Student-loan companies are asking for patience to resolve account errors as payments come due, but borrowers can't afford to wait

• Student-loan payments started back up again this past week.
• Many borrowers have been facing issues with their accounts, like inaccurate bills.

Alicia, 48, is just a few months away from qualifying for student-debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

As an early education teacher, Alicia — who requested her last name be withheld for privacy but whose identity is known to Insider — qualifies for the program that forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments.

To afford those payments, Alicia was enrolled in an income-contingent repayment plan, in which she was paying around $50 a month in the years leading up to the pandemic since 2003, per documents reviewed by Insider.

She said she anticipated that once the student-loan payment pause ended, she would be facing the same monthly payment. However, when she checked her account in September, she had a $753 monthly statement, so she called her servicer to see why.

Once she was able to get ahold of a representative, she said they admitted her payment was incorrectly calculated — and they placed her account on administrative forbearance as they processed her new income-driven repayment application. But the processing could take 90 business days, pushing off Alicia's timeline to receive loan forgiveness through PSLF.

"This is our livelihoods," Alicia said. "I've been on top of everything from the get go. I've never been in default. I've always made my payments. I've always completed the paperwork. How can I get penalized for something when I did not create the problem?"

Many other borrowers have been sharing in Alicia's frustration. After over three years, the pandemic student-loan payment pause is officially over — interest started to accrue again in September, and bills are now starting to become due. While the Education Department and student-loan servicers knew this transition was coming, it's still been far from seamless, with borrowers waiting for hours on end to get help from customer service, sometimes to no avail.

That's on top payment and paperwork errors many are struggling to resolve — and servicers have frequently said that due to the influx of requests they're receiving, it'll take time to address each borrower's problem. That's leaving them in a state of limbo without the ability to financially plan.

"We can't wait until next year," Alicia said. "This can't wait until next year to get resolved. It really can't. After everything that we just went through with high prices and everything, I mean, people are still struggling right now. So we can't wait months and months and months."

'Are they just giving me the runaround?'

The first thing a borrower sees when it goes to servicer MOHELA's website is a message warning them that "due to the unprecedented event of millions of student loan borrowers returning to repayment at the same time, you may experience longer than normal wait times to speak to a Customer Service Representative."

And when a borrower attempts to email a different servicer, Nelnet, they're hit with this automatic response: "We're currently experiencing unprecedented email volume, which is preventing us from responding to your specific question(s)."

Xiong Chang, a 38-year-old student-loan borrower, is all too familiar with long wait times for help. In June, Xiong said he decided to pay off his remaining $18,000 balance once and for all — and he received confirmation of his payment on June 8, per an email reviewed by Insider.

But it's been four months, and his servicer has yet to process that payment. To make matters even worse, his account has accrued $96 in interest since then, and it states he has a payment due.

"I'm calling back and forth and I'm getting the same answers that they're working through it, just give it some time. But then months, weeks passed by and and still nothing," Xiong said. "I started to get a little worried like, is it really going to get done in time anytime soon? Or are they just giving me the runaround?"

While he said his servicer repeatedly told him they are processing the payment, Xiong said legal action has "crossed his mind" at this point because he's not confident there will not be any financial consequences for not making payments, despite paying off his entire balance over the summer.

"My wife and I recently bought a house, and we were planning to do some upgrades," Xiong said. "But I don't know if we're going to proceed until we get this situated first," he added, referring to the balance still posted on his account.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told Insider he's aware of the issues borrowers are experiencing with their servicers. "We recognize there's bottlenecking in some places and people are waiting excessively long, and we recognize these issues and we're working to make sure that they improve while also trying to support our servicers who are, again, doing a task that has never been done before."

But when servicers themselves say they don't see issues resolving until next year, borrowers are left twiddling their thumbs with their financial security at risk.

"I check my balance pretty much every single day and now the interest is going up," Xiong said. "And now it's more than what I paid. I'm starting to worry."

Are you having challenges with student-loan repayment? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@insider.com.