Date Received: 2019-06-05
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: I am pursuing the public service loan forgiveness program for my school loans through XXXX XXXX and they have not counted years of payments. I continue to call to verify the payment recount but they can not provide any update or estimate. In order to complete the program they must count all the appropriate payments made to verify the number of remaining payments. I was informed there are terms when more information is needed to count payments and it will be in review again. XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX
Company Response:
State: IL
Zip: 60608
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-04
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Trouble with how payments are being handled
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/2019, I received an email from FedLoan Servicing explaining that my loans have been transferred from XXXX to Fedloan, as I had applied for the PSLF program. The email provided login / account access instructions. I promptly created an account and signed in the view my loan details, etc. That night, I made my standard monthly payment of {$350.00} as per my Income-Driven Repayment Plan ( IDR ) plan. Note, typically, my payment is due on XX/XX/XXXX, but I had not received any correspondence until XX/XX/XXXX on how to create / set-up payments during the transition period from XXXX to Fedloan. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an electronic " account related letter '' via FedLoan informing me that my annual re-certification is coming soon. The note read " In about 2 months, look for another communication from us with easy instructions and a direct link to re-certify online ... '' Below that paragraph was a bullet that read : " If we do not receive your completed application and all supporting documentation within 10 days of XX/XX/2019, your monthly payment is estimated to be $ XXXX first due on XX/XX/2019. First, this is conflicting information. Why would they tell me to be on the look-out for re-certification information in TWO MONTHS -- and then write that my application must be submitted within 10 days of XX/XX/19. Second, I know for a fact -- as per studentloans.gov -- that my annual re-certification is ALWAYS due on or around XX/XX/2019. The real issue arose when I logged into FedLoan on XX/XX/XXXX and saw that my monthly payment due had jumped from {$350.00} to {$1000.00} ( without any explanation ). I immediately called FedLoan and was first told that my re-certification had expired. I then referred to the " account related letters '' dated XX/XX/XXXX in my FedLoan inbox and told them that 1 ). I hadn't received ANY further correspondence on my annual re-certification ( keep in mind, the letter said I would hear more information in TWO MONTHS ) and 2. ) the letter also states " within 10 days of XX/XX/XXXX '' -- at that point it was XX/XX/XXXX, so my IDR still should have been active. At that point, the woman on the phone looked into my student loan information and saw that my re-certification was not due until late XXXX/XXXX. She then transferred me to an IDR specialist at FedLoan. This specialist advised that I proceed in paying my standard monthly payment ( {$350.00} ) for my XX/XX/XXXX due date -- and that they would put a " note '' on my account to " review '' / " investigate '' this issue. On XX/XX/XXXX, I made my standard IDR payment as instructed and submitted a message via Fedloan 's " contact us '' section ( which is incredibly difficult to do because you constantly receive an error message upon hitting submit ) because I wanted all of this in writing and documented. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a reply that read : " Your XX/XX/2019 bill was sent at a higher amount due to an error in transferring your Income-Driven Repayment Plan from your previous servicer. A request has been submitted to review your XX/XX/2019 bill to determine if you may pay the Income-Driven Repayment Plan amount and receive credit for Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ). You will be contacted once the review is complete. You may also review the deferment and forbearance options for your XX/XX/2019 bill while this request is processing. Your account is currently past due 2 days for {$1000.00}. We report the account status monthly to each nationwide consumer reporting agency. We offer a variety of ways to postpone your payments. To view all available options please click on the following link : https : //myfedloan.org/borrowers/trouble-paying Please use the " Contact Us '' link through your online account at MyFedLoan.org to submit inquiries via a secure email form. You may also call us toll-free at XXXX to reach our Customer Service Department, which is open Monday through Friday, XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX ( ET ). '' I should not be penalized for an error that was made from a loan provider -- regardless if it was FedLoan or XXXX. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I have yet to receive an update on any of this. Also on XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my re certification application. Shortly thereafter, I received another " account related message '' stating the below : " We used your income documentation and family size to determine your monthly payment of {$350.00} which is first due on XX/XX/2019. Your new monthly payment amount is effective for all payments due between XX/XX/2019 and XX/XX/2019. You are still responsible for any payments due before XX/XX/2019. About 3 months prior to XX/XX/2019, we will send you notification letting you know that you are due to recertify ( complete a new application and provide updated income documentation ). If you do not recertify, any outstanding interest will likely be capitalized and your payment amount may increase. '' AGAIN, why is there conflicting information? Why is this " new '' amount effective for just THREE MONTHS and why will I be asked AGAIN to re-certify three months prior to XX/XX/2019? Again, I haven't received an update on the status of my " review '' regarding the higher payment. When I logon to FedLoan, I receive an alert that reads : " As of XX/XX/2019, your account is now 14 days past due. If the delinquency continues you may lose your interest rate reduction which could result in higher payments. If you did not make a payment yet, you can choose to pay online right now. '' I will be mortified if this impacts my interest rate, credit score, and PSLF. I can only hope that documenting all of this will help my case, if it does indeed get to that point. There is no reason for the borrower to be punished for a lenders mistake and mishandling. This is incredibly disheartening and frustrating because I was with XX/XX/XXXX for 5+ years and had ZERO issues -- but of course, now that I applied for PSLF, my account is mismanaged, and I am at risk of being delinquent and missing payments for circumstances beyond my control.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 11385
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-04
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account status incorrect
Consumer Complaint: OnXX/XX/2019IreceivedaTotalandPermanentXXXXdischargefromXXXX.IntheletteritstatedthatmyloanholderwouldtransfertheaccounttoXXXX. IcontactedXXXXontwooccasionsincludinganemailandtheystatedthattheysentarequesttotransfermystudentloanaccountswithXXXXtothem. IcalledXXXXtwiceandtheystatedthattheyhavenotreceivedtherequest. XXXXcontinuestoreportmystudentloansincludinginterestowedwhichhascausedmycreditscoretogodownover7pointsinthefirstquarterwhenreportedinXX/XX/2019. PleasefindattachedcorrespondencefromXXXXandXXXX.
Company Response:
State: WA
Zip: 98513
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-04
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Consumer Complaint: My payments more than doubled this year. I tried to set up a new payment plan that the FedLoan CSR said would save me {$100.00} but that was in XX/XX/XXXX and now it is XX/XX/XXXX and my payments have not gone down. I applied online and selected an option to pay {$5.00} in order to forbear my loan payments until the new Income Based / Contingent Repayment plan was processed. Unfortunately, that forebearance was never processed and my {$5.00} was never refunded. When I last spoke to FedLoan in XX/XX/XXXX, they said the IB/CR plan application was still pending. I don't understand how or why it should take that long let alone now going on 5 months! I was also unemployed for two months. FedLoan said they could lower my payment to {$0.00} while being unemployed. They never did this. FedLoan makes it very difficult to apply for new payment plans. They tell you that you have to apply with printed paperwork half the time! Sometimes they let you do it online but in my experience the application just waits and never processes! I've also noticed that the CSRs do not know all the details of the online applications or the repayment options because they tell you stuff that turns out no to be true. I need help asap.
Company Response:
State: MN
Zip: 55408
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-04
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-03
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
Consumer Complaint: Fedloan refuses to tell me how many payments I have made that would count towards my Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) program. I received a letter in XXXX of 2018 letting me know that my employer qualified for the PSLF program and that they would contact me within 6 weeks regarding how many qualifying payments I have made. It's been a year and they still haven't completed their " audit ''. Every few months I call and they give me the same answer : " It hasn't been completed ''. I've been patient and understanding but I refuse to wait any longer. I suspect that they are attempting to find a way to discredit many of my payments that I have made over the past 6 years. I am losing sleep over this and want a resolution.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 78753
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-03
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Subissue: Problem lowering your monthly payments
Consumer Complaint: I have attempted multiple times through chat, message, email and phone calls to lower my payments to an affordable rate. My payment was at an affordable rate and I was making payments on time, however that Income based plan ran out. I was required to apply for another plan. I can no longer afford those payments. I am at a loss of what to do know and I'm close to being in default.
Company Response:
State: NC
Zip: 27284
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-06-03
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Received bad information about your loan
Consumer Complaint: Good afternoon and that you for your oversight of such issues. The events follow. Since having my loan transferred from XXXX to FedLoan Servicing, I have had the problem of receiving conflicting and contradictory information from FedLoan Servicing call staff, therefore it is now my practice that for any question or concern, I call at least 3 times in a row to vet if the information is accurate and if not, continue to call until I reach a majority opinion on the concern. Most recently, I was given misinformation regarding how to deal with a standard repayment amount billed to my account while my income-based repayment plan application was being processed. On XX/XX/XXXX after calling 3 times, I gathered enough information to understand that while my income-based repayment plan application was being processed, my account would temporarily have to be placed in a standard repayment plan and one staff member mentioned that I would have to be sure that forbearance was in place for the standard payment amount and that it would not disappear on its own, despite having been told multiple times prior ( on this call and many others ) that the process of forbearance and standard payment was automatic and did not require my attention after submitting an application for repayment plans. I called again on XX/XX/XXXX to address the XX/XX/XXXX bill but I was told the system could not generate it yet, and so I could not make any requests at that time regarding forbearance or reduced payments for the XX/XX/XXXX billing cycle. I was asked to call back in about 1.5 weeks for enough time to pass for the bill to be generated and for requests on that bill to be made. I was told if I called at least 8 days before the bill 's due date, I could make changes. So I waited, and in that time the bill was generated and set to be due XX/XX/XXXX. I called back on XX/XX/XXXX to request that a reduced payment and forbearance be applied to my XX/XX/XXXX standard payment ( which was in the amount of {$2600.00}, nearly 5 times greater than my previous income-based monthly bill of {$530.00} ). I called back several times. Again, I was not comfortable with the multiple staff members urging me to ignore my standard repayment for XX/XX/XXXX, despite their assurance that the forbearance scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX and its reduced payment amount of {$5.00} would cover both the month of XXXX and XXXX retroactively. It did not make sense to me and enough contradicting information was said that I wanted to receive explicit information in writing. I called back several more times between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX requesting to have these instructions to purposely default on a payment without other action to be placed in writing and sent to me. Several staff members were unable to do so, until by chance the call center queue paired me with a Forbearance Specialist. This person stated they would be able to generate an email stating the explicit instructions I should follow for the month of XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Upon receiving this information, I was able to confirm that I was being given misinformation, incorrect instructions and advice from the multiple FedLoan Servicing call staff members I had spoken to. This notice ( attached in step 3 ) states clearly that while my application for income-based repayment plans ( submitted XX/XX/XXXX ) is processed, I would incur two standard repayment plan bills and that each required separate forbearance requests. It confirms the forbearance scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX and its payment amount of {$5.00}, but it also states that I need to call to request a separate forbearance be placed in XXXX as well. This last point was what I kept trying to clarify with call center staff, and each time I was instructed to ignore the XX/XX/XXXX payment because the XX/XX/XXXX forbearance would cover both XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX billing periods. Had I not been adamant in having this information finally sent to me in writing, I would not have uncovered this crucial information that could potentially cause me to default on a payment and affect my credit score. And when I would ask about this concern, call staff members reassured me that while I would receive late notices and default on the XX/XX/XXXX payment ( per their recommendation ), it would not be reported to the credit bureaus. However, there was no written proof of this information and they were often resistant in providing written information to bolster their verbal responses. Overall, the misinformation given, unexplained delays in processing information, and unrequested actions taken on my account have delayed my ability to file for Public Student Loan Forgiveness by several months, despite continuing to work for a qualifying employer during that time. Their delays and processing times freeze ones account and do not allow for qualifying payments to be made during that time. I have only been with FedLoan Servicing since XX/XX/XXXX and by XX/XX/XXXX, in 7 months of dealing with them, I will have been unable to submit qualifying payments for 3 of those 7 months, despite working for a qualifying employer. That is wasted time and only prolonging the limitation on my employment options for the sake of loan forgiveness, and ultimately making it more difficult to achieve the 120 qualifying payments. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would be happy to discuss further and provide further information if it can help this investigation. Best Regards, XXXX XXXX
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 02118
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-06-03
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-05-31
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Subissue: Problem with customer service
