Consumer complaint received 2017-10-14
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: GA
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:
My complaint is about my loan ( s ) with the servicing company, Navient ( formerly XXXX XXXX ) I am currently repaying a loan from my years at XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. ) In that time I had obtained Stafford loans to pay for my education. I left with two loans amounting to around {$50000.00} each. I only had a part time job at the time so I could not afford to pay the loans at that time, so I differed the loans until I could go full time and, trying to simplify the payments, I refinanced the loans with XXXX XXXX, something I wish in retrospect I had not done. 

In the years that followed, I had financial difficulties and had gotten forbearance and postponed payment of the loans using deferments provided by XXXX XXXX. 

Two years ago, XXXX XXXX split off my loan into a company called Navient. Before this, I had arranged to get on the income sensitive program where my loan was determined by my income. When Navient took over I no longer had that option, but I then signed up for a payment program which I would pay my loan determined by my income, and in twenty years after paying the loans, the remaining amount would be forgiven, since I am a XXXX XXXX employee. 

The loan arrangement did not go as I hoped. I started off paying {$57.00} per month. When may salary increased the following year, XX/XX/XXXX, I was re-assessed a monthly payment of {$230.00}. This decision was made without determining how much money I needed for living expenses and other debts I had to pay. 
I also received little notification of this increase ( which was debited from my bank account, which they encouraged plan recipients to do ), and I found out about it when my it came out of my bank account and caused my other payments to bounce, resulting in being charged multiple overdraft charges from my bank. 

The increase in payments has caused me financial distress and I have had a hard time staying current on my loans and other bills. I sent Navient a letter telling them I could no longer pay the amount they assessed and offered to pay {$100.00} per month. I received a letter from a Navient person saying that they could not change the payment amount based on their arbitrary assessment of my income, that {$230.00} was the least they could charge me. ( they did not ask me anything about living expenses or debts. ) I also believe that Navient has been overcharging me for fees, interest and other charges, resulting in my loan jumping from {$90000.00} before I signed with the loan forgiveness program, to {$100000.00}, in the course of a year. Instead of my loan total amount going down, it seemed to go up each month despite monthly payment of the loan. XXXX XXXX also padded my loans with such fees and interest even before Navient took it over. 

I asked for an itemization of the which part of the loan ( s ) were principal or fees and other charges. Based on the response I received on XX/XX/XXXX, I do n't believe the service personnel understood my request. 

I would like for Navient to re-assess this loan and give me a monthly payment that is more affordable. I feel this is a reasonable request because I have proven that I can pay my loan if what I am assessed is affordable, and a sizable amount of this loan is fees and interest charges tack on ( questionably ) by Navient, which would have been easier to pay off if it were not for these questionable charges. Also, I believe these charges violate the spirit of the program in question since it should have allowed persons to pay off their ( in my case ridiculously high ) debts and have it eliminated at some point. Navient has worked instead to keep me in debt with no hope to pay it off ever, with no guarantees that the loan will ever be forgiven. 

I hope you can help me with this situation. 

I have documents to prove my case if needed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation