Consumer complaint received 2018-09-23
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: PA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Navient failed to apply or allocate payments to my accounts and Navient repeatedly misapplied payments without correcting them. Navient continues to process my payments incorrectly ; In XXXX of XXXX, I started receiving late payment charges on my account. Navient is charging a late fee on just one of my loans, because the original signing date, for that loan was the XXXX of every month and I was not paying until the XXXX, which is my scheduled IBR date of pay. The other Three loans signing date are the XXXX of every month, and yet there is no late fee. Thus, my XXXX IBR date was too late, the representative stated that when they get my monthly payment that they do not disburse the amount evenly to cover all loans. Navient still has that late charge on that one loan and Navient representative XXXX XXXX stated, just ignore it and that it wont hurt my credit score. I am concerned that Navients past practice of automatically reporting to the credit agencies, without notifying me will happen again. 

Navient deceived me, as a borrower, about requirements to release my co-signer from my loans ; Navient has fraudulently advertised their release of co-signer qualifications. Their policy states, which I have taken off their website, in addition to many different representatives stating to me over the phone, that as long as 12 consecutive, on-time payments are made, ( which I have fulfilled ) the co-signer may be released. However, after filling out the form, in XXXX of XXXX, with required income verification, I was denied release of my co-signer, stating I did not meet their requirements because of late payments. ( I am enrolled in their automatic- debit program and funds have been released in a timely manner, in which my payment history reflects. ) In addition, when I questioned my alleged late payments, Representative XXXX XXXX, stated in a letter that, As of the date of this response, you have not satisfied the 12 consecutive, on-time payments of principal and interest requirement. Please note that because your Term and Rate Modification Program ( TRMP ) enrollment was completed in XX/XX/XXXX, the first payment which could be used to qualify for cosigner release was due in XX/XX/XXXX. Your loans were delinquent during the three-month TRMP qualifying period, and any payments made between XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX would not be qualifying payments. TRMP enrollment requires borrowers to schedule recurring monthly payments over the phone. Unlike Auto Pay, which extracts monthly on your due date, recurring payments scheduled over the phone extract on the date of the borrowers choosing. This means that the payment may be scheduled after your due date. We have confirmed that the recurring payments were scheduled for the XXXX of each month based on your request. I find many things wrong with Mr. XXXX response. First, in XXXX of XXXX, over the phone, I was enrolled in Navients IBR program. Although depending on the representative you speak to, some call it ICR or IDR. I was told the lowest payment they could accept was $ XXXX, and the representative set it up for that day the XXXX. In addition, we also set up auto pay to ensure I would not be late on payments, and my enrollment was complete. Since then {$220.00} has been taken from my account every month, and on time. Thus, I have never heard of this TRMP program, or have been delinquent with my account. I was never told of any three-month qualifying period? Nor have I ever been told to make any monthly phone calls??? Lastly, the representative chose the XXXX, because thats the date I called and never said anything about coinciding payments with due dates. 
When I called Representative XXXX, to discuss this letter, he told me, in a phone conversation, to re-apply in XXXX for cosigner release. I asked if he could just re-use what I have already sent before. He stated no I would have to re-apply all over again and insinuated I should be approved. I did re-apply on XX/XX/XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX, when I sent an email to representative XXXX questioning many practices and the status of my co-signer release, I received a letter on XXXX, XXXX, dated for the XXXX, that I was denied release because of insufficient income, portion of loan balances to loan amounts too high, amount owed on accounts too high, serious delinquency, public record, collection on file. Thus, my credit worthiness. Hence, it is my belief that Navient has deceived me about requirements to release my co-signer. Therefore, I have met all of Navients requirements that they ask of me and believe my co-signer should be released. 

Navient is negligent in its handling of mine and my co-signers credit worthiness ; Because Navient has failed to allocate funds to the necessary loan our credit worthiness has been negatively affected. Upon questioning Navients untimely reporting to the agencies. Navients solution was to simply place a footnote on our credit reports stating that the borrower disputes the action of Navient. The footnote also incorrectly states that the dispute has been resolved. With that, there was never an adjustment to our scores. Navient representatives always have a different excuse for their justification on their actions. Anytime there is a misunderstanding or confusion with Navient the automatic negative reporting policy is never corrected with the agencies. 

Navient creates obstacles for repayment by providing bad information ; I am very concerned that I was not notified of my new monthly payments, after my yearly IBR evaluation. I did everything on my part that Navient ask for, to recalculate my payments. I e-signed my financial statement form and sent it on XX/XX/XXXX. However, I never received notification of the new amounts, or determination of why my payments are increased. Thus, I checked my Navient account and seen the higher payments due, with no explanation why. Then, I checked my Navient sent documents, file, to see if my IBR information was there and it always reads were sorry, we were unable to retrieve documents you have sent to Navient for your student loan account. Please try again later. I then checked my sent emails, through Navient esign, where the information was accepted and it states, Document was deleted. I knew it was time for my yearly recalculation and provided the information requested but, now the information is irretrievable or is deleted and I received no determination! In addition, since Navient believes, from their XX/XX/XXXX communication, that my income is insufficient then why have my payments gone from {$220.00}, in XXXX of XXXX, to {$320.00} in XXXX of XXXX, to {$360.00} in XXXX of XXXX? I surely must requalify for IBR payments but, Navient is deficient in processing my renewal application. 

Navient is extremely hard to communicate with! Communication with this company is most times impossible! It takes entirely too long to reach a representative by phone. 100 % of the time, when you do get through, you speak with a different person each time, leaving any previous discussions made useless and a waste of time. Thus, you state your business all over again only to find out that you have the wrong department and get transferred more than once at times. I feel as though my conversations get nowhere and I end up just walking away without solution most times. The representatives speak in terms and circles that make it hard to understand and cause more confusion than solution for me. I have given up trying to call for answers. I should also note that on more than one occasion, I have been asked, in a demanding tone, if someone else is listening in on our conversation. They are very suspicious in tone. Each time, their information is different and creates more obstacles than answers. Its a mystery why communication with Navient is so confusing and frustrating yet, should you want to make a payment, it takes, two mouse clicks, three seconds and you never have to wait? 
In addition to lack of communication, Navients monthly payment statements and correspondences are extremely difficult, if not impossible to understand. My co-signer was a senior financial analyst for twenty years and currently his own business. Thus, his knowledge of finance is above average and he finds Navients statements to be extremely difficult or even impossible to comprehend. 
Navient fails to act when I complain ; It took filing a complaint with the XXXX, this summer, to get a timely response about my co-signer release from Navient. In addition, as of this date XX/XX/XXXX I still have not heard anything about my new, yearly IBR program, and I Applied on XX/XX/XXXX and asked for a determination on XX/XX/XXXX and still have had no response. 

I question if I am receiving fair monthly payments or maybe overpaying for my student loans ; Even if Navients calculating is correct, which I question, there is something unethical about my current principal balance being {$3000.00} more than the total amount of my original principal balance after making nine years of monthly payments totaling {$16000.00}?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation