Consumer complaint received 2018-07-23
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (VA)

I discovered in XX/XX/XXXX my almost ex-husband had been filing deferments fraudulently since XX/XX/XXXX.  The statements he made included claims I was unemployed which were not true. All correspondence was electronic. I had been lead to believe these loans were close to paid off and only discovered this when collections calls began. I began to pursue a fraud investigation. I requested all correspondence and initially was only given the latest deferment form filed in XX/XX/XXXX. 

I was told in XX/XX/XXXX by the Fraud Department that fraud by a husband was impossible, therefore they would not do anything. Meanwhile, my husband had just been XXXX  for XXXX XXXX for XXXX  use of my credit card and XXXX XXXXXXXX, so I knew this information was not true. I appealed the issue to the ombudsman and requested all correspondence be via email as I felt like I was getting the runaround at best. 

I again supplied the entire history to the ombudsman, I shared personal and embarrassing details of the XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX I suffered at the hands of this man which included being forbidden access to bank accounts, bills and other financial information. I noted that just about everything we owned, to include our home, was in his name only to show evidence of the level of control he wielded. I shared the credit card issue that he paid back to avoid prosecution as evidence of a pattern of behavior. I was asked what remedy I was seeking and honestly felt I was getting somewhere, finally. I shared I wanted relief on the interest as it caused my already outrageous balance of $ XXXX to turn into $ XXXX of debt. I was not asking to be relieved of the entire debt - I would pay what I owed in good faith, I just wanted to be dealt with in equal good faith. 

I was wrong. I got an email that said simply their investigation showed no fraud occurred. I still had not been given the documents I requested and did not get them until I threatened to subpoena them. That threat worked because I got them all -and low and behold, there were errors such as my birthdate being wrong on a form. I hardly think I would get my own birthday wrong, and noted I questioned their investigatory prowess if they investigated the issue at all. I never got a response to noting this colossal error. 

I spoke to another customer service rep to find out what the next level of appeal was and things went from bad to worse. This representative advised me to go back to the original fraud group and submit a document I had not gotten the first time. She also told me not to pay the loans as doing so would indicate my acceptance of them being my debt in their entirety. You are warned all calls are recorded, so this should be on Navients record. 

This information was erroneous and now on top of everything else, my credit has been destroyed. To make matters worse, when I was told through another customer service agent in XX/XX/XXXX that I had been given bad information ( and I started paying the loans immediately upon getting this corrected information ), I was told she would correct the credit report to show I had not been late. I asked if she meant I had been caught up, and I understood her to say no, she would fix the credit reporting and make it good again. This too should be recorded. She also said she would get me in a program that graduated my payments and it would take care of late fees, etc. I kept logging in to pay my account ( there is no way to override their system to pay a lower amount due that I could figure out ) and the payment had not adjusted. I called back and was told the amount was a late fee. When I explained I was told there wouldnt be any late fees due, the agent argued with me and said she did not know why someone would tell me this. Interestingly enough, when I went in to make my payment later, those late fees had been reversed. 

With all of this, Navient has managed to almost double my loan balance by not catching fraudulent activities on my account, refused to really even investigate the issue to resolve, gave me such bad information my credit was ruined and then doubled down on stating they would fix it, but did not. I am not able to indicate I would participate in prosecuting any longer due to the terms of my divorce but would have been more than willing when I started this complaint with Navient. I could not hold out for this issue to remain open as I was being destroyed by him economically as he stopped paying any joint bill we did have leaving me to pay ( which I did trying to keep my credit in tact as he being the awesome human he is, abandoned our children. I am all they have, I needed to stay in a place where I could provide a decent house, little did I know that was for naught as Navient was ruining my credit anyway ). I had also already spent close to $ 50k in legal bills responding to my husbands rediculousness in trying to continue his XXXX  of me by XXXX. I had to settle saying I would assume my student loans and not go after him. Not knowing if I would ever get resolution, I made the best decision I could. But it doesnt erase what happened or how Navient handled this from the beginning. If they had done their due diligence, I could have assisted in prosecution and I wouldnt be facing being a single mother with a XXXX year old ( we were in the process of XXXX, she is XXXX XXXX and we had her since birth, he backed out as another XXXX mechanism and to avoid child support ) and another in college with this crushing debt created through no fault of my own as well as ruined credit that will take years to recover from.