Consumer complaint received 2017-04-14
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan — Can't get flexible payment options
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (OH)

I received a loan for {$8000.00} dollars to take care of educated related expenses in XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX. Upon graduating in XX/XX/XXXX, I could not find work in my field. The amount XXXX was asking me to pay per month was not an amount I was able to pay with my income. I asked to pay what I had calculated using budget tools I had utilized. XXXX refused to except the amount I could pay and after submitting the payment I could afford several times and seeing the interest compounding and increasing my balance due as well as negatively impacting my credit because it was not being recorded as a full payment, I ceased to continue paying. Myself, my family members, and past employers were harassed to no end. I requested several times that they quit contacting whomever they found to be associated with me, as I had diligently stayed in touch and updated my financial status often. I was not trying to avoid my debt, but trying to reach an income level that allowed me to repay it. XXXX refused to honor my request of ceasing to contact third parties, and even continued to contact my deceased grandfather after I sadly went through the process of submitting his death certificate to the instructed mailing address. While I worked to grow my career, and increase my income to an amount that was acceptable for my debt and living expenses, XXXX absolutely refused to work with my any new acceptable budgeted payment I offered. I spent tireless amounts of time on the phone with the company trying to work something out. After several years of this, the last time I reached out to XXXX, the representative told me my debt was in the hands of a collection agency - XXXX. After receiving a notification of debt collection from them, I began contacting them. They wanted the entire sum. The sum had increased by {$2000.00}. I continued the effort to negotiate with them for almost a year, when the representative I was speaking with lashed out ( as had happened many times with XXXX. ) He told me in a harsh tone that they could sue me for the amount due and garnish my wages at whatever amount they wanted to. I broke down in tears and said I would be seek legal counsel to protect myself. With my lack of income, legal counsel was not easy to come by. I took time off of work to visit the XXXX and many other attorneys. None of these entities were able to help. They offered only that I file bankruptcy, but stated that bankruptcy may not forgive this debt. I waited, until one XXXX season when the whole family was gathered at the house, and a court summons arrived for me. It was embarrassing and humiliating. To receive a summons in the XXXX season with so many witnesses, I could not imagine feeling more like a failure to my family as a result of XXXX 's bullying. This really ignited a motivation in me to fight for justice. I reached out to every lawyer I had ever come in contact with, and one gracious attorney offered to help at no charge. He called XXXX and set up an agreement to pay {$100.00} per month as that is what I could afford at the time. I faithfully made the payment on time for two years. After making my payment in XX/XX/XXXX, I received a voided check stating that XXXX no longer had the debt. I spent hours tracking down the debt until I finally found that Navient now had it. They advised me that I could not arrange payments through them until they sent it to a debt collections agency again and am now in contact with them trying to come up with a way to pay the new balance of over {$10000.00}. This means that the estimated {$2500.00} paid toward the debt has amounted to {$0.00} off of the balance due. The civil judgement still remains on public records and on my credit report. They have made it impossible to pay off this debt. It has been a wild goose chase for 7 years now.