#mohela

So, the whole experience with my Mohela student loans, from a couple of weeks ago has resolved (kinda) and I know I'm not the only one having a terrible time with this company, so I wanted to share.

The saga, as briefly as I can summarize it, is that my loans keep popping back into full-price repayment status because of the IBR freezes, and a couple of weeks ago, I spent and entire work day on hold with them, their phone system did some weird shit, and I was D-O-N-E done with trying to reach them by phone.

See here if you want to read the whole thing, but if you've dealt with these chucklefucks before, it probably won't be anything earth-shattering.

What's important is that I did eventually get my problem fixed, and I'm going to tell you how.

First, I wrote a letter. Here's what I included in it:

A brief summary of the history of my problem.

A description of my efforts to contact them by phone. I did, at one point, manage to speak to a first-level customer service rep, who said that they had to escalate me to the next level, so I summarized that conversation.

The resolution I sought. I said what I actually wanted (for my account to be in an income-based repayment plan) and that if that was not possible, I would accept a processing forbearance. I stated directly that I consented to either of these solutions.

My contact information. I provided a mailing address, email, and phone number, and stated that if they called and left a message, they would need to provide me with a way to get back to them, because I was not able to spend another entire work day on hold for them.

A list of all of the ways that I was transmitting this letter to them (mail, fax, email, uploaded document).

Note that, if your problem is anything to do with a payment you can't afford, and there is relief that is available to you in theory but not in practice--e.g., because the forms have been frozen due to ongoing litigation, or because you have a special situation that needs to be addressed by a human being, or even because you turned everything in and they haven't gotten to it--then the magic words are processing forbearance. This puts your payments at zero until they get around to putting you into IBR or whatever else you're supposed to be in. Interest does continue to accrue, unfortunately, but you don't have to make payments and your account won't go into collections.

Once I had my letter written, I sent it to them through every means I could find:

Postal mail to their "request for assistance" address, as shown here.

MOHELA 633 Spirit Drive Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243

2. Fax, to the number 1-866-222-7060 , as shown here.

3. The "contact us" form, here.

4. Uploaded as a document in the "inbox" section of my account.

Additionally, I put the full text of the letter, into the complaint form at Studentaid.gov, along with a brief note about why I was sending it to them. (Basically, because I didn't trust Mohela to actually do anything with any of their copies.)

After doing all that, every few days I checked on my account on the Mohela website, and about 10 days later, my account was back in a processing forbearance, with my payment set to Zero and nothing showing as overdue.

Nobody has contacted me, so I don't know which of these methods actually worked. But one of them apparently did!

The Republicans sued to end student debt relief on MOHELA's behalf against their will and against their best interests since the state government didn't have standing for the suit, and Republicans Supreme Court justices found for the state anyway because that's how much they hate poor and middle class students having access to college and want to punish them with crushing life long debt for daring to try to get an education.

For those who don’t know, I graduated tis year with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering-and then immediately went into graduate school for a master’s degree in environmental engineering. What loans I had were a mixture of subsidized and unsubsidized loans (the difference is immaterial for this story). The deal with those types of loans is that you don’t have to make any payments until 6 months after you’re no longer in school (in school defined as in half time enrollment or more).

I figured that since I was in grad school, I wouldn’t have to pay anything until 6 months after I get my master’s degree. Turns out, they want my first payment this January (on my anniversary even)! Because it’s been six months since I graduated… even though I’m still in school, and well over full time enrollment (15 credits as a grad student. 10 is the full time requirement). That amount of credits even qualified as full time enrollment as an undergraduate. So why don’t I qualify for being in school to have my payments deferred?

I didn’t know, so I called the people on Sunday. They were closed. So I called again on Monday. But it was too late in the day and by the time my hold was over they were closed. So I called on Tuesday, and I opted to get a call back rather than be on hold for the projected 75 minutes. They never called back.

So today, Wednesday, I called them at 11 am PST (they’re based on EST so they open at like 5 am PST and close at 5 pm PST). I was on hold for 100 minutes before I spoke to someone. Best she could tell, my school hadn’t updated the FSA about my enrollment status. So all I needed was forbearance and an investigation to figure out what I qualified for. To get that, she transferred me to an “advanced agent”. The robot said my projected wait time was 80 minutes. 10 minutes later, the call dropped.

By then it was already 1 pm.

I called again, and waited another 105 minutes, and talked to a different old lady. She told me the same thing, and I am now on hold transferring again to an advanced agent. I don’t know how long this hold will be. All I know is that I shouldn’t be expected to pay these fuckers until January 2027.

If I can’t get ahold of anyone tonight, I’m calling them at 5 am tomorrow.

https://sauderschelkopf.com/investigations/mohela-public-service-loan-forgiveness-pslf-class-action-lawsuit-investigation/

On December 11, 2023, Sauder Schelkopf filed a class action lawsuit related to allegations that MOHELA has failed to properly comply with the terms of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

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