AES/PHEAA – CFPB Complaint ID 2756463

Date Received: 2017-12-15T00:00:00

Product: Federal student loan servicing

Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer

Consumer Consent Provided to Share Complaint: Consent provided

Consumer Complaint: I am a XXXX XXXX and my financial planning is based on the assumption that I will be eligible for PSLF after 10 years of repayments.

I left one XXXX to start at another XXXX in the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX. My payment date for that month was XX/XX/XXXX, which happened to be the Sunday between my last day at the former job and my first day at the new job ( I worked Monday through Friday at the former job, kept that schedule at the new job, and took no break in between jobs ).

XXXX XXXX told me that I was therefore unemployed at the date of my payment and that payment would not count towards my PSLF requirements.

This is obnoxious and unethical. If I chose to make the payment a day later, it would have counted, so I am essentially being penalized for paying my payments on time.

I could have simply wrote on my employment certification form that my last day of employment was that Sunday, even though I work Monday through Friday, and that would have been fine. But because I chose to be responsible and honest, I am being punished by an irresponsible and dishonest loan servicer with zero accountability to the public.

Furthermore, to consider me ” unemployed ” for not working during the weekend when I have been consistently employed full-time with NO gaps in my employment is pure nonsense.

I have spoken to multiple people at XXXX about this issue and they have told me there is nothing they can do. According to them, this is my fault – I should have known that they would have considered me unemployed for not working on that Sunday, and rescheduled my payments accordingly. Evidently and counter-intuitively, making things easier for everyone involved by enrolling in automatic payments and paying my payments on time is frowned upon by the loan servicer.

Any assistance with this issue would be greatly appreciated. The fact that XXXX gets away with this behavior and there is no way for the public to hold them accountable when they are the sole servicer appointed to handle PSLF is entirely unethical.

Company: AES/PHEAA

State/Zip: NY 113XX

Company Response to Complaint: Closed with non-monetary relief

Was Company Response Timely: Yes

Did Consumer Dispute Company Response: N/A

Complaint ID: 2756463

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