Consumer Complaint: I applied for Public Service Loan Forgiveness in XX/XX/XXXX. It was initially declined due to not having a qualifying loan on record. After numerous conversations and resubmitting applications and/or employment verification forms, errors were supposedly corrected. According to a conversation with XXXX at FedLoan Servicing, my employment verification was approved XX/XX/XXXX. My paperwork was approved XX/XX/XXXX ; awaiting record of number of payments received. Followup conversations would lead to statements that I was not qualified and/or employment verification was still needed and/or the wrong application was sent. Customer service individuals would continue to make initial statements noting the same until being probed by me to check previous notes. Each time they would realize the error and state that they would forward it to a supervisor for review and that it should be corrected in approximately 10 business days. XX/XX/XXXX, I resubmitted all forms to FedLoan Services via certified mail, for which I received receipt. In frustration, I also contacted Senators XXXX ( XXXX ) and XXXX for assistance on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, a letter was sent to Senator XXXX XXXX office ( Senator XXXX received similar letter ) from XXXX XXXX-Supervisory Loan Analyst-Federal Student Aid, noting that my application was approved and being processed, with a note that I had only made 99 of the required 120 payments. That number was later corrected and my final payment should have been XX/XX/XXXX. I have continued to make payments since then ; the last being XX/XX/XXXX. Follow up calls since XX/XX/XXXX have been equally fruitless ; again hearing statements of missing applications, employment verification forms, etc. Each time, after probing by me, the error is discovered with promise of forwarding to another department for review. XX/XX/XXXX, I once again received written confirmation of employment verification, yet the customer service response was similar. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX ( Employee # XXXX ) to check the current status of my application. Once again, there was no action noted : no application, no employment verification, nothing was initially found -- not even my name matched a previous letter sent to me by FedLoan. After continued probing and her apparent communication with a supervisor, my information was discovered but XXXX noted that the employment verification was denied. I stated that I had a letter from them that stated my current employer had been verified and I had similar letters from previous employers. XXXX once again left to speak with a supervisor. Upon her return, XXXX stated that they had been verified and that they needed to account for the number of payments. She asked me to hold. After several minutes, XXXX returned stating that they were unable to access any payment records and would forward this for review. I expressed my concern that this same conversation seems to be continuing with each phone call : each time they can't find it, then it is found then denied, then they find the error and need to count the months of payments, etc. I asked how to specifically follow up to ensure this is finally completed. XXXX acknowledged seeing the previous notes, including XXXX XXXX name from over a year prior to this call. XXXX stated that I would have to wait several weeks to receive a notification letter. No specific recourse is available to me. I have sent the appropriate applications and verification forms numerous times. I have received a notice of payments made and my last payment should have been on XX/XX/XXXX. FedLoan Services continues to avoid the completion of this application ; begging the question if they ever to intend to do so. The record keeping, handling of applications, etc. seems to reflect the same issues as the VA hospitals are charged with in caring for our veterans. Noting surveys on various web sites, complaints against FedLoans processing of Public Service Forgiveness applications are extremely high ; as tens of thousands have applied for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and very few have received forgiveness. One report noted less than one hundred received forgiveness as of last year. In any case ... I applied, my employment was verified, I have made the required payments, yet still no forgiveness has been given nor any reasonable explanations for the delay or ability to monitor progress. Please provide any assistance that you can. Regards and thank you
Company Response:
State: AZ
Zip: 85306
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-05-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-05-31
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Subissue: Account status incorrect
Consumer Complaint: In XX/XX/2015 Fedloan Servicing reported my student loan account was 90 past due. In fact my loan was in forbearance at this time and no payment was due for one year. I have contacted the company on several occasions requesting the info be evaluated and reported accurately. At one point, I was told the info can be removed but no actions were taken by Fedloan to correct their inaccurate reporting. The biggest problem is ; although the 17 accounts were consolidated into one payment, the Fedloan reported each accounts as separate accounts. I now have 17 accounts showing 90 days delinquent ; when its truly has been consolidated into one. Their in accuracy has caused my credit score to drop by 50 points and in return Ive been denied loans and credit that I truly qualify for.
Company Response:
State: MD
Zip: 20772
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-05-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2019-05-31
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 2 student loans that is serviced by Fed Loans and US Department Of Education. My Fed Loan was transferred to US Department Of Education. On my credit report my Fed Loan account stated was opened XX/XX/XXXX & closed XX/XX/XXXX. transfer to US Depart of Education on XX/XX/XXXX. Fed Loan is reporting stating account is still in the delinquency status as of XX/XX/XXXX. I sent several email to CEO and call the company was told to disputed by all 3 credit bureaus the incorrect information. every time information is disputed it comes back stating no changes. .
Company Response:
State: NC
Zip: 28278
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2019-05-31
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A