Consumer complaint received 2018-08-14
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: UT
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2006 I started school at XXXX XXXX in hopes of becoming a XXXX XXXX. At the time, XXXX XXXX was an XXXX XXXX XXXX  that worked with Utah XXXX University to secure funding for their students. I was approved for a student loan with Salle Mae and started my training with the promise of a job upon completion and certification. I obtained my certification, along with the required number of XXXX  hours, to become an XXXX. Unfortunately, shortly after doing so, the economy took a turn for the worst and the student pool dried up. With no XXXX to XXXX, I found myself out of a job and I did not have enough hours under my belt to be able to seek employment in my chosen field with another employer. Knowing I had a student loan debt to pay back, and a family to take care of, I determined that I would be required to start over - which I did. This time, however, I opted not to add to my already accumulated student debt, and have been self paying my way through school. During this time, my student loan was purchased from Salle Mae by Navient. From the very beginning Navient has acted like a loan shark - aggressively pursuing payments - even when I qualified for in school deferments. Every time I would start a new semester they would call to collect on the debt and I would have to tell them multiple times that I was in school before the calls would stop. I did not sign a new promissory note with Navient as I have received zero communication by mail - including statements, or repayment notices. Recently I was contacted by phone and by email indicating that my loan was again in repayment. I responded to the email, explaining as I have in the past that I am currently in school and my loan should be in an inschool deferment status. I received no response to my email, and the phone calls continued. Often the calls come while I am at work and unable to answer. Tonight I was home when they called and I was able to take the call. I spoke with a representative and explained that I was in school and that they needed to check the registry and place my account in deferment as such. I was shocked when the representative advised me that I had exhausted my in school deferment time. I had no idea that that was a cap on the amount of time available for in school deferment! I explained to the representative that the reason I had been in school for as long as I had was because I literally had to start over. The agent did not care one wit about my situation and simply continued to press me for a payment and advised me that my loan was now 2 months past due! Keep in mind that this is the first that I knew my account was delinquent as I have never received a statement or repayment notice in the mail. I explained once again to the agent that there was simply no way that I could make payments on the student loan at this time as I was self paying for my current education and I asked if there was anything that could be done to assist me. The agent immediately responded that there was not. At that point I asked to speak with a supervisor because I was feeling very stuck between an impossible rock and a hard spot. I had ( apparently ) exhausted all my in-school deferment time ( without my knowledge ) and now I was being told that I was expected to bring the loan current based on the regular payment amounts, which I simply can not do at this time. When the supervisor got on the phone, he barely listened to what I had to say and then gave me the same answer. I feel that I am being treated very unfairly here as Navient has treated my loan from day 1 as if it had been with them all along - however they continually refer to the promissory note that I signed with Salle Mae. That was an agreement between myself and Salle Mae - when Navient acquired my loan I was not provided with a new promissory note ( and terms and conditions ) for the loan. Additionally, they are unwilling to work with me at every corner. My wife has federal student loans that she is currently making payments on, which further limits my ability at this time to make payments to Navient AND self pay my way through school, all so I can pay off this loan to begin with! Truly if I could go back in time and choose a different profession from the beginning I would! Oh, and the school that I originally was attending, XXXX XXXX, has since gone out of business because of the lack of students. At this time my certification ( " degree '' if you will ) is a useless piece of paper because I can do nothing with it - and yet I am being hounded like a criminal all while I am trying to do the right thing and make things right.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation