Consumer complaint received 2019-03-03
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: WI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
Navient gave me wrong information regarding deferments. Navient told me I could not cancel my deferment and make payments. Navient, it seems, did not process my payments correctly. Navient did not refer me to XXXX when I requested to be in the 10 year loan forgiveness program. 

When I went back to school XX/XX/2016 at XXXX my loan automatically went into deferment. When I called Navient to say I still wanted to make payments toward my 120 qualifying payments for loan forgiveness, Navient told me that I if I made payments while I was in deferment the payments would not be counted towards the 120 payments. I said I did not want my loan in deferment. The Navient rep told me that while I was in school my loan would be in deferment and I did not have to make payments while it was in deferment. Again I said I don't want my loan in deferment. I asked how can this be resolved? The Navient rep had no answer for me. I called back again to talk with another rep who gave me the same story. I found out from another Navient rep a year later that what I was told was not true. I could have continued to make IBR payments, I needed to call another phone number to request a deferment cancellation and reapply for an IBR plan.

XXXX XXXX who now has my loan and has taken a year so far to process Navients payments. XXXX has said that they needed to carefully look at each one to make sure it was processed correctly and is a qualifying payment. There automated system only found 6 qualifying payments, there are 31 more payments that need to be looked at more closely by hand. These payments may or may not be qualifying.

Additionally, Navient told me that I didnt have to fill out any paperwork to apply for the loan forgiveness program. I asked several times in the 5 years. They said I just needed to make IBR payments for 10 years and my loan will be forgiven. I found out from a co-worker that I should have submitted an application for the student loan forgiveness. When I talked to Navient about this form they gave me the number for XXXX  and told me that XXXX handle the processing of this form. Navient rep also said that I didn't have to fill out this form but it was a good idea. They also made it seem like XXXX just processed these applications. I realize after filling out the online application and paperwork that my loan was being transferred from Navient to XXXX and that XXXX was another loan handler.

Problems I am having -- Problem 1 -- I missed a year of payments because Navient told me that I couldnt make IBR payments while I was in deferment and that I couldnt get out of deferment while I was in school. This was incorrect. I could have been one year closer to being finished with these loans. And if I get stuck with this loan because Navient didn't process my payments correctly I'm paying a years worth of interest on top of that. Problem 2 -- Navient should have sent me to XXXX XXXX from the beginning if they could not provide adequate services, paperwork and application for the 10 year loan forgiveness payment plan. Problem 3 -- XXXX says I only have 6 qualifying  payments from Navient so far, and Ive made over 5 YEARS worth of payments with Navient.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation