Consumer complaint received 2017-11-02
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: IL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't temporarily delay making payments

Complaint:
I have attached/uploaded my Promissory Notes and the notification letter I reference below to this complaint. 

Around XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice from Navient that my private student loans were placed in repayment status. When I called Navient to explain that I am in graduate school at least halftime and should therefore qualify for deferment, I was told that my private student loans had exceeded their allocated deferment time. I requested that my promissory notes be sent to me so that I could review this agreement as I had no recollection of such a limitation in the agreement. I arranged for interest only payments and my account has been current since this time. 

I called again in XX/XX/XXXX to request my promissory notes as they had still not been sent to me. 

In XX/XX/XXXX my promissory notes arrived. I reviewed the promissory notes and found that there was not a date specified for the limit of in-school deferment on my private loans. I called Navient and after speaking to a representative, I was transferred to a supervisor. I explained to the supervisor that I was currently looking at my promissory notes and that it did not specify that my in-school deferment was only 48 months. Instead the note said, " If I return to school I may request a Deferment under which I may defer regularly  scheduled payments after the Repayment Period. As long as the school is eligible for the Student Signature Loan Program, you will automatically grant Deferment. '' Each of my private loans has the same Deferment clause. The school I attend is eligible for this deferment because up until this year, the loans were in deferment. 

The supervisor reviewed my promissory notes while I was on the phone and contacted his supervisors. After speaking with his supervisors, he told me that even though, " my promissory note does not specify a time limit to deferment, '' I was still obligated to pay as the 48 months of deferment were a " company policy '' and this time period had expired. He then said he could send me a letter in the mail that explained the situation. When I pressed the supervisor, asking him where this 48 months information was available if not in the promissory note, he repeated it was a company policy that would have been on the website at the time I took out the loans ( XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX ). The supervisor then continued to repeat that he could send me a letter in the mail that would explain the company policy. I requested that this letter be sent right away. 

At the end of XX/XX/XXXX, I received the letter explaining the company policy in the mail. The date on the letter is XX/XX/XXXX. This note explains that " the exact length of In-School Deferment may not be specified in the promissory notes. These deferments are processed at Navient 's discretion as a courtesy and not an entitlement. Navient 's deferment policy allows up to 48 months of In-School Deferment for Signature Student Loans. '' I have continued making interest only payments since I received this letter. If I had been aware of the " company policy '' at the time I took the loans out from  XXXX XXXX -- Navient was not yet associated with XXXX XXXX at the time I took these loans -- I would have planned my education and finances differently. 

I spoke with a Student Loan/Debt specialist and they suggested I contact CFPB before I pursued any other options, including speaking to a lawyer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation