Consumer complaint received 2017-01-30
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: IN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint:
Hello there, I 'm a college graduate ( XX/XX/2016 ), wracked with approximately {$65000.00} in student slavery for opening some books and learning something. My loans are serviced by Navient, which is currently being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( you ). 

A federal website states " You never have to pay for help with your student loans. The U.S. Department of Education and our loan servicers will help you for free. '' ( XXXX ). But then this same website sends me to my own loan servicer- Navient- for my " free counseling ''. 

First, the idea that Navient could ever legitimately serve both my AND its own interests, is blatantly false. This is an extreme conflict of interest. 

Secondly, as advised by The Ombudsman Group, I gave Navient a chance to discuss these issues with me. I asked that they provide me with FULL disclosure of every repayment option. However, Navient- knowing my loans were due in just a few weeks ( XXXX ) - waited for WEEKS to respond to this time-is-of-the-essence request. I was forced to wait for those two weeks, only to have to call them back up, be put on hold, shuffled around, and forced to re-explain why " time is of the essence '' - I 'm an unemployed graduate with an {$800.00} dollar monthly payment due that I STILL did n't know how to address because they did not give me the paperwork, nor student loan counseling, which I asked for several times. 

At this point, the Navient representative, XXXX XXXX, said, " I 'll get right on it, '' and indeed he did send paperwork via email - but by then, I literally had ONE WORKING DAY ( because of the holidays ) to make a decision! Furthermore, the paperwork that was sent was NOT FULL DISCLOSURE at all, it was a mere copy-pasted table regarding repayment options- the exact same table on the studentaid.ed.gov website. So I called Navient AGAIN and at this time was given a time extension- which, let 's be clear about this, is not a GOOD thing, because it means that interest is still accruing and being wrapped up into the loan balance in order to make even MORE interest for Navient. This compounded interest was not even warned about when they offered the extension ; I happened to KNOW that it would happen, and THEN the Navient representative agreed that it would, in fact, happen. 

I am writing to you because at NO point did I ever receive fair student loan counseling from an unbiased source, and neither did Navient even attempt to make a suggestion- as they are not a counselor, they are a debt collector. 

Essentially, my points of contention are : 1. Although the federal website states I do not need to pay for student loan counseling, it appears that I do indeed have to pay somebody if I want my student loan counseling to assuredly be in my own best interests. Navient does n't actually help me choose THE RIGHT PLAN FOR ME- which means they are not giving me credit counseling. 

2. Navient refused to give me full disclosure, in writing, of every repayment plan they have. When pressured, Navient finally did send a " disclosure '', but it was merely a generic, copy-pasted table from the federal student website. Even this took them two weeks just to email. 

Therefore, I would be grateful to receive reply to this dispute with the phone number of the organization which I can call to receive unbiased, sans conflict of interest, free student loan counseling for my federal student loans which become due ( again ) on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Thank you very kindly for listening and for being here for the typical college graduate sold into Student Slavery in America. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX of XXXX, Indiana P.S. Attached to this complaint, XXXX documents from Navient 's email, " disclosing '' the repayment options ( it 's not REALLY a disclosure ). The documents are locked ; the XXXX passwords are : XXXX! and XXXX!.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation