Consumer complaint received 2019-09-03
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan

Complaint:
Currently, I have a private career training loan serviced by Navient. I have returned to school and recently been unable to pay on schedule. My co-signer receives 4-6 phone calls a day, despite our efforts to be in contact and make payment arrangements and advise Navient of the fact we are currently working with our bank to secure a consolidation loan. She will sometimes get one phone call an hour in the mornings. It is harassment so far as I can tell from the FDCPA. She has been told she would be removed from the auto-dialing list and has not been removed.

Over the past two years I was led to believe by multiple Navient agents that I still had time and could continue my forbearance ( while I am in graduate school, and unemployed ) as long as I continued to call, make my good-faith payment of {$50.00} and extend every three months. I have a private trade-school loan that's very old, I am aware this limits my repayment options and I was told it would run out eventually but was also advised by Navient agents that if I called when it did, it was likely they could work with me to extend it if my financial situation didn't change. I was not advised of the 12-month limit clearly. The agents misrepresented the availability of options to me using soft language that they would " see what we can do ''. 

In mid-XXXX of this year on a visit back home to California from XXXX where I live for grad school, I called Navient again to attempt making payment arrangements. I was told that my forbearance time was up, but I hadn't used any deferement time I was " entitled to ''. I felt I had been led into forbearance wrongly for a year and immediately began the application process for in-school deferement including proof I was attending an accredited university for my masters. 

Only upon my letter of rejection for this relief was I informed that my loan type did not in fact qualify. I lost approximately a week of time waiting for this answer, the time and expense of printing and faxing and emailing XXXX. This is time I could have been using to find other avenues to pay and put me further behind. I called to ask why I was not informed that my loan type didn't qualify automatically when the agent has my loan information in front of them any time I call. They said they did not know and that I had been misinformed and apologized. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I finally requested to speak with a supervisor, around XXXX pacific time I spoke to XXXX XXXX operator # XXXX. I was advised I should read my promasary note to understand my loan terms, implying it was not the agents ' responsibility to provide me with accurate and up-to-date loan information or to simplify loan payment in any way. After arguing my case, I advised the agent that under no circumstances could I pay back the loan at present and asked for some kind of flexibility. Lowering monthly payments, interest rates ( currently at 14.25 % ) any option at all to make payment more feasible, I was told he could work with me to at least lower interest rates. 

I was told both my co-signer and I had to make financial statements. I called in the following day because of the time differences to provide my financial information after my co-signer had given a financial statement. After I did so, I was denied any change in my terms or otherwise any help to make payments. 

Beyond this, Navient refuses to call me directly at my own phone number because it is XXXX, international. As a result, they only call my co-signer and I do not receive direct communication via phone from them unless I call. They also say they can not accept payments from international bank cards, although I use a very large XXXX bank endorsed and accepted worldwide. Due to the misinformation and logistical difficulty in making payments when I can, I can't help but feel I have been purposely mishandled to extract late fees or more interest.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation