Dear Heather,

I have been having a 6 month battle with direct loans and have talked to multiple managers but still have no help about the following situation.

Basically, the situation is as follows. About 8 months ago I started a new non profit job. I took this job because of the direct loan public interest forgiveness program(i wouldnt have otherwise). When i started the job, I signed up for IBR and set up my account to make small payments under the automatic payment system. My loans were pretty high and i wasnt required to make any monthly payments but i paid anyways in order to start tolling the 120 payments.

A month or so later, direct loans switched to their new website and kicked me off the automatic payments that i was making. They said that under the new website “zero dollar” payments would count towards the 120 payments for loan forgiveness and that I would no longer be allowed to make small monthly payments. I have asked them countless times to send me a letter showing me this very fact and also showing me how many “zero” dollar payments(so i wont get hurt in 10 years) I have made since my start of employment with this non profit. They keep telling me they will do this but dont. I am very worried that all these past months will not count and there is nothing i can do to make real payments under the new system.

To make things worse, they keep reporting to the credit agencies that I either owe a maximum amount per month or a zero amount. Because of their reporting, i am unable to qualify for a mortgage. Mortagage companies do not recognize zero dollar monthly payments.

They wont do anything to help me.

Any advice would be very appreciated.

Sorry to hear that you are in this situation.  The regulations are clear that when IBR payments are calculated as $0, $0 counts as a payment.  That said, borrowers can pay more than is due and there is no penalty for pre-payment, so I’m confused about this.  I say contact the Ombudsman about this issue.  AND now that the employment certification forms are out, you should submit those: http://askheatherjarvis.com/blog/3-new-documents-everyone-in-government-and-nonprofit-services-needs-right-n