Consumer complaint received 2018-11-01
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: SD
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
I have been making monthly payments on my student loans for the past 3 years. About every 4-5 months they would raise my payment and I wouldn't get any type of pre-notification. Every time this happened the only reason I found out the monthly payment went up is because I'd receive a call from there collection department stating I was behind on payments. I would then have to call Navient and go through several different departments/people to get my payment back to what it was. I recently lost my job and contacted Navient as soon as I found out I was losing my job/income. I was told there wasn't anything they could do for me and that my account would be sent to collections. I hadn't ever been late or missed a payment ( other than what they considered default when I wasn't aware my payment went up ). I called several times throughout the next few weeks as I didn't want to default as my parents were co-signers on my loans and were in no position to make the monthly payments either. Still after calling almost daily Navient refused to help me or give me options to prevent my loan from going into default. Two months after I lost my job I began getting phone calls from Navient from XXXX daily. I would speak to someone and told them again I lost my job and was more than willing to try and work with them. The only answer I ever received, was that I should contact family or friends to help me out until I could find a job. My parents also starting receiving threatening phone calls and actually remortgaged their home to bring the loan current. They both rely on SS to live month to month and agreed on a payment that was much more than they could afford but Navient again stated it was the only option. I just received a call from a collection agency on behalf of Navient again today. Seems as though my monthly payment was again raised and we are now once again considered delinquent because the payment sent in is different than what the new payment is. It has been three months and I just received a call that were behind. Again the new payment is something that myself nor my parents can afford. I called Navient immediately and was told I had a reduced payment applied to my account twice already so therefore I wasn't eligible for another. So once again Navient can't do anything to assist me and offered no solution to lower the payment. Instead I was told again that it would be reported to the credit bureaus and I would continue to incur late fees and higher interest rates on the balance due. Sallie Mae/Navient has done nothing but destroy my credit from the beginning!!! They reported to the credit bureaus in the beginning when I first started making payments, that no payments were being made and that I was in default. I had been making payments for a year and a half when this was being reported. Navient continues to be allowed to change payments and interest rates without informing the borrower and then blaming the government. I also haven't ever received the correct payment amount on my monthly statement. I also have two different interest rates as I have two loans with Navient. How is that they can charge higher interest rates on one loan over the other. My life is consumed by worry and regret from attending college and making the horrible decision of choosing Sallie Mae/Navient as my loan servicer. I would advise any future college students to steer very clear of anything Navient!!!!! I don't disagree that I owe for my student loans, however I do disagree with them being allowed to assess huge amounts of unnecessary interest and change monthly payments. I've already almost paid the original loan amount off in just the interest that I accrued in the last 3 years from the supposed default.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation