Consumer complaint received 2020-01-30
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: LA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Don't agree with the fees charged

Complaint:
I am writing about my student loans. I have been a XXXX XXXX XXXX for 18 years. I am trying to work towards loan forgiveness. I have questions that need to be answered and I do not know where to get answers. I also have concerns about the legality of some of the actions of my loan servicer. In XXXX was being serviced by XXXX XXXX and my loans were turned over to Navient. I was supposed to start paying in XXXX. I did not know this and started paying in XXXX of XXXX. By this time I was about XXXX $ in arrears. 
I paid after that successfully for a year and eight months. I was supposed to be paying XXXX $ but for the first year, but I paid XXXX . The following year I paid XXXX $ extra for a couple of months and then starting in XXXX, I paid XXXX $ extra. I did not have XXXX $ to pay off my past due in total. I was thinking I would do what I could and it would bring down my balance past due. I was being charged late fees and interest on my past due amount. By XX/XX/XXXX my past due amount was up to about XXXX . I called to ask what I could do about this because it was earning late fees and extra interest. They took off the late amount and added it to the total amount I owe. How is it legal for me to earn that much interest and late fees in that short amount of time? 
So all of this brings me to my current issue. I go in XXXX and log into my account and see that I owe only XXXX . So I call Navient to find out why the change in my account has occurred. They tell me because I had not filled out a form for income reduced payments and they were putting me in default. I explained to them that I had never been asked to do this before, so I was not aware that I needed to do this. They explained to me where on the FAFSA website I needed to go and what I needed to do on the website. I go to check my account a couple of weeks later and it shows that I owe XXXX . I call them back to find out why the change. They tell me that when I linked my proof of income from the IRS that it was not sufficient enough to prove my income. I did not understand this at all, but I moved on. I asked what do I need to do to prove my income. I was told that I needed to upload my pay stubs from XXXX through XXXX into my account on Navient. During XXXX, I uploaded my proof of income to the website. Two weeks later I called Navient to see if they received my documents. I was told that they did receive them. I asked the lady on the phone if this was what they needed and if they needed anything else from me to resolve this matter. She said they received my documents and she assured me they did not need anything else. She told me I would be in forbearance until the end of XXXX while they decide what my payment amount would be. I was told to expect to see the XXXX $ there until they decide what my new payment would be, but I did not have to pay anything until they decided. Since then I have gone online periodically to see if changes have been made. I logged in on Tuesday XXXX XXXX to get my tax information and checked my home page and nothing changed. The next day I go back to confirm my tax information and see that I now have a past due amount. I am being charged XXXX $ in past due amount. I call Navient again to find out what the issue is this time. I am told on the phone that my XXXX and XXXX proof of income is not sufficient. I was told they also need my income from XXXX. I ask the lady on the phone why I was told differently in XXXX and she told me she did not know whom I talked to. During the time from XXXX and today XX/XX/XXXX I have not received a phone call from Navient. Now I am on forbearance again until the end of XXXX while they decide again what my income reduced payment will be. During this time again I am being charged interest and late fees which are being tacked onto the end of my principal. 
They have an honest person who has been trying to pay. All I want to do is continue to pay. They keep adding all this money to the end of my principal. This is why our debt is getting so large because I can not get out from under the fees and interest. How is any of this legal? What recourse do I have in any of this? I am so strapped with this debt I could never afford a lawyer and what lawyer would take this on? 
Now my loan forgiveness. I am now being told something different from Navient than I have always been told by the Department of Education. I have always been told if I do not miss a payment for five years and all my payments qualify, I can get a certain amount taken off my principal for being a XXXX. Navient now tells me that if I pay for 25 years and my payments qualify my loans will be taken away. I will be XXXX years old in 25 years. Is this factual? How do I have any way of knowing? 
I appreciate any help you can give me on this matter. I realize I took out these loans and I am responsible for these loans, but why should I have to go through all these to accrue more debt and not pay for months on forbearance? I will probably never own a home because of all the hits on my credit from student loans. I am mostly in acceptance of this. There has to be recompense on my part for the items I listed in this letter. 


Thank you very much XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation