Consumer complaint received 2018-03-29
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: TX
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:
I initially got a private student loan with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX for the amount of {$3600.00}. My dad helped me co-sign for the loan. Until now, I have explored different options to be able to continue to pay my student loan on time until recently that Ive experienced financial hardships let alone have experienced emotional/personal problems and for those reasons it has been extremely difficult to be able to make any payments on time towards my loan. I have experienced different issues with Navient. At some point, I was caught up on my loan and wanted my dad to be released as a co-signer and was told that I would need to speak to a representative in order to get that done. I would call and while the call was being transferred to the right department, either the call would get disconnected or I would be on hold for an extensive amount of time. In short, I couldnt get to a representative who could help me in getting any corresponding paperwork to be able to get my dad released as a co-signer. What I would like to know is if my dad is XXXX and receives SSI, he had filed for Chapter XXXX bankruptcy in XX/XX/XXXX yet Navient still continues to send him letters, has failed to release him as a co-signer since for whatever reason I cant seem to get to the right person who couldve helped me in being able to get the corresponding paperwork and even so as it was explained, I had to make sure my loan was current in order for my dad to be released as a co-signer. Now my loan isnt current, this has affected my dads credit. I will be consulting with his bankruptcy attorney to find out why he is still listed as a co-signer on my loan yet nothing will change the fact that knowing my dad could have been released as a co-signer years ago it still continues to affect his credit. I have received multiple letters from Navient stating that there may be payment options to help me get back on track on paying my loan yet I didnt qualify for a lower interest rate due to my credit, it has been affected due to non payment on my loan of which I was told I didnt have any repayments options and subsequently affected my credit so all together it has been a cycle as long as I fall behind on my payments, it affected my credit and as long as I dont have good credit according to Navient I dont qualify for a lower interest rate. I was told that I had to pay the full past due balance after I had let them know that I was experiencing financial hardships. Forbearance has not been an option for me for some time as well and even when I would select that option, I was told that after so long I had exhausted that possibility. I am now being told that my loan is about to go into default and my loan was placed in a repayment plan by Navient. I am assuming that happened because of nonpayment yet I didnt receive a letter indicating the specific reason why that happened. My loan will now be paid off by XX/XX/XXXX according to Navient now that is under a repayment plan. Thats 17 years that I will be paying a loan of {$3600.00} that by then will cost me well over $ 12k. Navient has not been helpful in assisting me when I qualified and had asked about releasing my dad as a co-signer, its not true what they say on the letters they send. There are no options available to get caught up with the loan even though they do state that I may qualify for the full past due balance to be paid partially and not in full. Another option was that I could try to make a lump sum to pay off the loan and I was told that wouldnt be an option because its only an option thats available if you have good credit. Other times, I would ask for certain changes to be made for instance for the auto pay to be cancelled the representative would let me know that it had been noted on their end yet would fail to let me know that I would also need to make the change on my end by going online and making that change myself. As a result of the misinformation, I would need to pay an insufficient funds fee since the payment was still being drafted out of my bank account while I was under the impression that the auto pay had been cancelled by the representative when they failed to mention that I would need to make that change online. There were times that I would receive conflicting information in regards to being able to qualify for forbearance. For instance I had been told that I would qualify for an extended amount of time and if need be to call the following month to have it extended. I would call and I would be told that forbearance wasnt an option and I would need to make the full payment. A lot of the times that I would receive conflicting information, they would say they didnt have anything noted from previous conversations. I dont understand the terms of the loan anymore and it doesnt help that I dont have the student loan contract. I dont specifically understand what it means to have had a loan for this long not knowing if Navient has acted in good faith or has deceptively made it more difficult for this loan to get paid off. Late fees have varied. Sometimes Ill get charged a {$20.00} late fee other times I will get charged less than {$10.00} for a late fee.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation