Consumer complaint received 2017-05-18
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: MD
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
On multiple occasions my husband and I have reached out to Discover Student Loans to inquire about a refinance or some sort of a modification. Every time we call, we are given the run around and told basically nothing can be done. We most recently applied to refinance our student loan in XXXX ( with Discover ) and we were denied ( husband as cosigner ). And more recently than XXXX, we had conversations with Discover Student Loans on XXXX XXXX 2017 in an attempt to ask for help with no avail. We have always struggled with this Private Student Loan over the last 10 years ( estimate ) since my graduation. The monthly payment and interest rate are unbearable at this point. The Interest Rate is 9.175 % and the monthly payment is {$410.00}. Over our repayment period, {$39000.00} has been paid towards interest, and only {$2200.00} has been paid towards principal. We are not in delinquent status, and have always made our payments on time. On the XXXX XXXX 2017 phone call, we basically begged and pleaded that Discover do something to help us. Our FICO 's and DTI are not pristine, so they would not even consider manually underwriting our file and instead issue us an automatic denial. We simply asked that Discover manually underwrite us for a refinance/modification under the good faith of our good standing of payment history. Our frustration with Discover Student Loan is that they are completely unwilling to work with us when we have expressed the desire to work with them in an effort to repay our debt. If we are struggling to pay {$410.00} a month at a 9.175 % interest rate, but have always put other bills on hold so we can pay this Private Student Loan, then why would n't it be in the lender ( Discover ) and borrowers best interest to work together to make the payment more manageable? Current student loan rates range from 3.5 - 7 % ( based on what I 've seen ). Our proposal to Discover Student Loan was that they refinance us at a new 20 year term at a lower interest rate, with consideration given to our repayment history in an effort to lower our monthly obligation. They are either unwilling or unable to work with us. They have already received $ XXXX in interest, and would continue to earn more if they would just work with us to ensure we can continue to afford the payment. Since our last conversation with Discover on XXXX XXXX 2017, we have taken two steps. We choose to go with a forbearance to give ourselves some breathing room. This, as we both know, will free up cash flow in the short-term for us, but will only worsen our situation by compounding more interest ( we felt forced to make this decision ). The second thing we did was to fill out an application to remove my mother as a co-signer ( which was needed to originate the loan over 10-years ago ). We do not know if the request to remove the co-signer will be approved our denied, but we do n't want a potential delinquency to hurt my mother 's credit standing. Our thought, which we expressed to Discover, was that over this forbearance period we are going to have to seriously consider if this is a loan that we should choose to let go into default and just become a growing statistic. We have paid $ XXXX in interest, and our principal loan amount has only risen over the life of the loan. I 'm sure the moment we go into default Discover will be calling us to work something out. If that assumption is correct, why ca n't they help a borrower that has a current and timely repayment history and is trying to be proactive? Thank you very much for taking the time to consider our situation with Discover Student Loans. Please let us know if any additional feedback/information is  needed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation