Consumer complaint received 2016-05-03
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint:
I have XXXX loan accounts with Navient. I understand that these are private loans and they can do whatever they want to my interest rate ( though I swear I signed up originally for a fixed rate loan, but ca n't find my paperwork ), but I signed up for auto payment in order to receive a .25 percent rate reduction. Within one or two months, the rate went up to void that reduction. This was frustrating, but what can I do. They hold all the cards and talk in circles when you try to get information. 

Now, I have extra funds that I would like to apply to the principal of my loan, to try and reduce it so I can eventually pay off the loan, and I am told that I ca n't do that. Instead, it must first satisfy any unpaid interest. If I am satisfying my monthly payments, which they pull automatically from my bank account, how can I not apply extra in a specific way? From what I have read online and from conversations that I have had with other student loan holders, other people are able to do this with their Navient loans, but they say mine does not qualify. I am paying 10 % interest on a {$30000.00} loan ( and that is just XXXX of XXXX ), so I need to be able to pay principal only to get this paid off. I was told the only way to do that is to pay the same day as your due date, but that means I ca n't pay extra on my principal for a month, meaning they make extra money on the interest for the entire month. This is unfair and seems like taking advantage of me as a borrower. The interest accrues daily, so I can pay a payment and have some of it allocated to interest and it still makes my principal a bit smaller, but if I was allowed to pay the entire {$500.00} that I want to on interest, it puts me in a better position overall to pay less interest, reduce my loan amount and get out of debt faster. I have been out of school for almost 7 years, and have been unable to make much progress towards this loan, despite having paid for a majority of that time. This loan has never been delinquent, anytime I was unable to satisfy the payment I called and they charged me to put it into forbearance. It seems like this student loan nightmare will never end. I have loans with other companies, and none have treated me like Navient has. 

I realize that Navient is in the business of making money off student loans. This seems unreasonable and unfair to not allow a customer to pay above their monthly payment and pay on principal only. They have set this up so that you are not able to pay them less in interest and make it extremely difficult to get your loan paid off without coming up with a lump sum. 

From what I read online, it would be easier and possibly put me in a better position to stop paying on the loan and try to negotiate a lump sum payment with one of their debt collectors. I made an agreement to pay this amount when Navient loaned me the money, and I am trying to stand by that, but they seem to want to make it impossible to get this loan paid off.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation