Consumer complaint received 2019-06-22
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MN
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:
I thank you for your time and assistance. I have been tracking the payments of my student loans 12 in all since XXXX of XXXX. Were you to review my credit report, you would find I have never missed a payment on any of my loans. Ive included a copy of my payment history with Navient, for example ( See attached : Navient _ Account History ). While I have been slowly paying off my loans as Ive been able to since both XXXX and XXXX school graduations, around XX/XX/XXXX I decided to ensure all of my student loans were paid off in or before XXXX ( See attached : XXXX XXXX XXXX ). 

The expedited plan I prepared ensured I would pay off the loans in the order of the highest interest rate to the lowest. However, I noted that one loan with Navient ( XXXX XXXX ) had a particularly interesting benefit I had previously been unaware of : It offered a waiver of the last 6 months of payments if all scheduled payments were made on time. I later chose to save the website page as a PDF to ensure I had the information captured for my own records ( See attached : Navient _ Loan Details_6 mth payoff_XX/XX/XXXX ). The loan schedule on Navients website indicated I would save over {$1500.00} by taking advantage of the benefit, which would be more than I would save by paying the loan off early when I was completing my review in XXXX, and therefore I chose not to include that loan in my expedited pay-off schedule. 

Because I was unfamiliar with the benefit, I called to confirm my understanding of it with Navient. I do not recall the date of that call, but it would likely have been in either XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX, when I was making plans for expedited pay down. 
After I made my loan payment on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Navient to confirm I would receive written or emailed confirmation of the loan being paid off. While the benefit was not yet applied, the representative confirmed the benefit was as I understood it to be and assured me that the benefit would be applied within a couple weeks ; she said I would receive an email or letter confirming the loan had been paid off. When I had not heard from Navient as of XX/XX/XXXX, I checked the website to find that a benefit had been applied to my account, but that the benefit was far less than I had been told. Navient had applied a benefit of {$780.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. A balance of {$560.00} remained on my account and a payment in the amount of {$250.00} was scheduled to be drawn ( via auto-pay ) on my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I spoke to XXXX, a supervisor in customer service, and she informed me that the benefit should pay off the balance and that, while I could not withdraw the auto-pay, she would request a refund of my payment as soon as it had been processed. She submitted an inquiry to what she called the back office, informed me it would take 3-5 business days to process, and assured me she would call me back with the results. At that time, I chose to print off another PDF of the loan page, which now contained different language describing the benefit attached to my loan ( See attached : Navient _ Loan Details_6 mth payoff_XX/XX/XXXX ). The language was more descriptive and indicated the benefit only paid 6 months of payments on the original repayment schedule. This language had clearly been changed since I was informed of the benefit, becoming far more specific. Not one customer service representative, to that point, had indicated the benefit would make a payment other than those owed for the last six months of my current repayment schedule. 

XXXX did call me back on XX/XX/XXXX. She stated that she had misinformed me, that the full benefit had been applied to the account and that Navient maintained I owed the remainder of the loan balance. I told her I would not accept that result, because Navient had indicated on its website that the last six payments would be made, but made no reference to the fact that it would not be on my current repayment schedule. I relied on that statement, as well as the confirmations of Navient 's representatives, in continuing my repayment plan. XXXX offered to transfer me to someone who may be able to assist me further. I then spoke with XXXX, who confirmed XXXX version of events and informed me that the federal government had decided on the benefit amount. He said that he would submit to have a Customer Advocate assigned to my inquiry, who would reach out to me within 24-48 hours. Today, 72 hours later, I have not heard from the Customer Advocate, so I am submitting this complaint to obtain some assistance in getting this matter resolved to my satisfaction. 

Another payment in the amount of {$250.00} will be withdrawn from my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. I will be allowing that payment to proceed in order to avoid having Navient state that my loan is in default. In order to resolve this matter, I would ask that Navient reimburse me for any payments made by me on this loan after XX/XX/XXXX and waive the remainder of the loan for me, this is the only acceptable resolution. Thank you again for your assistance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief