Consumer complaint received 2017-01-29
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Don't agree with fees charged
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (AZ)

After paying on my student loan for years, I only owed about {$12000.00}. At that time XXXX took over my load and the amount went up, paperwork stopped, and no record of my loan has been available. When I was still in school and did n't have to repay yet, they did n't believe me and put my loan in forbearance. The amount I owed continued to increase even after I was again making regular payments. With no warning, my loan was taken over by Navient. They are completely sneaky and dishonest!! E-mails with important changes & time sensitive information to your loan arrive from a different name and end up in your junk mail. When they took over my bill went from {$300.00} a month to {$500.00} a month!! I had automatic debit payments, so the larger amount got taken out without me even knowing that there had been a change to my loan! It took months to try to get through all of their hoops - website links that do n't work, e-mails that get sent back and/or connect to nothing, phone numbers that ring indefinitely, or phone numbers that suspiciously reroute you through a series of completely different numbers until you are talking to someone from XXXX who assures you she is there to help. I tried to stop payments, and cancel automatic debit payments, but ironically none of those links and buttons on their website work! Finally I was able to send in ALL of the paperwork they requested ( apparently, I somehow kept sending them the " wrong ones '' even though those were the ones they had assured me would work... and of course they continued to take their money out of my bank ). For one year, the payment was back down to {$300.00}, but oddly enough the amount I now owed them was up over {$80000.00} and increasing every month! They also split my loan into 2 parts and paid a fraction to each one out of my monthly payment. In the spring of XX/XX/2016 I happened to be cleaning out my " junk mail '' and fortunately saw an e-mail that was from Navient. Suspiciously again, when all of my e-mails from them automatically sort into my " Bills '' folder, somehow this very important e-mail came from a different name and went into my " junk mail. '' It stated that my monthly payment was going to go up to {$900.00}!!!!!!!!!! I went through all of the rigmarole again. For months I 'd call to make sure that I 'd filled out the right paperwork, and the nice lady from XXXX would assure me I did n't need to worry & my payments would remain at {$300.00}. Then I 'd call back and the recorded voice would say " your next payment of {$900.00} is due on ... '' Ugh!! This continued for several months. Each time the woman who happened to answer would assure me that everything was perfectly fine and to ignore the recorded voice. Not trusting them at all, I tried in vain to cancel automatic payments again - again, clicking in circles and/or broken links!! Finally, I went to my bank to find out how I could stop the evil Navient company from taking out {$900.00} without my consent. They said my only choice was to close that bank account. So in sheer desperation, I did. That bank account though, was linked to another account ( in case of overdrafts ). And even though I called and talked to Navient the night before the payment was due, and they once again assured me that the {$300.00} was set in place, I woke up the next morning to an empty bank account. Navient tried to take out {$900.00}! Since the account was very recently closed and at a XXXX, it kicked it open and wiped out my 2nd account! Fortunately, the bank was on my side and fixed everything. I called Navient and told them that I was done- I could n't deal with their lying, sneaking and cheating anymore! I would n't be paying them another dime. They told me that they had tried to help me, but I had sent them the wrong paperwork. Ugh!! ( btw- I have also taught at a full Title 1 school for the past 18 years which should have wiped out my loan anyway )