IBR application being ignored

[Paigekitten]

My husband has quite a bit in school loans and we qualify for monthly payments of zero, but they claim to never have received his application for income based repayment AND now he can't get a hold of anyone on the phone.  A few months ago he was trying to straighten itout and they said they'd put a deferment on the loans for us, but we are still getting billed every month and now collectors are starting to leave recordings on MY phone all the time (even though he changed the contact information to his phone) because there is NO WAY we can pay these right now.  He seriously sits on hold for ages and ages and ages and never gets through to anyone.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this before?  What did you do?

[Maluhia]

I think I'd complain to whoever these people answer to - because what they are doing is fraud.  Is there some govt. agency they report to?  

[fruitfulmomma]

Contact the guarantor if you have a seperate one.

[GreenGranolaMama]

I totally feel for you Mama! Although DH and I both have them, mine are much more manageable when compared to DHs- he has nearly double the debt I do. We've had some trouble dealing with his loan companies ( collections calling our house and his parents house in the middle of the night if we can't send in the full payment, sending duplicates of the same statements over and over again in the same month even when we are caught up etc...) Is it possible for your DH to resubmit the IBR application? I would also suggest taking photocopies of the paperwork, that way if they say they never received it again, you can just keep mailing it. I just had a loan company 'loose' some of my paperwork that I sent in. I kept calling over and over again, and I made a note of the names of the people I talked to. Finally, someone found the paperwork- it had been 'filed away'. 

Good luck mama!

[Nitenites]

Send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Then you'll know they've gotten it. Have you tried contacting your rep in the state legislature, or your state's AG office? (I'm assuming that you're in the US.) 

[Paigekitten]

Siiiigh, their robot called me again this morning.  We have a copy of the original application, so we can send it again certified mail.  I don't think we can do much else until after that, as we have no "proof" we are being ignored because he never actually gets a chance to talk to a real person! 

[Paigekitten]

So we actually got through to someone, and they said we have to submit all new paperwork because all the loans were sold to FedLoan Servicing recently.  So it looks like we aren't being INTENTIONALLY screwed over. I guess that is slightly encouraging. : )