Consumer complaint received 2016-05-14
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Sub-issue: Can't decrease my monthly payments

Complaint:
I called to reapply for the Rate Reduction Program today. I first spoke with a woman named XXXX, who transferred me to her supervisor, XXXX, who eventually transferred me to a man named XXXX. Between these XXXX people, I was not able to reach a monthly payment amount that I can afford. 
Last year when I went through this process, the person I spoke to wanted to raise my interest rate from 1 % to 3 % despite my cosigner and me struggling to make ends meet at the 1 % interest rate. This person suggested I find ways to cut back on monthly expenses such as on food. I asked him if it is a company policy of Navient 's to suggest its customers go hungry in order to pay back their debt. He said no. We eventually negotiated to a 2 % interest rate which was still above what my cosigner and I could afford on a monthly basis. In the past year, to make ends meet, I did actually have to skip meals to make this monthly payment. In the last twelve months I have lost XXXX pounds due to lack of food. For my age and height, I am now considered XXXX. This year, XXXX made a number of offensive and absurd suggestions to get me to pay the new amount : -He suggested I look for a second job -He suggested I try to refinance this debt with another company -He suggested I apply for government assistance -He suggested I call my landlord and request that my rent is reduced Are these company policies of Navient? To ask their customers to work seven days a week? To ask their customers to take from the government to pay for their loans? To ask their customers to risk being evicted? I am, for all intents and purposes, an indentured servant to Navient. I will remain an indentured servant for the next 25+ years. I do not go out anymore, I do not socialize, I do not buy clothes, I do not go on vacation ; I do not do anything. I live to pay off these loans. I work, I come home, I sit alone, I go to bed, and I get up and do it again. 
I am also in more debt than I was last year. To make ends meet I had to lean on credit cards to get by. Along with this additional debt is an additional monthly payment that I can not afford. My Federal Student Loans, which totaled roughly {$100000.00} when I graduated from college, have increased to roughly {$110000.00} today. The reason for this is my monthly payment to Navient is so high that I can not even pay the minimum monthly payment to my Federal Loans to break even each month on the interest that accrues. Each month as I slowly pay down my Navient Debt, my other debts slowly increase at about the same rate. 
Despite these circumstances, today when I reapplied for the Rate Reduction Program, I was told that my interest rate and payment amount would have to increase again anyway. My cosigner and I reiterated our financial circumstances and the fact that we are not making ends meet at our current interest rate, but the Navient employees we spoke to just repeated the same statement over and over like a broken record. 

The XXXX options I was left with at the end of the call were to accept a 2.5 % interest rate for the next XXXX months ( which would increase my monthly payment ) or to accept a 2.5 % interest rate for the next twelve months and have the length of my loan extended by a few years ( which would keep my payment the same as it is today ). Neither of these options are a sustainable solution for the predicament I am in. I can not afford my current payment as it stands today, so neither of these options are realistic. I also can not extend my payment out by a number of years to get by for the next 12 months knowing that next year Navient will raise my interest rate again and I will again not be able to afford the payment. I am on the verge of defaulting because I can not afford my payment. 
I propose Navient reduces my payment to {$750.00} a month for the remainder of the loan terms. This is a realistic and sustainable solution.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation