![\"The](\"https:\/\/thecollegeinvestor.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/dpr=1%2Cf=auto%2Cfit=cover%2Ch=545%2Cq=85%2Cw=800\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MOHELA.jpg\" "\\"MOHELA\\"")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nStudent loan borrowers serviced by MOHELA<\/a> spent this weekend staring at delinquency notices they say should not exist. Accounts that showed $0 due and active SAVE forbearance on Friday flipped to past-due balances ranging from roughly $2,000 to more than $6,700, with some borrowers marked as many as 12 months behind.<\/p>\n MOHELA’s phone lines are closed on weekends, leaving affected borrowers with no way to reach a human until Monday. The company is one of five servicers<\/a> handling the federal loan portfolio.<\/p>\n Student loan attorney Jay Fleischman flagged the issue in a video over the weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Federal student loan delinquency is typically reported to the credit bureaus at 90 days past due. Borrowers seeing 210-plus days of phantom delinquency and “Loan Default is Approaching” emails have a real reason to worry about credit damage<\/a> they did nothing to cause.<\/p>\n The timing also collides with the end of the SAVE plan. Roughly 7 million borrowers are being moved off SAVE, and servicers began issuing 90-day notices to select a new repayment plan<\/a> on July 1, 2026.<\/p>\n The forbearance covering those accounts winds down by September 30, 2026<\/a>. A billing system throwing false delinquencies during that handoff is the worst possible moment for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The reports surfacing on r\/StudentLoans<\/a> this weekend share a pattern: an administrative forbearance disappearing with no notice, no billing statement for the months now shown as past due, and a sudden lump-sum balance. MOHELA has sent incorrect forbearance notices before<\/a>.<\/p>\n One borrower described receiving three emails within 30 minutes (a default warning, a 210-day delinquency alert, and a payment-due reminder) after having been in SAVE forbearance with a $0 payment. Another said MOHELA took more than a year to process a request to leave SAVE for IBR<\/a>, then flagged two months delinquent after silently ending the forbearance it had applied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In at least one case<\/a>, StudentAid.gov still showed the account in forbearance while MOHELA’s portal showed a year of missed payments, an error that points to a servicer-side data problem rather than an actual status change. It echoes the Parent PLUS loans wrongly appearing on borrower accounts<\/a> after an April 2026 system update.<\/p>\n MOHELA has not publicly addressed the reports as of Sunday, and there is no confirmation yet of how many accounts are affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n MOHELA has been here before. In October 2023, the Education Department withheld $7.2 million<\/a> from the servicer after it failed to send timely billing statements to 2.5 million borrowers, pushing more than 800,000 into delinquency. The department ordered those borrowers placed into forbearance. A 2024 class action<\/a> alleged the failures continued.<\/p>\n The oversight that caught that failure has since thinned considerably. As we reported, GAO found that Federal Student Aid halted<\/a> its servicer accuracy reviews and call quality assessments in February 2025 and had not replaced them as of December 2025, while FSA staffing fell 46% over the same year. Four of five servicers had failed accuracy standards in the last quarters reviewed.<\/p>\n That matters because errors now land on borrowers already under strain as\u00a07.7 million were in default<\/a> as collections resumed, and millions more are delinquent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Screenshot everything: the past-due balance, the emails, your prior $0 statements, and your status on StudentAid.gov<\/a>. Send a written message through MOHELA’s portal so the timestamp is on record.<\/p>\n Do not rush to pay a balance you do not believe you owe. Paying a bogus past-due amount does not generate qualifying IBR or PSLF payment credit<\/a>, and it will not retroactively fix a payment count.<\/p>\n Borrowers can also escalate to the FSA Ombudsman<\/a>, file a complaint with the CFPB<\/a>, and contact their congressional representative’s constituent services office.<\/p>\n Expect long hold times when MOHELA reopens Monday. Watch for corrections and for whether the Department of Education says anything about it. Borrowers still on the fence about selecting a new repayment plan should compare their remaining options<\/a> before their deadline regardless of how this shakes out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Don’t Miss These Other Stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhy It Matters<\/h2>\n
What Borrowers Are Reporting<\/h2>\n
How This Connects<\/h2>\n
What To Do If You’re Impacted<\/h2>\n