Consumer complaint received 2021-05-20
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MI)

I have private students loans with Navient since XXXX. These loans were at one time Federal Student Loans with Sallie Mae. Because I was not making a lot of money they encouraged me to defer these loans. I was not offered and income based loan program and somewhere around XXXX after reading some information applied for IDP and began paying the loans back. At some point in XXXX when I lost my job and filed for bankruptcy I called Navient to find out if these loans could be settled in the filing and they told me that students loans do not qualify for bankruptcy. They suggested I put these loans into forbearance until after the proceedings. At the time I was not offered any other option. Fast forward to a few months ago when the pandemic hit. I contacted Navient because again I was unemployed due to covid and they told me because these were private loans they were not apart of the pandemic relief package. I had been paying over 10 years and thought I would try to apply for loan forgiveness under the IDP. I went on line at the time and applied for this program. It was denied. I didn't understand why but kept making payments. It seemed I had been making payments forever on this loan and the balance only increased? The original loan amount was XXXX. I added up all my payments which amounted to XXXX and still have a XXXX balance?? I began to question Navient about these interest rates and capitalized charges and they have yet to give me a clear answer. I have spoken with a supervisor and the final answer is always " this is why student loans are different than other amortized loans '' Apparently they charge a capitalized charge each time they defer/forbear the loan, and then charge the 6.8 % on top of the entire amount making it impossible to ever pay back the loan in its entirety ; as far as I can tell. I then ask her why there was another capitalized charge of XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and she claimed that I filled out an unemployed deferment form, which created the charge? I never recall doing that but told her I did fill out a forgiveness loan application and I would like to see the signature and she said it was electronic, so no signature. I asked her why if I had filled out a deferment and knew about it, would I continue to make payments on the loan, and if a capitalization charge was for non payment of the interest why was my COMPLETE payment, during that time, not going to the principle? She had no answers other than, this is how student loans work? I'm not satisfied and would like a better explanation. I also noticed that it looks as if no payments went to the principle of the loan from XXXX yet I made payments to them? I'm not sure why when I download the spreadsheet it shows XXXX payments made? I think this loan servicer is shady at best and now understand why people feel trapped by this lender. I might add that she again tried to convince me to refinance my loans or put them into forbearance if I couldn't pay them, and I told her absolutely not until I got to the bottom of this situation. As I looked deeper into the Navient on line forms, I noticed that all the documents and form I had sent them over the past uploaded or otherwise did not exist in their forms you sent us tab. So apparently any documentation that I could have sent you about my situation no longer exist, just them saying I filled out electronic forms without signatures. I might also add that she informed me that I was not able to record the conversation at the beginning, as I had ask her to do so. 
Sincerely, Concerned about the Ethical Issues