Consumer complaint received 2024-04-12
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Getting a loan — High pressure sales tactics or recruiting
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MD)

Back in the early XXXX  of XXXX I did a campus tour of The XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. I was given a campus tour of the cafeteria, the dorms, and the industrial design lab. From the outside everything looked normal. They even did a seated introduction to the programs, telling us about the 90 % job placement and work-study programs that they always had available. The tuition rates posted up on a poster were not even close to what I ended up paying. 
After the tour I headed back home to Delaware. Little did I know that the school tour consented to the financial aid offices, XXXX XXXX ( The Dean ) personally calling me and not just once or twice. The financial aid offices and the student advisors called me three to four times a week for five months until I finally consented and talked my parents into attempting to cosign for me. I had no credit and was told after running my credit that I would not be able to get a loan by myself. That is when Sallie Mae/Navient was pushed on to us. No other loan program was offered, it always seemed to be Navient that made it work. I was in the student financing office every three months for the three and a half years I was there. It was the most stressful process ever. We were applying for loans so often that my mother could no longer qualify to co-sign for me to finish school. My dads girlfriend at the time decided to help me for one semester ( Three Months ) and I was back in the office again trying to figure it out. They hounded me daily to come up with financing. At one point during my 3.5-year term I somehow managed to get a loan all by myself without signing any documents or being made aware that I was on the loan without a co-signer. I never made over {$10.00} an hour consistently the whole time I was in school. How I qualified for a loan by myself with barely any income and no credit does not make any sense. 
I went to XXXX XXXX to attempt to get a work study to find out that there was not any available. I was in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and with all the XXXX  companies in the area they had nothing available for me. With no work studies available I requested information on available jobs that they may have been aware of or that I could apply for that was within my scope of work. The lady told me that at this time there were no XXXX XXXX opportunities, but she has heard that XXXX was hiring down the street and I should go ask them. I couldnt believe it. The school that told me that they had a 90 % job placement rating and work study programs available at all times had nothing for me but to check out the XXXX down the street. 
By this time I was struggling financially, I had to go in to my financial advisor again to once again try to get a loan with a co-signer only to find out I had completely tapped out my Moms credit, My dads girlfriends credit and was in no position to be able to get one by myself and was eventually kicked out of school due to funding issues. I had managed to get 3.5 years in with XXXX credit and could not finish my degree. I was at the top of my class, on the deans list and honor society and I had nothing to show for it. I tried to hit the ground running and get a job but after the six-month mark when the student loans were not allowed to be charged, I was required to pay {$1500.00} a month in eleven separate loans at 13-17 % interest rate back. I hit rock bottom. I lost my apartment, I was homeless, my credit was destroyed and the only thing I could do was defer my loans with the accrual of interest rate over time. By XXXX I was over XXXX XXXX dollars in debt, with no home of my own, no car and a job that I was making {$16.00} an hour at. But Navient and Sallie who gave me these loans could have cared less. That hunted me, they called my family, my friends, anyone they could contact that could contact me. They called me 5 times a day. 
I fell into XXXX. Ended up having to take XXXX to keep my head up from all the negative thoughts that were running through my mind. I could not get an apartment because my credit was destroyed, I couldnt get a loan for a car, I was scared to get into a committed relationship due the how bad off I was financially and worst of all I was couch surfing. I had no home. This school was a fraud that prayed on me from the beginning. They sold me big dreams, easy payback schemes and the ease of getting loans and jobs that would make it all worth it in the end. That did not happen. And for the longest time I struggled emotionally and mentally to recover who I was. Navient/Sallie Mae played a big part in all of this. The XXXX XXXX and Navient/Sallie Mae worked together to get every once of money out of me and my family that they could. 
So, when I say this CFPB complaint is due to predatory lending, high pressure sales tactics or recruiting. That is just the small part of it that it all started with. There is also the problems with the interest rates that are criminal. The loan opened without my knowledge. The confusing and misleading advertising and the constant issues with financial aid. It should not be this hard to get a solid education. 
With all that being said I Submitted a Borrowers Defense Application on XX/XX/XXXX, and received confirmation from the Department of Education on XX/XX/XXXX. After researching my prior defense application, I found out my application was lost so I resubmitted my defense on XX/XX/XXXX. Which was part of the XXXX XXXX that happened. XX/XX/XXXX, I made a request for reconsideration. Finally, after all of that time and the accrual of additional stress and interest rate burden the Defense to Repayment was approved. 
Which was approved XX/XX/XXXX. 
Borrower Defense Application # : XXXX Borrower Defense Application School : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( The ) Pursuant to the Sweet settlement, the Department of Education will do the following : -Discharge your federal student loan ( s ) taken out for your enrollment in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX The ) ( " Relevant Federal Student Loan ( s ) '' ) ; -Provide a refund for any payments made to the Department of Education on your Relevant Federal Student Loan ( s ), including Relevant Federal Student Loan debt that you previously paid off ; and -Delete the credit report tradeline associated with the discharged loan ( s ). 
In addition : I have submitted consumer complaints to both Delaware and Maryland Attorney Generals, in which states I have lived after being rejected from attending the XXXX XXXX. 
I have written my congressmen, The Honorable Dutch Ruppersberger and The Honorable XXXX XXXX I am apart of : The Project on Predatory Student Lending and the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.