Consumer complaint received 2024-01-23
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (OH)

I really could use some assistance with having Navient correct the 2 major ongoing issues I am having with my 3 private student loans serviced by them, dating back to the time when Navient and SallieMae were one company. I have brought this to their attention numerous times with no resolution, starting with the first call I had with their supervisor, XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX. She sent my case to the customer advocate team. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Navient dated XX/XX/XXXX. This contained a Declining Balance letter and account history for all private student loans. This history contains the following statement on the bottom of every page : This financial history removes offsetting transaction on your account that do not impact your loan balance. This is to avoid confusion with administrative adjustments processed on your account. I have compared this data to the information available to me when logged into my account on XXXX. I printed the account history for all 3 of my private student loans, along with downloading the CSV file. I have attached scans of these printouts, including my mark-ups, for your reference. When comparing the printout to the declining balance history letter received on XX/XX/XXXX with the account histories printed on XX/XX/XXXX, you will be able to see 3 key differences across all 3 loans. The first is that the Declining Balance letter shows a starting principal balance that matches the amount disbursed on the day it was disbursed. On the scanned printouts, the unpaid principal balance shows an amount considerably higher than what was disbursed. The second is that the XXXX Resale transaction on the account history printout has been omitted in the declining balance history across all 3 loans. The amount of the Resale transaction is the exact difference between the amount disbursed and the unpaid principal balance amount on the day of disbursement. Because interest on a loan is calculated using the unpaid principal balance, and the unpaid principal balance was higher than owed since the date of disbursement, the total amount of interest calculated and either paid or capitalized for the life of the loan is considerably higher than was supposed to be calculated. I also believe that Navient is fully aware of this error and is trying to hide it due to the Resale transactions being omitted. They have since then removed this transaction from my XXXX account history and changed the starting principal balance to match the actual amount disbursed. This is all outlined in detail below. The third key difference is the fact that the Late Fee Reversal transaction was omitted in the Declining Balance History Letter. As you can see by the scanned printouts, on XX/XX/XXXX all late fees currently owed were reversed, rendering them no longer owed. Over the past 10 years, Navient has allocated portions of my payments to pay for late fees that are not owed. 

Since receiving this on XX/XX/XXXX, I have spoken to numerous customer service representatives and supervisors. They have created numerous tickets for the customer advocate department. Each time, informing me that Navient has done nothing wrong, then harassing me with multiple daily phone calls from different phone numbers. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent an email to XXXX XXXX. According to an email I received from her on XX/XX/XXXX, she works in the customer advocate department. She had emailed me an updated copy of the Declining Balance letter, along with copies of my loan applications and other terms of the loans. In response, I attached documented evidence printed from my portal on XXXX clearly showing the errors on my account. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email acknowledging receipt of it. Since then, there has been no resolution to these issues. On the XXXX of each month I am faced with a choice to pay a minimum amount to keep negative credit reporting from being reported to the 3 credit bureaus, or cause damage to my credit rating. It is not fair or ethical for a company to continue to put their customer in that position and ignore the evidence that has been presented to them. 

Details for Issue 1 : The first issue dates back to the date of disbursement for each of the Private Student Loans I have serviced with them. From day 1, they had the incorrect unpaid principal balance in place, directly impacting the amount of interest that was calculated and then either paid or capitalized and added to the principal balance. This issue went on throughout the life of all 3 of my private student loans. On XXXX XXXX XXXX, Navient acquired my loans from SallieMae. On this date, the difference between the actual amount disbursed and the incorrect principal balance on date of disbursement was credited to the current outstanding principal balance. This is notated with the description Resale on each of them. What they had failed to do was credit the amount of extra interest calculated for the time period between disbursement and XX/XX/XXXX. Please see below detailing all this out : Per Declining Balance Letter Received XXXX and XXXX printout dated XX/XX/XXXX : The first loan ( XXXX ) was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for the amount of {$4600.00}, The second loan ( XXXX ) was disbursed on XX/XX/XXXX for the amount of {$4800.00} The third loan ( XXXX ) was disbursed on XXXX XXXX XXXX for the amount of {$1800.00} Total Actual Amount of Private Student Loans disbursed : {$11000.00} Per XXXX printout dated XX/XX/XXXX : On the date of Disbursement, SallieMae ( Navient ) notated that the unpaid principal balance owed was the following : XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ) Unpaid Principal Balance Per Navient/SallieMae : {$9300.00} XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) Unpaid Principal Balance Per Navient/SallieMae : {$7700.00} XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ) Unpaid Principal Balance Per Navient/SallieMae : {$4000.00} Total Unpaid Principal Balance of Private Student Loans per Navient/SallieMae : {$21000.00} The total actual amount owed after school refunds, prior to interest being capitalized on XX/XX/XXXX : {$6400.00} Total Principal Balance per Navient.com printout dated XX/XX/XXXX after School Refunds, prior to interest being capitalized on XX/XX/XXXX : {$16000.00} The difference between the actual amount owed and unpaid principal balance documented per Navient.com printout dated XX/XX/XXXX is {$9800.00}. This amount is 46.7 % higher than the actual amount owed at the time of disbursement and 60.5 % higher than the actual amount owed after School Refunds were credited to the principal balance. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, interest during the time period between disbursement and that date, was capitalized. The issue is that SallieMae ( Navient ) calculated the interest on the wrong principal balances. This information can be referenced using the XXXX loan history Printouts Dated XX/XX/XXXX and Interest Rate Calculated Using Incorrect Unpaid Principal Balance Comparison PDF files created from the downloaded CSV files from XXXX. Please see below detailing this out : Loan XXXX : Because the Principal Balance per XXXX and downloaded CSV file from XXXX was {$9300.00} on day of disbursement, {$8700.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, {$7700.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and {$7600.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, the interest that was capitalized on XX/XX/XXXX was {$1200.00}. Based on those facts provided by Navient.com that would make the average interest rate that I was paying during that timeframe 5.888 %, calculated on a daily basis. 
Using the 5.888 % interest rate calculated daily, using the correct Principal Balance, the total interest, that should have been capitalized would have been {$530.00}. This is a difference of {$750.00} in extra interest being capitalized and added to principal. 

Loan XXXX : Because the Principal Balance per Navient.com and downloaded CSV file from Navient.com was {$7700.00} on the day of disbursement, {$6600.00} on XXXX XXXX XXXX, {$5400.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and {$4500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, the interest that was capitalized on XX/XX/XXXX was {$710.00}. Based on those facts provided by XXXX, that would make the average interest rate that I was paying 6.455 %, calculated on a daily basis. 
Using the 6.455 % interest rate, calculated daily using the correct Principal Balance, the total interest that should have been capitalized would have been {$330.00}. This is a difference of {$370.00} in extra interest being capitalized and added to principal. 

Loan XXXX : Because the Principal Balance per XXXX and downloaded CSV file from XXXX was {$4000.00} on the day of disbursement, the interest that was capitalized on XX/XX/XXXX was {$170.00}. Based on those facts provided by XXXX, that would make the average interest rate that I was paying 6.810 %, calculated on a daily basis. 
Using the 6.810 % interest rate, calculated daily using the correct Principal Balance, the total interest that should have been capitalized would have been {$80.00}. This is a difference of {$97.00} in extra interest being capitalized and added to principal. 

Based on the above facts and calculations, the total amount of extra interest calculated and capitalized across all 3 private student loans on XX/XX/XXXX was {$1200.00}. This means that on XX/XX/XXXX the total principal balance that SallieMae ( Navient ) had calculated interest on was {$18000.00}. The breakdown for each loan from Navient.com is below. This can be viewed on the Navient.com scanned printout dated XXXX XXXX XXXX 

XXXX : {$8900.00} XXXX : {$5200.00} XXXX : {$4200.00} Based on that, on XX/XX/XXXX the principal balance that interest was calculated on was off by {$11000.00}. This is outlined below : XXXX : {$5400.00} ( {$4700.00} Error in principal on disbursement date, plus {$750.00} in extra interest ) XXXX : {$3200.00} ( {$2900.00} Error in principal on disbursement date, plus {$370.00} in extra interest ) XXXX : {$2300.00} ( {$2200.00} Error in principal on disbursement date, plus {$97.00} in extra interest ) This practice of SallieMae ( Navient ) calculating interest on the wrong principal balance owed went on throughout the entire life of all 3 private student loans. This was partly corrected on XX/XX/XXXX. This was the date that Navient took over the loans from SallieMae. On that date, the difference between the actual disbursement and the principal balance keyed in on the date of disbursement was credited back to the principal balance. This is shown on the XXXX printout of my loan history dated XX/XX/XXXX and the Interest Rate Calculated Using Incorrect Unpaid Principal Balance Comparison PDF Files created from the CSV downloads from XXXX. However, they failed to credit back the extra interest calculated and either paid or capitalized using the wrong principal balance. This includes payments that should have been applied to principal when there should have been no interest balance due. All the details and calculations are inside of the attachments provided for each private student loan. 

By the time Navient took over the loan on XXXX XXXX XXXX the total principal balance across all 3 Private Student Loans was off by {$3800.00}. This can be referenced using the Interest Rate Calculated Using Incorrect Unpaid Principal Balance Comparison PDF files created from the downloaded CSV files from Navient.com. The breakdown of this is below. 

XXXX : {$2100.00} XXXX : {$1000.00} XXXX : {$650.00} Details for Issue 2 : The second issue starts at the point where Navient had taken over the loans from SallieMae. On XX/XX/XXXX, any and all late fees that were owed at that time were then reversed and no longer owed. This is shown as Late Fee Reversal on all 3 of my private student loans. This is on the scanned printout from XXXX dated XXXX along with the CSV download from XXXX. After this date, Navient applied payments on all 3 loans towards late fees that had been reversed. This directly impacted the principal balance owed because the payment made, was not applied to the principal balance, but to late fees that were at a zero balance. Interest was then calculated on a higher balance caused, not only by calculating interest on a wrong principal balance since the date of disbursement, but also by applying payments towards late fees, when they should have been going to principal. This can all be referenced in the Unowed Late Fees Paid and Extra Interest Paid Due to Misallocation of Payments PDF Files and the Scanned printout from Navient.com dated XXXX 

In addition to the noted above files, I have also attached a word document containing video links of me accessing my XXXX portal. Each time I would access the portal to download, print, or just view history on my private student loans, I would take a video of it to keep a timeline of what I was experiencing.