Date Received: 2020-02-01
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I had to consolidate my student loans with Fedloan Servicing to participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. My account shows that I consolidated with them on XX/XX/XXXX. Payment records on Fedloans website shows a payment history beginning on XX/XX/XXXX. In order to qualify for the loan forgiveness, I must make 120 payments. I have made 44. They are saying I have only made 27. According to Fedloan, this past year has not yet been calculated, however, for the past three years, I have been arguing with them over what they are considering qualifying payments. Including the past year they claim they have not calculated yet, I have made 44 payments and they are saying Ive only made 39. They have said they have disqualified the uncounted payments for the following reasons : I made two payments too close together. Both were disqualified. This is false. I get emails saying when my payment is due. Then I go on to their website and make the payment. Ive never paid when the payment wasnt due. I would be unable to as the amount in the box would be XXXX. In order to rectify this, they asked I make a payment over the phone. I had already made my payment that month, but they asked that I make a second payment taking me out of the pay ahead status. This was done on XX/XX/XXXX. However, those two payments are still not showing as qualifying payments. ( That is two payments not counted. ) They then said one month I paid a few cents too much and another month I paid a few cents too little. This is impossible because I use their internet site and phone app to make my payments. The amount I owe is auto populated. I do not change the amount. I only click on the date and click on my bank account and then submit the payment. It makes no sense whatsoever to change the auto populated amount by pennies. ( That is an additional two payments not counted. ) Another month they claim I was on deferment, which is false. ( That is one payment not counted. ) That brings to total count to five payments they claim are not qualifying payments. I have disputed this with them on multiple occasions over the years. I have spoken to supervisors as well as other agents. The supervisors have been rude with one telling me that there was nothing they would do for me and to call the media and my local government representative. She went on to say that I wasnt going to win in a fight against them, laughed and then hung up on me. I have researched their practices and have sadly discovered that I am one of thousands of people they are scamming with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 15101
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-02-01
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I recently applied for public service loan forgiveness and was approved and place with FedLoans as my student loan servicer. I completed all of their online documentation and opted to complete online payments. Additionally, prior to being placed with this scam company, I completed the federal application to renew my income-driven payment application which was approved and accepted by XXXX XXXX student loan servicer. First, FedLoan claims my bank ( XXXX ) rejected my online payment because they couldn't find my account. In doing my research this is a common complaint people have about this company. I logged into my account to review what I had entered and all the information was correct. I contacted FedLoans and was given the same song and dance, I explained the I pay Navient Loan servicer every month using the same account information. In speaking to my bank, no payment from FedLoans was ever sent to XXXX with an account similar to my account or my account number. Then, I received a message that I had failed to complete the Federal Student Loan Income-Driven Recertification application so, now I owe {$2500.00}. When I called I explained I completed the recertification process on XX/XX/2019, and I was told that the application was insufficient and I had to complete it again. In the meantime, I receive correspondence from XXXX stating my income-driven recertification application was denied because it was not time to recertify my application. It is plain to see that this is a scam of a company and they are being allowed to force consumers to pay outrageous amounts through unscrupulous business practices that border on the line of illegal and are most certainly unethical.
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 60466
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-02-01
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Investigation took more than 30 days
Consumer Complaint: Fed loan service has me at a CLOSED status and a {$0.00} dollar balance and I ask them to remove the account because the remarks and late are effecting my score negatively. I am in the process of trying to buy a home and cant do so.
Company Response:
State: NC
Zip: 28269
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-01-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: aHello, I have student debt with FedLoan Servicing, the agency with whom I had to enroll to be in the PSLF ( Public Students Loan Forgiveness ) program. My account # is XXXX. FedLoan has been extremely poor in all aspects of their management of these loans, but the primary concern is that they continue to make inaccurate counts of my qualifying payments towards the PSLF program. I had a hand count done in the past showing each individual payment that counted and those that did not towards PSLF. FedLoan denied many of these payments saying that they were several cents from the full billed amount. I provided them with records from my previous servicer, XXXX XXXX, showing that these payments had in fact been paid in the full billed amounts at the time, and I have requested a recount. FedLoan has ignored my many requests for another hand count, and they have ignored the records that I supplied to them. They sent me a bill due in XX/XX/XXXXof last year, and I paid it when the bill became available in XX/XX/XXXX. They considered that " paid ahead, '' and now they are telling me I am in " paid ahead '' status because I paid that bill directly through their website a few days early. These are completely their errors, all of them, and they can not be relied upon. I would like an outside agency or ombudsman to count my payments individually using the records I provided, since FedLoan does not manage their own information in any accurate way. Thank you.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 121XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-01-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-02-01
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account information incorrect
Consumer Complaint: My bank bill pay stopped sending auto payments to my student loan company without my knowledge. I was unaware of this and was not contact by AES until after the payments were 60 days late. Once they called my I immediately issued payment, cleared up the issue with my bank autopay and continued making regular payments. I was then rejected for a home loan and car loan making it really difficult for me to care for my family. Upon learning from the mortgage company that I had a 60 day late payment from AES I took action. I explained my situation to AES and send them a letter requesting a Goodwill removal of the late payments. They immediately sent me a rejection letter. For 10 years I have paid on time and having student debt is a challenge for me and many others. To have a student loan company so quickly reject a goodwill request and harm me and my family is infuriating. AES 's new policy surrounding approved forbiddances covering and reversing any late payments should be illegal and is harmful to many. Please help me by looking into this immediately.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 90291
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-02-01
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: FedLoan Servicing is mismanaging the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. So far, they have failed to properly apply all of my qualifying payments. Although I have submitted my employment certification form each year and have made qualifying payments on each of my loans, there is a discrepancy in how the payments have been allocated. First off, not all of my qualifying payments are showing up in my account. The qualifying payments that do show up are unevenly distributed. Some of my loans show only 7 qualifying payments, while other loans show 16. I also submitted an employment certification form for my XXXX service over a year ago, and they have not processed and applied my qualifying payments to my account. I had to call four separate times to notify FedLoan servicing of the issue, before one of their representatives finally flagged the issue for future review. I call periodically to check up on the status of my account, and each time the representatives are unable to assist me. They say it's out of their hands and they have no idea how long it will take before someone reviews my account. The last representative informed me that they have such a long queue of people who have already completed 120 payments but still have not had their accounts reviewed, that they are unable to estimate how long it will take to look at my account. I was told that my account is not a priority given that I am not close to 120 payments, and this indicates a serious problem in FedLoan Servicing 's ability to manage the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Especially since they are making mistakes on my account this early on, and are unable to fix the issues in a timely manner.
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 21044
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-01
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-01-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: My student loans are serviced by FedLoanServicing ( FLS ). I have at present {$74000.00} total across seven different student loans with varying interest rates. I'm currently on an IDR payment paying about {$450.00} a month. That {$450.00} has to be allocated to the 7 loans proportionally, according to FLS. They refused my request to allocate a larger percentage to the highest interest rate loans, saying that there is a " federal requirement '' that they apply the IDR monthly payment proportionally to the seven loans, allocating the payment to each loan based on the that loan 's balance as a percent of my total student loan balance. That effectively means that I am unable to pay principle on the higher interest rate loans. Instead the principle payment is actually being applied to the lowest interest rate loan. I called and spoke to several people at FLS to make this request. I was transferred to a supervisor, XXXX, employee number XXXX, who denied my request and cited a federal regulation that he said requires MyFedLoans to allocate my monthly IDR payment proportionally to the student loans, instead of applying more to the highest interest rate loans. There is no written requirement in the IDR loan language stating this, and the effect of it is to ensure that borrowers may more in interest over the life of their student loans. Please contact FLS and ensure that they grant my request to apply all principle payments made through my IDR loan payment to the highest interest rate loan.
Company Response:
State: WA
Zip: 981XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-01-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-01-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: I have been a XXXX XXXX employee for 12 years. I have made 120, timely payments as necessary for Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness, ( PSLF ). However, I was denied both PSLF as well as the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( TEPSLF ). First, I was told that I didn't qualify for PSLF because I never moved my loans into an Income Based Repayment Plan. I was never informed of the requirement to do so, nor would that have made sense financially. When the program began, I was told to just keep making payments and that I could not do anything or apply until the 10 years had passed. After the 10 years had passed, I applied and was denied for very confusing and nonsensical reasons. When I recently applied for TEPSLF, I was denied indicating that only 20 of my payments qualified rather than the necessary 120. I never moved my loan into an Income Based Repayment Plan after I was initially denied, so this doesn't make sense. Why do 20 now qualify and don't all of my payments qualify? I have made them in full, on time, as required for over 10 years in a Standard Repayment Plan. This " forgiveness '' has been misleading, deceptive and profoundly disappointing.
Company Response:
State: CO
Zip: 80231
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-01-31
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem lowering your monthly payments
Consumer Complaint: In XXXX of XXXX, I applied to consolidate my student loans with my current servicer, FedLoan Servicing, in the hopes of lowering my monthly payment by rolling my loans in together. I requested to remain in the REPAYE program and chose that program option. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received notice that my consolidation was complete and my payments were going from {$280.00} to {$580.00} a month. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called FedLoan because I could not afford that payment. I first spoke to Operator XXXX, XXXX. She asked me a couple income questions and said she couldn't help me and transferred me to Operator XXXX, XXXX. XXXX asked me the same questions XXXX asked me and said she couldn't assist me but maybe the consolidation department could. I was then transferred to Operator XXXX, XXXX. XXXX asked me the same questions XXXX and XXXX asked me and concluded he could not help me either. I explained to all three Operators that I could not afford a $ XXXX monthly payment, it was impossible for me but I could manage the {$280.00} payments I had been making. XXXX then told me my only option was a deferment or forbearance. I told him I did not want to stop making payments on my loans. XXXX again said there was nothing that could be done to help me and, basically, it is either make the payments or go into deferment or forbearance. I relented and chose the forbearance with the intention of making monthly payments I could afford. After researching what could have possibly caused this issue, I found that because I signed for a Parent Plus loan for my son, it made me ineligible for the REPAYE & many other repayment options. That fact was never disclosed to me during my conversations with the three Operators on XX/XX/XXXX. I would never have included the Parent Plus Loan in my consolidation had I known the outcome would be a $ XXXX monthly payment. I was asking what changed and why my payment doubled but not one person explained what happened or tried to assist me. I should not be forced into forbearance when I'm simply trying to pay off my loans.
Company Response:
State: WV
Zip: 254XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-01-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2020-01-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: Dear CFPB, I am writing to illustrate some grave concerns I have with FedLoan 's servicing of my student loan, at the directive of the Department of Education ( DOE ). On XX/XX/2019 I received a notification from FedLoan that my loan had been placed in an " Administrative Forbearance ''. There was no disclosure in the letter why the forbearance had been applied. As required by the Truth In Lending Act, there was disclosure in the letter around the compounding of interest associated with this loan being placed in forbearance. After talking to the Department of Education it seems that the forbearance was placed on my account in response to the Borrowers Defense Fund ( BDF ) which I was apparently enrolled in a year before. The representative at the Department of Education for the BDF stated to me that there are over 200,000 applications pending review and that there is no expected timeline for the review, and that the process may take years to be addressed. Furthermore, she stated that no loans had been discharged through the BDF. I would like to tell you that the placement of this Administrative Forbearance onto my account caused a cascade of repayment issues with FedLoan, as I am also enrolled in the PSLF program, so making monthly payment is imperative. Although the personal situation of my account is bothersome to me, I have greater concerns about placing interest bearing Administrative Forberances onto the accounts of already at risk borrowers. When these loans are finally reviewed by the BDF, and return to a payment status there will be years of compounded interest applied to borrower ' loan, which will likely create a whole new crisis in student loan lending. If the Department of Education would like to take years to review these loans for eligibility for discharge, or rather spend years in court trying to find ways to circumvent borrower 's relief, these loans need to be placed in a non-interest bearing status while they are under review. As required by TILA, there was no language in the letter around the Administrative Forbearance to name the main beneficiary of the compounded interest, which is the Department of Education, and the Federal Government. This current structure of reaping funds off the interest of student borrowers in predatory, unethical, and illegal and must be reviewed. Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX
Company Response:
State: OR
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2020-02-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A