Consumer complaint received 2018-04-07
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
My goal is to come to a resolution in which I can continue to pay off student loans and still live comfortably while trying to advance in my career. Below I have listed a few issues Ive come across with Navient, while trying to figure out a payment plan that works for with my current financial situation.

Cosigner Issues I have no communication with or relationship to the cosigner ( she is my ex-boyfriends mom ) - One of my main goals is to release cosigner from loan.

Navient will not allow me to release cosigner.

In order to remove a cosigner from my Navient loan, I will need to make 12 month consecutive, on-time payments.

Ive been paying interest only payments towards my loans ever since I started school ( the whole time I was in school, as well, because Navient would not allow me to defer them ).

These payments do not count towards the 12 month consecutive payments.

Because I could not remove the cosigner, she was required to give her financial statement to Navient.

When Navient received her financial statement, they said that she was more than capable of making the loan payment, leaving me with an extremely high monthly rate, which I can not afford.

The cosigner is unwilling to pay for the loan due to us not having a relationship.

Because I am unable to pay and cosigner is unwilling, this is putting me in a position where I will have negative disposable income or I will default on my loans, thus ruining the credit score I have been continually improving.

The cosigner also wants to be removed from loan.

Navient Issues I reached out to Navient while my loan was still in forbearance to try to work out a resolution prior to due date.

Navient needed my financial statement to see if theyd be able to lower my private loan rate.

One of the representatives I spoke with offered an extended XXXX   repayment plan that lowered my interest rate to 3 % - 30 year repayment plan at {$270.00} ( current rate is over {$800.00} a month ).

I am very comfortable with this rate and am more than willing to pay.

Cosigner needed to provide financial statement in order for me to be considered for this plan.

Throughout my experience trying to find a resolution, I needed to consistently follow up with Navient in order to get anywhere.

I felt as though I was being strung along.

Because I did not receive any type of resolution from Navient, I reached out to their formal Customer Advocate department.

I was finally able to get someone to reach out - she advised not to do anything with my account until she was able to come to a resolution. She had mentioned she would get back to me once she got more information about my account and could speak with upper management ( I have more information about specificities if needed ).

The advocate I spoke with specifically mentioned not to do anything with the payment until she heard back ( as mentioned above ).

Because of this, I did not make the payment, nor could I at the rate they required anyways, and now I could risk lowering my credit score due to being delinquent.

I also needed to call back into Navient because I never heard back from the advocate - they had no notes that I had ever been in contact with the customer advocate and they had denied my request to lower payments.

Financial/Credit Issues Breakdown of current finances : Monthly income : {$2200.00} Total Monthly Bills : {$2200.00} Rent : {$600.00} Phone : {$60.00} Credit Cards : {$100.00} Groceries : {$400.00} Misc : {$50.00} Transportation : {$200.00} Private loan : {$870.00} ( paying this would put me in a negative disposable income. Federal loans are also coming due end of XX/XX/XXXX ) Throughout the last two years, I have been working to increase my credit score by paying off all of my credit cards through a debt management program.

Only options to refinance would be through another company.

Most of the refinancing companies require a XXXX minimum credit score - Unfortunately mine is just shy of that.

Thus far, I have not been able to get approved for a refinance option elsewhere.

From my experiences, I do not want to get into the same position by needing a cosigner.

Career/Life Advancement Currently, I am working as an account manager, with a fairly low ceiling of increasing my income.

Now, my plan for the end of the year is to advance my career by attending a three month, full immersive program to become a XXXX XXXX XXXX ( which has median income of {$88000.00} ).

The end goal is to transition into this career, which has a much higher average income.

During this three month program, I will not have any source of income to pay this high monthly payment, unless, of course, I can get it reduced.

This extremely high payment is preventing me from progressing in my career, in turn, preventing me from even progressing in paying off my loans.

End goal : I want to come to a resolution that works best for me, as I am the only one who is trying to move forward on this. I can not rely on my cosigner to pay the loan, and Navient has not been cooperative or helpful in trying to resolve the issue. Because of the aforementioned circumstances, Im reaching out to you to help me make the smartest financial decision and come up with a fair resolution based off of my financial situation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation