Consumer complaint received 2022-10-18
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: KY
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:
I have an issue with Navient because they did not provide me with appropriate information so that I could make informed decisions that were in my best interest with regard to my student loans. On XX/XX/2022, I received a credit alert from my credit monitoring service letting me know that there was a change in my credit report. I then learned Navient had reported a 90-day past due status on my loan payments. Until that day, I believed my student loan payments could be paused through the end of 2022. 

I immediately reached out to Navient to investigate the issue and asked why they had reported my student loans 90 days past due since I understood that there was a pause on federal student loan payments until the end of 2022. The representative I spoke with advised me that they no longer had the contract to service federal student loans owned by the Department of Education and that loans were transferred to a new service provider. The representative advised me some of my loans were transferred while others were not. I advised the representative that I was never informed that as a result of this transfer, I now had two student loan servicers and that Navient was no longer contracted to service loans owned by the Department of Education. Up until that moment, they led me to believe they were my federal student loan provider and it wasnt until that day did I they advise me that they were actually a third-party commercial loan provider, thus any loans with them were not eligible for the student loan payment pause announced by the federal government. I explained to them that no one from Navient contacted me to tell me part of my loans were transferred to another loan provider nor did I receive any notification that part of my loans was out of forbearance as a result of Navient losing the contract with the Department of Education. I shared with them that I was confused about how I could have a 90-day late payment reporting on my credit report when up through XX/XX/2022, my accounts were in positive status with no late payments per my credit reports. The representative stated that they should have reached out and I reaffirmed with her that I had not spoken to anyone from Navient nor had I received any messages. I advised them that as a result of their lack of advice, I did not want them servicing my loans any longer. Adding insult to injury, my original loan balance has grown from {$78000.00} to {$130000.00} with interest and fees, which I also believe is partially related to their lack of communication. The representative advised me that I could consolidate my loans with the service provider who was now managing my other student loans ( those that had been transferred ). 
When I asked the representative how to resolve this serious issue I had with credit reporting, the representative advised me to contact the credit reporting agencies with my dispute ; however, after reaching out to the credit reporting agencies, they informed me it is something I would need to resolve with Navient. I called Navient back later that same day and was informed of the process for disputing credit reporting and filed my claim accordingly. I received a letter on XX/XX/2022, stating they conducted their investigation and would not be removing the XXXX reporting from the credit reports. I reached back out to Navient and asked what I could do to escalate my complaint. The representative advised me they could not reverse it nor was I able to appeal the decision. They advised me the only options I had was to file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or arbitration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation