Consumer complaint received 2022-07-11
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: LA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
Issue # 1 : Navient, has wrongfully included loans for an institution that I did not attend in my student loan debt. Issue # 2 : I was misled by Navient into over 15 years of forbearance and not provided any information on Income Based Repayment until XX/XX/XXXX. To provide context to the situation, Sallie Mae initially serviced my FFELP federal student loans. To my understanding, Sallie Mae 's contract with the US Department of Education was terminated and Navient assumed the responsibility of servicing its accounts. In XXXX, I spoke to the company about consolidating my loans to get them out of default status. Navient, of course, made it seem as if I could only use their services for loan consolidation and assured me that they operated with transparency and worked diligently with their clients to best understand their financial situations. To the contrary, Navient neglected to inform me that I could utilize another servicer that would provide me with a lower interest rate. During the process of consolidating my loans, I was given promissory notes to validate and sign. I was given a promissory note from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, but NEVER attended school at that institution. The Navient representative coerced me into signing the promissory note for the institution that I did not attend and assured me that the loan balance on that particular loan was XXXX. It was not until XX/XX/XXXX, upon scrutiny of my outstanding loan debt, that I realized the loans from the institution that I did not attend was included in my total loan balance with capitalized and accrued interest. I immediately requested a fraud packet be mailed to me to begin the process of removing the fraudulent loans from the institution that I never attended. I was told the fraud packet had to me placed in the mail and that the fraud packet could not be uploaded to my account or emailed to me. I have requested the fraud packet on numerous times, yet I have not received it. Each time I call to inquire about it, I am told that there are no notes in my file regarding the fraudulent loans and I am forced to begin the process from the beginning. In XXXX, during the COVID 19 pandemic, the federal government placed a moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest accrual. In the latter part of XXXX, I checked my credit report and noticed that Navient had reported me to the credit bureaus for late payments in XXXX, XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and then later reported again in XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX of XXXX. I contacted Navient to resolve the issue and I was told that the moratorium on federal loan payments and interest only pertained to loans held directly by the federal government. Since my loans were initiated through Sallie Mae, a federal entity, and my loans are titled federal loans, that my loans would qualify for the federal moratorium on student loan payments. Upon speaking with Navient, I was told my loans were federally-privatized loans ... ... XXXX am still trying to understand that oxymoron. When speaking with Navient, I asked them general questions about my loan and commented on the increase in the balance-owed. I requested documentation about the loans that were consolidated and was told that they could not provide me that information. I relented on the issue out of pure exasperation. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Navient explaining that their contract with the XXXX department of education was not renewed and the company would no longer be servicing federal student loans. The letter also indicated that my loans would be transferred to XXXX. Out of confusion, I contacted Navient, I spoke with a very curt representative who informed me that there were defaulted loans that Navient serviced in addition to my consolidated loans. I was unaware of Navient servicing any other defaulted loan, but he assured me that they did, but could not give me any information about them because all of the records were transferred to XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX, Navient was removed from my credit report, so the transfer, at that time, seemed legitimate. The same day, I contacted XXXX XXXX and was told that my name and social security number was in their system, however there were no loans in my file. I was completely baffled by this. It was as if they wanted the interest to continue to accrue. I reached out to Navient again for information regarding the mysterious defaulted loans and my consolidated loans. The representative was very helpful and explained to me Navient did not service any other loans, only my consolidated loans. The representative also informed me about income-based repayments. This is unacceptable. We also discussed amount of my consolidated loan and interest rate. I submitted an application for income based repayment over 2 months ago. I submitted all of the requested documentation, however my application is still pending. My student loan debt that was consolidated through Navient totaled {$29000.00} ( including the fraudulent debt ). As of XX/XX/XXXX, I owe {$76000.00}. That is also unacceptable. My debt is currently over 2 times the amount that was consolidated. This is predatory. I am flabbergasted that the US federal government is allowing their servicers or contractors to XXXX and pillage American citizens by profiteering of student loans. Due to Navient 's unethical business practices, I was not provided any option to forbearance. At numerous times since XXXX, my loans were in forbearance for over 2 years. I spoke with the US Department of Education about this issue. I have spent countless hours on phone trying to resolve this issue. I was told that I would have to contact my servicer with my issues. Why would my servicer, the entity that caused the issue, take any proactive role in fixing the issue? The XXXX Department of Education chose to contract out and work with a company that misled student loan debt holders and has caused me, and countless others, financial hardship.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation