentAid.gov/publicservice. To learn more about income-driven repayment, visit StudentAid.gov/idr.
Company Response:
State: CO
Zip: 80247
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Under the CARES act, it is my understanding that if you go into administrative forbearance, the suspended payments are considered qualifying payments that can be counted toward forgiveness under the PSLF program. ( See the CFPB 's blog on the subject, here : https : //www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-student-loans-and-coronavirus-pandemic/ ). However, DirectLoan 's website provides contrary information. Under the heading " Special Considerations for Borrowers Pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness or Loan Forgiveness Through an Income-Driven Repayment ( IDR ) Plan, '' it says " The time spent on the emergency administrative forbearance will not count toward your required payment count. '' See https : //myfedloan.org/borrowers/covid/. It appears that FedLoan is providing inaccurate and misleading information to borrowers at this time, that would lead borrowers to continue making student loan payments so that they don't extend their PSLF payment count, when in fact, they should go into emergency forbearance.
Company Response:
State: VA
Zip: 223XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I received a letter from PHEAA/Department of Education that I needed to wait 4 weeks before filing my taxes to ensure that the tax offset would be removed. I waited 6 weeks my taxes were still offset their office informed me that it was removed however the Bureau of Fiscal Services said it was not because it is electronic and the system updates every 24 hours. I believe that they never removed the offset and are refusing to take ownership that they made a mistake causing me significant financial difficulty. Even when I informed them that the offset wasn't removed they did not follow up or resubmit the request. Something needs to be done because this is not my fault and I'm paying the price.
Company Response:
State: MS
Zip: 387XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-30
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/2020 I called Fed Loan Servicing and asked why my Federal Student Loan XX/XX/2020 Payment did not show suspended because of the CARES Act. The CARES Act stated the suspension would automatically be granted and yet my account is not updated. When I reached customer service, I was told the only way the payment would be suspended would be a forbearance. That is false. There is a difference between suspending payments in accordance with the CARES Act and a forbearance. Issuing a forbearance would not count towards public service forgiveness, or traditional forgiveness after 25 years. I inquired if I suspended my automatic debit payments, would my account show delinquent after the nonpayment on XX/XX/2020? The customer service rep answered yes, and that it was nearly impossible to suspend the automatic debit because their system takes three days to update. Again payments are supposed to be suspended XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX without a request. She also said any suspension in payments would not count towards Public Service Loan Forgiveness, again false. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and she said no supervisor was available for the foreseeable future, but took my name and number to call back later. Therefore I have been put in an untenable situation. If I stop payments at my peril to receive the federal assistance that has been granted to me, I was told my account would be in default. Fed Loan has not been proactive, cooperative, or responsive. Fed Loan has interpreted the CARES Act in a way that is beneficial to Fed Loan and ignores the benefits guaranteed to the Student Loan Holder. Fed Loan Student Loan Account holders deserve better.
Company Response:
State: MI
Zip: 48420
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-30
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-29
Issue: False statements or representation
Subissue: Attempted to collect wrong amount
Consumer Complaint: The CARES act allows borrowers not to pay fed student loans until XXXX. For those on PSLF, this period still counts as a qualified payment under the legislation. Despite this, fed loans continues to send emails about hardship forbearance indicating that taking a forbearance makes a person ineligible for PSLF during this period. This is deceptive and contrary to the law just passed.
Company Response:
State: OH
Zip: 43202
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-29
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Two problems : 1. The fed loan website explicitly says that the coronavirus package can halt payments on my loan but these halted months will NOT count towards PSLF, which conflicts with what your site and many others say. I understood that I could halt payments AND those months would still count towards PSLF. Fedloan seems to be unwilling to recognize that as the situation. What is the truth? 2. They calculated my repayment for a year based on my Obvious gross income that I provided. They made no attempt to get an adjusted discretionary income from me and I didnt know I had done wrong until they got my tax return one year later and said oh, your payment should actually be THIS. Which turned out to be about 1/3 the amount I was paying. So they essentially fleeced me out of ~XXXX that year and would not return the excess I was paying that I was NOT obligated to pay. It seems that if they get a tax return at the end of the year and your income is such that you were making more than the minimum payments required you should be able to get that back. If the government takes too much money from me in taxes, I GET IT BACK. Why wont the student loan office do the same thing?!! Its criminal and I am very upset by this. I have made complaints with both fedloan, student aid.gov, and even my government representatives and nobody will help me. That extra XXXX would sure help now ...
Company Response:
State: UT
Zip: 840XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-29
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Hello currently it states that I owe {$58000.00} on my student loan. However at the time of my student loan the maximum amount that I was allowed to borrow was up to {$18000.00}. Somewhere along the lines I have been scammed & fraud. When I try to contact My Fed Loan.org they transfer me to / give me a disconnected phone number. They said that I need to talk to their consolidation department ( which I have tirelessly tried to find and most likely doesn't exist. ) I don't know what to do from here. I looked at my loan disbursements and the majority of them are incorrect.
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 21075
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-04-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-28
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Around XXXX to XXXX, I obtained student loans in amounts totaling about 23000. in XXXX these loans were consolidated with a American Education Services ( AES ) which called me over the phone and offered to help me with my repayment. I was set up for a payment plan that i thought was manageable, between XXXX and XXXX, but I did not know that it wasn't actually paying off my loan. I was only paying interest for about 10 years without any actual change. In XXXX I decided to consolidate with Fedloan and attempt to enter the Student Loan Forgiveness Program. During the re-consolidation I entered into delinquent status for not making the regular payment on my loan, but I wasn't getting any feedback from the new loan holder Fedloan. Little did I know that these two companies are one and the same, and they could have both easily seen the status of my account. Of course this affected my credit score. But the worst part was that somehow my loan was compounded from an original balance of XXXX to XXXX when Fedloan took it over, which is close to what I still owe today. I have paid {$10000.00} total to fedloan, but have only paid {$2500.00} on my principal since XXXX. When I look at my payment history i see several months of payments going straight to the interest but nothing to the principal, even when i know I'm ahead on my payments. Meaning it should be going to principal. I believe this company AES/Fedloan/PHEAA is engaging in predatory lending practices and abusing their ability to manage borrowers money. I do not believe they intend on actually assisting borrowers with paying down their loans, but instead keep them confused about what exactly their payments are covering. Also, the fact that they go by different company names and can transfer a loan from one to the other and add several thousands of dollars should also be considered a fraudulent business practice. If i can speak to an attorney and explain my situation i believe i would have a case against this company for their misleading behavior and abusive business practice. i don't believe my complaint will actually help me or anyone else because i have seen other complaints come here to die. It is obvious that the corrupted practices of this company and this " official '' complaint service are nothing more than another dead end/misleading business practice.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 78245
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-28
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-03-28
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
Consumer Complaint: Said theyd implement 0 % interest on loans backdated to XX/XX/XXXX. It is XX/XX/XXXX and my loans are still accruing interest. I emailed them this week, havent heard anything. Many people have asked on their XXXX page about it but I still havent found information about when they will follow through on applying the 0 % interest. Both my former servicer and my friends servicer have already implemented 0 % so I dont see why FEDLOAN has not. Please make them implement this. Thank you for your help.
Company Response:
State: KS
Zip: 66502
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-03-28
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A