I’ve been in IBR and working in public service since 2009.  For the first 2 years, my payments were calculated and billed at $0/month.  I checked and rechecked multiple times and was always told those would count towards the 120 qualifying payments since it was, in fact, my bill amount.

Last month I received my monthly bill and it said I have only made 32 qualifying payments. In 6.5 years of working here, my calculations are that I’ve made 78 qualifying payments. Big difference.

I immediately contacted fed loan servicing who said that I was not in IBR until 2013, which is false.  They said unless I have a letter proving it, then that’s what it is. I pointed out that at payments ranging from $0-117, clearly I’ve always been in IBR.

I then got a notice of being behind/late on my payments. I have always been enrolled in auoto-pay/direct debit so I was shocked by this. I called them. They said that during the “review of my account” they noticed that dating several years back I didn’t make a full payment (not sure how that is possible) and also said that I was in “pay ahead status.”  They said that during the review of my account, they removed the “pay ahead status” which is what triggered/discovered this alleged missed payment.  They then said that, basically, I’ve been a little behind every month meaning that my June 2016 payment wasn’t a “full payment” since it had to cover part of my May 2016 payment.  And my May 2016 payment wasn’t a “full payment” since it covered part of April 2016 payment. And so on.. In total, I was “in arrears” $20 but that dates back, allegedly, to 2013.

I’m really freaking out. I have 7 years of education and I worked at a very low rate of pay for 7.5 years in large part because of this program and the opportunities it would give me and my family after the 10 years was up. I’ve always been enrolled in auto-debit since the day I consolidated and I don’t see how they can do this.

I’m concerned that 2017 is upon us and the government is trying to find loopholes to avoid honoring their commitment.

Anyone else who has had this issue and successfully navigated it? They have essentially cancelled out 4 years of my public service towards the forgiveness.  My loans were consolidated in 2009 with direct loan servicing, then it was sold to Ed Financial Services, and is now being serviced by Fed Loan Servicing.  Fed Loan Servicing is the one who found this alleged missing payment and is also who is telling me I have to provide a letter proving I consolidated into IBR back in 2009.

Contact the student loan ombudsman ASAP. Hopefully they can straighten it out. I’ve heard nothing but nightmare stories with FedLoan Servicing’s direct debit program. I’d avoid it from now on at all costs. If they didn’t credit you as making a full payment for those months, then they might consequently not count those payments as qualifying payments. Get the ombudsman involved.

have you checked studentloans.gov? they should have all your IBR applications and consolidation applications under “my account”. hopefully that would be enough to satisfy their requirements.

They didn’t include past payments made with other loan servicing companies at first until I challenged it and they added those payments on for me. Now they made another mistake with their counting, and in fixing it erased the pre-fedloan servicing payments that I had worked so hard to get added. Now I have to go back and argue with them a second time to get them to add them back on….infuriating!

I fear I’m having similar issues. See http://askheatherjarvis.com/forums/viewthread/9806/

Please let me know if you have any luck with the ombudsman or come up with any other ideas.