Consumer complaint received 2017-11-05
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: CA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
NAVIENT Minimum monthly payments {$180.00} / Standard payment {$200.00} XX/XX/XXXX Received notice that my revolving credit limit had been decreased on a major credit card to almost nothing from XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX informs me that I have missed a payment with NAVIENT XX/XX/XXXX - Logged on to XXXX XXXX to see Credit scored had dropped over 30points. 
XX/XX/XXXX - After
a lengthy phone call with an NAVIENT operator, I was told the only option I had to bring my account current was to pay the total due amount. I was not offered forbearance or any other options. 
I was then transferred to a supervisor who said I could ONLY appeal by MAILING a letter to the address she provided. 

XX/XX/XXXX I located the FAX number and faxed appeal letter to NAVIENT XX/XX/XXXX Received an Email response from NAVIENT to the appeal letter faxed, saying they received the documents and would update my account in 5 days and to check my ONLINE account. 

XX/XX/XXXX No update was received on ONLINE account. Made another phone call to NAVIENT and was told that it likely would not be approved and that I had to pay the full amount to bring the account current. ( No forbearance options offered ) XX/XX/XXXX Received notice that my personal checking account overdraft protection credit limit was being reduced and closed by XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX After reviewing my account history, the number of payments, the alleged late fees, and researching my legal rights, I called Navient back to inquire about the status of the appeal. I was told it was NOT approved. 
I told them that I would be filling a report with the CFPB about their misconduct for having accepted over payments without applying them to the late fees, for not providing formal notice of the debt. ONLY THEN, did they inform me that I had forbearance available to me to use to bring the account current. 

XX/XX/XXXX I call to tell them know I want to put the account into forbearance. The representative confirmed that when the loan comes out of forbearance in XX/XX/XXXX that the late fees ( XXXX $ ) will still be there and that the only way to pay them is to contact them BY PHONE to  direct the funds properly. 
And, it was confirmed that they have never applied any of my overpayments toward the late fees or past due amounts because I did not allocated they purpose properly with NAVIENT. 

XX/XX/XXXX Forbearance acceptance email received. Account is current XX/XX/XXXX Received another notice of reduced revolving credit limit due to CREDIT SCORE, this time from XXXX I have a transaction history from the NAVIENT website detailing the monthly payment amount that have received and the late fees occurring quite frequently and then monthly starting XX/XX/XXXX. Also shows a payment from me beginning XX/XX/XXXX, which should have prevented the 120 days late if applied to missing payment / late fees. 

The late fees are excessive relative to the payments sent and again as discovered, I have been being charged sporadic monthly late fees since XX/XX/XXXX with reoccurring consistent monthly late fees in all of XX/XX/XXXX despite having made over payment amounts the entire time. None of the over payments were ever applied to the late fees nor was I ever alerted / informed that I had a growing balance in late fees due to missed payments. I was under the impression any missed payments I had were covered by over payments. 

Outside of emails, I never received any formal written notices by mail or phone calls informing me of my excessive past due and late fees despite my monthly payments. All communication as admitted by the representative was strictly via email as I am paperless and they had the wrong phone number on file even though my mothers phone number is listed as an alternate which they confirmed but claimed was invalid though the number provided and confirmed is still and has always been active dating back 48 years. 

I also have emails from NAVIENT, showing the vague and confusion communications they alleged were notice of account troubles 1 ) Prompting me to go see a message about my account on the website. Never saying it was urgent. 
*Those correspondences have since been removed or are no longer available to view on NAVIENT account 2 ) Monthly statement emails with NO PAST DUE notice, only a balance due. No WARNINGS, only a prompt to see more information on website 3 ) Emails stating forbearance options and repayment options with NO direction or stated connection to current account condition. 

AND 4 ) PAYMENT RECEIVED email with amount and date received, no other account or balance information. 

Thank you

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation