Consumer complaint received 2022-12-14
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
I had over {$20000.00} in student loans when I graduated in XXXX. For years I was given an unmanageable payment amount of between XXXX XXXX. I did not start working fulltime until 4 months after graduation and I started at XXXX. I tried to talk to them about my payments but they remained high. As a result, I attempted making the payments but ultimately ended up with a lot of forebearances. After forebearances, of course, the amounts went up even further due to capitalization. 
Eventually, I ran out of forbearance time and still couldn't pay so I went into default. In the process of forebearances and default, my loans went from company to company. 
In XXXX, I was suddenly eligible for an income repayment plan. I was put on a very affordable payment plan of XXXX dollars and change each month and made the payments XXXX. In XXXX I had some payment difficulty and while federally we were aloud relief from payment, Navient refused me. I was soon able to get back on track. In XXXX my payments we up but were still under XXXX. This I understood because I was employed with a school district that was paying me XXXX year so my income was also up. I lost that job and ended up on the XXXX year of XXXX and also ended up having to move. 
My new job was a cut in pay so I expected my payments to go back down. Instead they have gone up to XXXX and chance, almost triple where I started don't this plan in which I had been much more successful than before. 
In asking about why this increased, they told me that the income repayment plan no longer goes by just my income but now also the amount of my capitalized debt. They also could not offer me anything lower they said. 
This past month I fell behind and paid XXXX weeks late. Now, this week they are stating that I am 30 days delinquent and am offering me a XXXX payment plan. 
The lady told me that on either plan, my payments would continue to go up over time as they continue to capitalize each day. In addition she claims that I still have not made a payment although I did last week. I asked her why I am not eligible for any of the deferment and non capitalization that is given federally on my FEDERAL loan. She told me my loan is now a private loan because it was with Navient. Navient is who contacted me when I went into default and set me on the income based repayments. They asked me when I got on the payment plan if I wanted to stay with Navient or go to another company. I told them it did not matter as my loans had been moved several times. I did not know staying with Navient would be a prison sent basically and I greatly feel that they have defrauded me and worked against me. 
They tiled me this plan needed to be renewed each year which I have done and that my payments would be based on my income. They also told me that after 25 years my debt would be forgiven but that I would have to pay a tax based upon the forgiven amount. No mention was made of the payment plan going up based upon capitalization. 
After almost 20 years of trying to deal with those insurmountable debt that just gets added to, I am fed up! Every opportunity for relief seems to come with some loophole that makes the relief null and void. Also, it seems that the terms that are promised to be permanent upon agreement are changed to me the needs of the lender over time. I bankrupted in XXXX and yet this is still with me bringing me down. Please put a stop to this behavior as these people are greatly taking advantage of many!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation