Consumer complaint received 2018-05-20
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan

Complaint:
Upon graduating in XX/XX/XXXX, I received my first bill back when it was Sallie Mae at {$800.00} plus dollars a month. There was no way I was going to be able to afford the amount, so I called and asked what I could do, and right away they suggested forbearance, so I may fill out paperwork for a repayment plan.

XX/XX/XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX enrolled in IBR plan but was unaware paperwork needed to be filled out every year, this caused my payment to double, rendering me unable to pay the payment. Navient instructed me the only option I had was to file for a forbearance, fill out the paperwork, get it back to them, then Navient would let me know if I qualified and how much the payments would be.XX/XX/XXXXthru XX/XX/XXXX enrolled in IBR plan, filled out my paperwork, not enough time for them to go through it, this caused my payment to double, rendering me unable to pay the payment. Navient instructed me the only option I had was to file for a forbearance, fill out the paperwork, get it back to them, then Navient would let me know if I qualified and how much the payments would be.XX/XX/XXXXthru XX/XX/XXXX gave up on the IBR plan and the Navient workers as they were not helpful, and I was very frustrated with not being able to reduce the amount of the loan with all the payments I had been making. I was also dealing with the death of my parents, was struggling to get paperwork done and getting the money to pay the bill, all the while trying to not have to do another forbearance. So, during this time I just tried to make as many payments as I could for as much as I could.

XX/XX/XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX enrolled back in IBR, set up auto pay, and made all my payments. I needed to fill out my paperwork for reenrollment, so I gathered everything and sent in the paperwork early to the fax number given to me by a Navient employee. I did not receive any notification for a couple of weeks, so I finally called to see where I was in the process of reenrollment. They told me they never received my paperwork, I would need to refill it out with the current date and file a forbearance to be sure I was not late on my payments. When they did finalize my paperwork, they informed me I did not qualify for the IBR and I would have to make the full payments each month.

During the time I was enrolled in IBR plan I was making my payment regularly and on time. When I called them in XX/XX/XXXX, I had noticed after a full year of being on the IBR plan with auto pay set up my loan amount was higher than it was the year before I had enrolled. I was completely unaware, nor did anyone inform me that the payment amount on the IBR plan was lower than the amount of interest accumulating monthly. They also informed on this phone call after already being enrolled for a couple different years I would have needed to be enrolled in IBR for 20 years consecutively without missing a single payment or re-enrollment in order to be eligible for loan forgiveness. This entire time I was thinking I was paying my loan down, had auto pay set up, and felt I was really going to be able to pay off my student loans. Not only was I accumulating more money on my loan every month but feeling defeated and frustrated, that a large company like this would not at least give the students a heads up that the calculation for the monthly payment on the IBR plan did not meet or exceed the accumulated interest per month. This is just as bad as raising interest rates higher than they are supposed to be regarding a student loan.

Also looking through the history of my loans there are a couple times I was charged back a rebate reversal but never told about it and have no idea why it was charged to my account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation