Consumer complaint received 2023-02-11
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
I took out a total of 5 loans in XXXX to attend XXXX XXXX . I graduated in XXXX. Total of loans are XXXX and are all serviced by Navient ( originally Salle Mae ). All are all either FFELP Stafford Subsidized or FFELP Stafford UnSubsidized Private Loans. I did make some payments throughout the years and did deferments, but once I got sick with a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and couldnt work, I stopped paying in XXXX. My loans have been in default since. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a email from the Department of Education Federal Student aid. It states that Subject : Student Loan Discharge Based on Borrower Defense Evidence The Department of Education has determined that the loan ( s ) you received to attend a school owned and operated by XXXX XXXX XXXX are eligible for full loan discharge. This means the remaining balance on the loan ( s ) will be forgiven. You do not have to make any more payments on the loan ( s ). Your loan ( s ) will be discharged as part of a Department action ( " Group Discharge '' ) to discharge all outstanding loans for attendance at XXXX XXXX XXXX after finding that it engaged in widespread misconduct that violated state consumer protection laws and/or made widespread substantial misrepresentations about its educational programs, both of which are grounds for borrower defense to repayment under the borrower defense regulations. The Department is discharging your loans without requiring you to file an application because of the pervasive and widespread nature of the school 's conduct. You also may receive a refund for prior payments made to the Department on your discharged loan ( s ) related to XXXX XXXX XXXX. Your servicer will let you know if you are eligible for a payment refund, which would be mailed to you. It will take the Department some time to process your discharge. Until the Department completes its work, your eligible loan ( s ) from XXXX XXXX XXXX will remain paused in forbearance/stopped collections, and we will not ask you to resume making payments. If your loan ( s ) are in default, we will not attempt to collect on the loan ( s ) being discharged. 

I have received repeated calls/letters from Navient try to collect on these loans since. Ive wrote in to customer care on XX/XX/XXXX explaining my situation and wrote with XXXX first. I was told that they havent received any notification from the DOE of my loan forgiveness application and once they do, they would place my account on an administrative forbearance. But could look into a temporary postponement on my account. And until that time my loans will still be in the repayment status. The problem here and what he didnt understand is I never filed a Loan Forgiveness Application or Borrowers Defense Application. Per the email I received, I did not have to file any application because this is a part of a group discharge in regards to all XXXX XXXX. This has nothing to do with the current case of {$10000.00} removed from federal student loans that President Biden has going on. This is totally separate. So I wrote back in explaining this. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I got a reply from a woman named XXXX. She said to send in a copy of the email I received from the DOE and it would be reviewed. And stated Id get a full refund once the DOE advises how to proceed. But before I could send in my email, myself and my mother got a voicemail from a guy named XXXX XXXX who said he is the senior accounts manager for my case. He was trying to go over repayment options. So I immediately called him back. First I wanted to know why my family is getting phone calls about my loans still. Which they have done for years. Then I explained to him about my loans being discharged per the letter received, that they cant collect on them anymore, and have been speaking to customer service about this already. He seemed very confused and kept saying my loans are in default and wasnt understanding that my loans are to not be collected on. He also didnt know that XXXX was a XXXX XXXXXXXX . He told me to email him a copy of the email I received from the DOE and it will go through the higher ups to look at. I sent the email immediately on XX/XX/XXXX along with the correspondence I had with XXXX stating Id get a refund. 

I never heard back from them about this so I did call back XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. He told me the email was received and was going to ask his boss for updates. After a brief hold he came back and stated that my loans arent eligible for discharge and theres nothing that can be done because I did an application stating fraud happened. Again I went in to explain everything and what hes saying made no sense. He said if I want to speak to his manager I can. So he put me on with his manager ( couldnt hear Name ). He was extremely rude to me and couldnt comprehend that my loans are being discharged and they cant collect on them in the meantime. He said they havent received anything from the DOE so they are going to continue to collect. After arguing with him for awhile and making sure he actually read the letter I received, he said he would make a note in my account for the calls to stop for 1 month but cant do anything else.

I did call the Federal Student Aid number provided on my email To let them know what Navient is doing and that Im worried they are going to try to take me to collections about this and ruin my credit score. They told me this discharge could take up to 6 months to finalize and that email should have been enough to put my account on administrative forbearance until the DOE gets in touch with them about the discharge. 

XXXX did tell me during a brief call call on XXXX that they are just waiting to hear from the DOE and that my loans are in collections. I asked him what he meant by that because my loans are supposed to be in default. He just said they are in default but in collections which made no sense. And that I may still get calls from them for repayment while they wait from the DOE. 

I also received a letter in XX/XX/XXXX from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX stating a Guarantor Transition of my Student loans. It states that on XXXX XXXX XXXX will be the new Guarantor of my FFELP loans but Navient will continue to be my Servicer/Lender. Along with all payments/questions is still with Navient. I looked up XXXX XXXX and they are a student loan collection agency. So Im extremely upset and worried they sent my loans to a collection agency for them to start collecting on and ruining my credit score.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation