Consumer complaint received 2018-05-02
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: UT
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I temporarily withdrew from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to pursue a year long research fellowship at the University XXXX XXXX. Having received poor advice ( for my personal situation ) from both my university and my loan servicer Navient I applied for a XXXX XXXX deferment in XXXX via my research fellowship. This was undertaken because I was unaware of the options for income based repayment and the potential interest benefits incurred by those programs, and was incorrectly told by representatives at Navient in XX/XX/XXXX that applying and having an approved XXXX XXXX deferment would save my grace period for my loans.

Two months later I contacted Navient because my loans were still classified as in a " grace period '' rather than in deferment. I had never received any contact from Navient despite them verbally approving my XXXX XXXX request. After lengthy discussions with Navient and contact with an Ombudsman in the summer of XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that a grace period can not be waived an thus waited until my grace period would be finished. I contacted Navient in the late fall to confirm that my XXXX XXXX deferment would begin as soon as my grace period was ending and was told it would work smoothly. 

In the winter of XX/XX/XXXX was preparing for my return to school and began to research repayment programs because I knew I had used my grace period and would have to begin repayment shortly after I graduate in XX/XX/XXXX. In looking through my options I discovered the REPAYE program and because my income to debt ratio is so high, the Government subsidy on the loan would be a significant contribution to my loan interest that was continuously accruing. So beginning in late XXXX I have been consistently contacting Navient in an attempt to remove my deferment status on my loans and enroll in the REPAYE program. 

Each time I have been given different information about my rights as a borrower. I was initially falsely told I could not waive my in school deferment. After additional research and repeat contact I was informed that the loans were actually classified as in school status rather than deferment and that they had no information concerning me leaving school. After acquiring copies of my graduate deferment request that I already submitted and the correspondence I had with Navient, they miraculously were able to find my request on their end and was told I could enroll in the REPAYE program immediately. After a few weeks of no changes on my loans status and no update on my income based repayment request I called again ( this was in XXXX by now and I had returned to school earlier that month ), I was informed they were only able to show that I was away from school from XX/XX/XXXX, ( despite multiple calls and confirmations in the fall ) and that according to their records I hadn't used my grace period. 

In contacting my school I had them send updated NSLDS information to Navient, which I was told would be enough by a Navient representative. Alas Navient still couldn't confirm my changes, despite being told by representatives Navient could each time I called. So began a cycle of hour long conversations with a representative where they contradicted or couldn't find anything concerning the last conversation I had with a Navient representative, slowly they would eventually understand my situation over the course of the hour despite giving me incorrect terrible loan advice throughout the process of the phone calls. I was falsely told that Grace periods extend for 9 months rather than 6 months. Which I informed them was a perkins loan not the direct loans I had through their program. I was told the interest subsidy on the REPAYE program only concerned subsidized directly loans, which I informed them was incorrect based on a 30 second pass of the studentloans.gov website. 

Navient also provided an email on their website for schools to contact them " XXXX ''. Despite my school sending appropriate documentation of my enrollment to this email none of this information could be found by the representatives I spoke to at Navient and no representative that I spoke to knew that this email existed or how to contact the department that receives emails. Throughout the process I offered to have my school call them but was told that my school would have the number and that they refused to give it to me. 

After 5-6 months of working on this, today I was flippantly given the number I've been asking for so my school could directly contact them. In a single phone call with verbal confirmation they allowed my school to finally inform them I was away from school and have been informed they've made the correction. This process has made me miss out on close to {$2000.00} in interest subsidy for my loans, miss out on 5+ months of 0.25 % reduced interest by enrolling in a direct withdrawal payment method, added 5+ more months of interest accrual that will capitalize when I finally enroll in the REPAYE program, and made me miss out on 5+ months of low cost payments towards the public service loan forgiveness program. 

Its been hours and hours of effort to just get the chance to pay my loans and get the rights I have as a borrower and at every step of this process I have been receiving untrained and incorrect loan counseling advice and Navient has made it as difficult as possible to receive answers. They have never contacted me, sent me follow up information, and throughout the process my student loans account with them has been a revolving door of changing due dates on my loans. My school has made every attempt to give Navient the information requested and Navient has used every opportunity to worsen this process.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation