<p>Students attempting to pay their federal student loans through the new website on October 5, 2011 were unable to access the new website. Those who called customer service were told that they could either mail a check, or that they could wait until the new website was up on October 10. Students were also told they would not be charged a late fee or penalized by waiting until the tenth.</p>
<p>When students attempted to log-on on October 10, they were presented with slow loading pages that resolved to an error page, saying 'An error has occurred and has been logged, please try again later.' As students attempted to access the site on the eleventh and twelfth, the new website indicated that the site was down for maintenance and would be available 'October 10th at 8:00am.'</p>
<p>Myself and my husband have auto withdraw and they did not make any attempt to withdrawal from our account. I verified this with my bank. Direct loans are showing delinquent now. I am fit to be tied. I better be able to get this resolved quickly on Monday. Has anyone else had this issue yet? Has direct servicing been understanding and helpful regarding these various issues since they changed formats.?</p>
<p>Hmmm…my son’s payments are withdrawn on the 5th of the month…maybe before this issue began. I wonder what will happen for the early November payment.</p>
<p>It is extremely problematic. I had pay down a substantial amount prior to the renovation and it was cleared. It said that I no longer owed anything for my October payment, which was due on Friday. But the new site said that I DO owe my monthly payment anyway. I immediately re-set up my checking account so it would automatically withdraw my October monthly payment. And it didn’t! Now the site says that I am past due and now owe that plus my November payment…GRRRR… just sent them an e-mail to complain.</p>
<p>I really do hope that I do not have to start writing checks.</p>
<p>My son says his money WAS withdrawn from his checking account. I’m wondering if he should check the new website to see if it was recorded as being paid.</p>
<p>I have to ask…there are tens of thousands of students who are repaying student loans. My guess is the vast majority of them do not read this site. My son has gotten NO information one way or the other about his loans and my bet is neither have the other tens of thousands of students. His checking account was debited as usual. In addition to that…is he supposed to check the DOE website every month? </p>
<p>What about my daughter who is out of the country with iffy internet access? One of her loans needs forbearance/cancellation updated for this year. Is the new site not sending mail either because we have gotten nothing. </p>
<p>How would the holders of these loans know about this issue unless they regularly check the DOE website?</p>
<p>At the very least, shouldn’t they have gotten notification of the NEW site? Neither of my kids did…and neither did I (I am the POA for my daughter and named person on charge of these loans in her absence…on file with the DOE on THEIR forms).</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t think much about those who don’t really check the site. Maybe I’m just paranoid about my student loans and just feel the need to check the site when the payment is due to make sure things do go through.</p>
<p>I don’t even recall getting an e-mail from DE about a site renovation.</p>
<p>Now we’re definitely not the only one having headaches, I’m sure DE people are as well because they didn’t do a good job with this transition.</p>
<p>I only knew about the changes because When I went to fill out my annual form for public service forgiveness and I had to provide a copy of current loan amount, The site was shut down until October. Another problem with the failing to debit my account is that one of the criteria for loan forgiveness is no late or delinquent payments in the last 12 months. I’m double screwed if they don’t straighten this out immediately. It’s disturbing that they didn’t foresee some of these issues.</p>
<p>Watch your account like a hawk!!! I don’t care that ED says you won’t be charged late fees, etc … I don’t believe them for a second. The direct lending switch created huge problems last year. Supposedly it all eventually was straightened out, but I told students to make sure it was correct. When it comes to the loan system, I don’t think students should ever assume all is well. They need to keep paperwork and monitor what is being done in their accounts.</p>
<p>Sorry about the abbreviation confusion but I think folks know what I meant.</p>
<p>Question re: renewal for public service (DD is in the Peace Corps). We usually get the notifications via snail mail…will that continue? <em>I</em> need to do her Perkins loan forgiveness and forebearance form (this year because she has already completed a year of service, there is a forgiveness section). I have received NO NOTIFICATION either via email or snail mail about this. Her date of graduation was June 2010, and the first form for this was mailed in October 2010 9because she was departing for Peace Corps service) even though her grace period didn’t end until December. </p>
<p>When WOULD I be receiving notification to update this? </p>
<p>The Stafford loan was deferred for her full two years of service in the Peace Corps, but the Perkins, I believe, was only deferred for the first year.</p>
<p>I was livid last week when I signed into my son’s account to get the address so I could send in an unsub interest payment. His account showed him as in his grace period with a payment due … 4 days from that date!!! First of all, he has been in school since August. Yes, it is a new school, but I checked, and they use the National Student Clearinghouse, which means that the loan servicer was notified. I logged into NSLDS and found that the school notified NSLDS (and thus, the servicer) on September 1 and again a few weeks later. There was no excuse for his account not to have been updated. But worse than that … they had never once contacted him regarding the fact that he had a payment due!!! They had sent emails two weeks earlier regarding the option to pay interest during school (which we do), but no email about the loan itself going into repayment. And no snail mail, either. I did an electronic update requesting in-school deferment, and it was updated a couple days later … but if I hadn’t seen this, they would have put him in default. This was Great Lakes. I am NOT a happy camper, and I am really mad that he is stuck with this servicer (not that some of the alternatives are any better).</p>
<p>I got a bill in the mail that said I had $600 in late payments. I didn’t get anything from them that said they were changing websites and I couldn’t find any information on the other government website to link me to the new one. I couldn’t decide if the new address was a scam or not.</p>
<p>Rayden, was the money auto withdrawn from your bank account but not posted to your account…or was it never withdrawn from your account at all.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, as you know I’m worried about this for my kiddo…his are Ford Stafford Loans, administered through the education department. He says his checking account WAS drawn on for the October 5 loan payment. I told him to check this month too.</p>
<p>BUT my question still is this…how would folks even KNOW about this website change? Neither of my kids reads College Confidential. ALL of their loan related snail mail comes here. All of my daughters loan related snail and email comes to me. I would not have even KNOWN there was a change in their website if I hadn’t read it here. </p>
<p>Were others notified of this change, and if so…when and how?</p>