Consumer complaint received 2022-02-04
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
Because of the negative press surrounding Navient, I started digging into my situation with them and noticed that within my account history it shows that most of my payments for 15 years have been applied only to interest. In 15 years I have paid principal maybe 15 times. So 15 months of principal payments and XXXX years of interest payments. My balance at start was XXXX ( 15 years ago ) and now its XXXX. My interest rate is XXXX -- so now that I am more knowledgeable, I realize that I am paying at a minimum XXXX monthly in interest but they have had me in payments well below for most of my loan. My lack of financial knowledge helped them take advantage of me. They do not disclose accrued interest at all. at no time was I ever informed that my payments were not sufficient to be applied to principal. And despite my history showing some larger payments as well, the amounts applied to the principal is very small. If this isn't predatory lending, I can't imagine what is. After seeing my history I realized that thousands upon thousands were just added to my principal and so hence my XXXX current balance. So it seems that for 15 years I have been paying and paying approx XXXX - XXXX $ into the wind. And now I realize why all of my payments were below the daily interest amount. So that I would always pay just interest. Never actually paying my school loan that they give so easily to students who are just starting to get their education and don't understand finance. It appears to me that upon signing my school loans, I entered into a life of servitude to the loan servicers sallie mae and navient. Just about the only thing I can do now is speak to lawyers, file complaints and post on social media every time I have to make a payment. Obvious now that they have been living high off of free money for years. Also I have come to find out that somewhere along the line, my federal loans became federal private loans which is also something I was not aware of but probably signed onto within the myriad of documents you need to sign. I have been deceived here and pushed into paying them for life. There's no way that an original loan, the price of a car should turn into life long payment servitude. How many other loan recipients had their loans converted into private loans and then creamed with accrual interest city. Navient just told me on XX/XX/2022 that I had an accrued interest arrears of XXXX that had to be paid off first before any of my payments could go to principal. Why were they not rushing to tell me this at any point during my loan that they have been servicing for years. It's not in their best interest to tell me because how could I remain in servitude to them for the rest of my life and then they would try for my estate right? This is such a scam. At least we live in the age of social media where hundreds of thousands will be interested in seeing how this works. At least my story can help others. What kind of assistance can I get here? This contract is imperiling my ability live. I'm XXXX and have been paying a school loan for 15 years that has only ballooned. So 15 years of interest and an ever increasing balance? How is this legal??

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation