I received this email from Cody of Houston, TX recently regarding his student loan:
"Manny - found your blog. I want to know if others are having the same problems with the Direct Loan Servicing Federal Student Aid program.
I live in Houston where I had a few leaves blown off my tree by Rita. The government automatically deferred my student loan payments without my consent. I accrued two months of interest on my balance amounting to about $200. Upon the restart of my payments, my monthly payment went up by $7/month with 72 months to go. Cumulatively, this would amount to roughly $510 of payments on $200 of accrued interest though my interest rate had not changed from the 4 5/8% it was previously. When I raised this red flag to the DLS, they stated that my loan had been miscalculated from the get-go and this was the new payment.
I called B.S. and have requested paperwork on the loan recalculation be sent to me in writing.
Please let me know if you hear of other cases."
Thanks for sharing your experience Cody. Mandatory forbearance (automatically granting forbearance) is not unheard of in times of disaster. But I was under the impression that one still had to request it, or at least sign some kind of written agreement. The whole thing sounds like a big mistake to me, but I think you did the right thing by requesting proof of their claims.
Please keep me updated, I would like to know how everything turns out.
Manny
