Consumer complaint received 2017-10-13
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Don't agree with the fees charged

Complaint:
I previously filed a complaint about trying to utilize XXXX XXXX 's interest rate reduction program so that I could avoid defaulting on my loan and trashing my credit. Sometime in XXXX, one representative had told me that my income made me eligible to pay only $ XXXX instead of $ XXXX, but I would have to wait to enroll in the program on a specific date. I called on that date ( sadly without that representative 's name or employee # ) and a different rep informed me that I in fact did n't earn enough money at the time to qualify for the reduced interest program, and that I would be forced to remain in the regular repayment plan where I was required to pay over {$300.00}. That 's right ; XXXX XXXX XXXX at the time ) determined that I did n't earn enough money to pay $ XXXX and would instead require me to pay over {$300.00}. 

Now that I know a bit more about finances, I 've taken the XXXX XXXX XXXX approach to paying off this loan, which has now increased to XXXX % interest. Once I paid off my car last year, I added that {$200.00} to my private loan payment, so I 'm now paying $ XXXX just on this loan while the interest rate increases at least once each quarter. 

Just for kicks today, I exported my payment history to an XXXX document. This loan was disbursed in XXXX in the amount of {$17000.00}. What I did n't realize before today is that immediately upon finishing school ( after my XXXX months of deferment was up XXXX, XXXX XXXX charged me a " Repayment Fee '' of nearly {$800.00}. That same day, they capitalized my interest, which amounted to {$9200.00}. So immediately upon finishing school, over {$10000.00} was added to my principal balance. Like most people, I knew nothing about finances or loans when i took out this loan at the age of XXXX ( Since my birthday is in XXXX, I had to actually wait to begin school until I could take out the loan once I turned XXXX ). 

The other thing I see in this spreadsheet is that each time I had to go into forbearance ( I could n't pay $ XXXX, even though I worked XXXX jobs while attending school full time all XXXX years ), they capitalized my interest. I wanted to do the maximum forbearance time all at once ( I think it was XXXX months at the time ), but XXXX XXXX said that I could only do XXXX months at a time. So every XXXX  months I had to pay {$50.00} for the forbearance, plus the capitalized interest. In total, I utilized XXXX  months of forbearance time for {$150.00} up front, and {$1900.00} of interest was capitalized. Beyond that, due to the misinformation I was given ( mentioned in the previous paragraph ), I was charged late fees because my payments were short ( I paid the $ XXXX quoted for the reduced interest plan instead of $ XXXX ) and I was marked as delinquent on my credit report, which XXXX XXXX refused to fix. I spent weeks calling about the reduced interest plan, trying to get someone to pull up the recorded call. I even gave them the date the call took place, but they made excuses about how they only keep the calls for a certain amount of time and then destroy them. 

Despite my best efforts using many methods to calculate interest for each month 's payment, I still ca n't find a logical explanation as to why the interest portion of my payment fluctuates so much, despite the interest rate being the same. There is over a {$50.00} difference between what was paid in interest last month and this month. Last month, I paid nearly {$80.00} more in interest than the previous month, even though the payment amount was exactly the same, and it was only XXXX days off from the previous month. 

My current principal balance is over {$19000.00}, when my original borrowed amount was {$17000.00}. I 'm trying to improve my credit to refinance this loan for a better interest rate, but am constantly denied because my XXXX ratio is too high. I 'm making decent money at my job, but these loans are just too much.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation