Consumer complaint received 2017-03-09
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (HI)

I attended the Colorado XXXX, part of the XXXX across the nation. At the time, I was informed that taking out about {$35000.00} in loans for a two year degree was not overly burdensome. This school did not have a job placement or work program in place to help graduated students get into the field they just studied for. The only positions available for audio and video production, the degree I just paid for, were unpaid internships. Had I known that, I likely would not have taken on that much debt. I ended up working in a call center at minimum wage to feed my family ; me, my wife, and our first child. When the loan companies started asking for repayment, I was not able to make them. Other bills, such as utilities, food, rent, took priority. The interest rates were keeping the requested monthly payments at around {$200.00}, which at the time were out of our reach. So the interest kept accruing, and the monthly payment amounts kept going up, and there was no relief. I had to declare bankruptcy in order to get out from the mountain of debt already accrued at the beginning of our family life. And of course, student loans are unforgiveable in a bankruptcy. I continued working where I could make enough money to pay bills and raise a family. It was not until we moved to another state, almost XXXX years later, that I finally found a job in which I could use the skills from my degree. My degree was expensive, the school unwilling to help in placement, and the loans were unbearable. None of this of course was marketed to any of us students while we were lining up to take out loans in the school 's financial aid department. Once we moved to another state, the cost of living was lower, but so was the average income. I was still not able to make payments. The entire time, I was in contact with the loan companies, and had filled out the deferment paperwork on time and in proper fashion. I was not delinquent nor was the loan called in for non payment. Just over two decades since graduation, I am now trying to pay off the loan. Unfortunately, it has expanded to over {$86000.00} dollars. I recently asked Navient, who has me on a XXXX dollar payment and shows that I am of course current, about paying off the principal to stop the interest from accruing. They said of course, if I paid off the principal it would stop the interest. Great, I said, I am working on getting the {$35000.00} together. That 's when they informed me that in XXXX, the principal was changed. They took the original principal, {$35000.00}, and all of the interest accrued, and made it all into a new principal. Now, in order for me to stop interest accruing, I have to pay off a {$84000.00} principal. Since they pulled that atrocious stunt, that new principal has accrued over {$2000.00} in less than one year. I will never be able to pay that off. I am in my XXXX 's. I am approaching the age where I will need to utilize my Social Security. But of course, I ca n't do that, because the law says, the same law which disallows Federal student loans from forgiveness in bankruptcy, that if I owe any money for Federal student loans they will take it out of my SS until it 's paid off. I can not possibly take care of this on my own. And I have tried. There is paperwork going back to XXXX or so showing that I have been as cooperative as I can regarding this debt.