DRB is transferring my loan to MOHELA

[saildawg]

I received notice that DRB is transferring my loan to MOHELA.  I refinanced with DRB 1 year ago in July 2015, for 5 year fixed @ 3.5%.  I have been able to make 43K in payments to principle only during this time in addition to monthly payments and have brought my debt down from 227K to 145K in 1 year.  I was just wondering if anyone else had been through transferring of their loan servicer.  Should not really make a difference for me, just curious why this happens.  Also I wonder if I set up autopay with MOHELA if I can get an additional discount on the interest (I have done this already with DRB for current loan).  Thanks for any help.

[childay]

Not sure about the autopay but suspect the terms wil be the same.

Incidentally Sofi uses MOHELA for their loans as well. We haven't had any problems with mohela.  My wife also had a school loan through them years back.

[jhwkr542]

My wife's and my loans have been transferred more times than I'd care for.  Everything should be the same.  You'll have to make a new login and likely restart your automatic monthly payment, which is annoying.  If the autopay had a discount with DRB, it should with MOHELA because those are the terms of the loans.  I do have 1 year of med. school loans with MOHELA, and I haven't had many problems with them.  Also get the 0.25% reduction for autopay.

[shantster]

I received the email about it this week as well. My email notes that there will be no change to the terms, including autopay with the associated checking account.

From the email:

"For borrowers participating in Auto Pay, DRB will transfer your bank account information that is on file to MOHELA to ensure your monthly payment will continue to debit from your authorized bank account. If you wish to cancel Auto Pay for any reason, email [email protected]or contact MOHELA starting August 1, 2016 (this can be done online at www.drb.mohela.com)."

The email also had details regarding the process after the transition on August 1st. The biggest thing to note is that the account will not be available between 7/26 until transferred over on 8/1 so make sure you have any payment needed in that time available in the checking account.

 

Thanks for the information about MOHELA, childay.

 

Though it looks like there won't be really any changes other than the name and online system, it is giving me another reminder why I want to get rid of the loans as soon as possible. The constant restructuring of companies and selling of the loans is annoying to keep straight.

[saildawg]

Yes, it is annoying to have to reconstruct the auto payments etc.  Still beats the heck out of paying 7.5% though.  I was hoping to somehow find additional savings with this process, I guess we will see if it works.  Likely will just call MOHELA and talk one on one, seems to work sometimes.

[ShadowDoc]

Mine went to Mohela via SoFi. Easy to work with and nice customer service, although ymmv. I've been there for 1 year with no problems at all. Much much better than NelNet, which vies with Comcast for worst company ever IMO.

[docnews]

Same thing happening to me. I understand this happens but DRB required you to setup a bank account with them and now that seems like that was just a waste of time. Can't wait to be done with student loan madness. So annoying...

Question to OP. Were you making the principle payments during a residency? My loan has $100 monthly payments until Feb before starting the 5yr repayment plan. Can you make principle payments during this special time?

[shantster]

For those already at MOHELA, are you able to use credit cards for the monthly payments?

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/two-unique-ways-to-make-money-with-your-credit-card/

[saildawg]

I refinanced after residency, so couldn't really say for sure.  All payments were after doing IBR throughout residency.

 

[Dilaudidopenia]

My loan is being transferred to MOHELA as well.  A couple of questions:

1) The transfer period of the loan is at the same time that a monthly payment is due.  Should I just let this ride or actively do something about it to make sure that this payment is actually processed since I foresee this process inevitably being messed up.

2) In order to still receive my 0.25% interest reduction do I just set up an automatic transfer between my personal bank account (I use BoA) and MOHELA or do I have to do some complicated BoA --> DRB account --> MOHELA maneuver?

 

Thanks!

[ndayev6]

Dilaudidopenia wrote:

My loan is being transferred to MOHELA as well.  A couple of questions:

1) The transfer period of the loan is at the same time that a monthly payment is due.  Should I just let this ride or actively do something about it to make sure that this payment is actually processed since I foresee this process inevitably being messed up.

2) In order to still receive my 0.25% interest reduction do I just set up an automatic transfer between my personal bank account (I use BoA) and MOHELA or do I have to do some complicated BoA –> DRB account –> MOHELA maneuver?

 

Thanks!

Click to expand...

1) I would wait until you can see your account information show up on Mohela and then make a manual payment. Be careful as the original payment might go through and then you are paying twice.

2) I just set up autopay with a new bank and the interest rate reduction occurred automatically. You can get rid of the DRB checking account all together which has turned out to be a nice perk for me as their website was much less user friendly than the Mohela one.

 

[patsnation]

A few comments on Mohela....My DRB loan was transferred 2 months ago.  This is my third (and last!) experience with Mohela.  Originally had them for Dept of Ed loans, then SoFi, now Mohela.  I have transferred away from them twice...and although the interest drop was nice both times, it was mostly in search of superior service. At this point, I'm under 1 year from being done so I'm just going to suck it up for a few more months.

In short, they are terrible. They will lose payments. They will reopen closed loans and apply payments to them if you have multiple loans. You will spend at least 4 hours of your life on the phone when/if this happens, trying to explain that loans having a negative balance is ridiculous. I think my favorite was when they withdrew 350 from my bank account and only applied 300 to my loan payment. It took them 3 weeks to figure out where that extra 50 dollars went (spoiler alert, applied to another account with the same last name).

Do not trust them...ever. If there is a way to screw it up, they will do so magnificently.  I am pretty sure I am on the #^$% list now as when I call to check something I get transferred directly to a manager and it gets taken care of...but leave nothing to chance. I login to any mohela loan at least once weekly to check balances and make sure things are done correctly.  I double check each and every payment, and make sure that the interest amount is correct and that the full payment was applied as directed.

[childay]

Wow sorry you had such problems.  That sounds more like the issues we had with salliemae / navient which is certainly one of the worst companies ever!