Consumer complaint received 2021-12-09
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Don't agree with the fees charged
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (VA)

Time Period : XXXX XXXX Background : My Federal Family Education Loan ( FFEL ) has been serviced by Navient and its predecessors since XXXX, when I graduated from a master 's program in Environmental Studies XXXX At no time have I missed a payment and at no time have I failed to recertify my annual income as part of a repayment plan. 

Complaint : From XXXX XXXX, my loan was in forbearance and no payments were being made. I think no payments were due in part because of the low annual income I had reported on my last income certification in XXXX. Even though my income and financial situation had not changed much since XXXX, my loan servicer, Navient, requires an annual recertification of income. This seems reasonable enough, and I have complied with this requirement for as long as I have been in forbearance, for at least the last 5-10 years, ever since income-based repayment ( IBR ) was started under President Barack Obama. 

For a variety of reasons, this year I made the mistake of not opening several e-mails Navient sent me, including on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. Aside from the fact that I get 100s of e-mails a day and that many of my e-mails from Navient, especially on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, were of a routine or information-sharing nature, requiring no action of any kind by me ( e.g., the e-mail on XX/XX/XXXX was simply to remind me that the Navient website would be down temporarily ), one thing I can say is that the subject lines used by Navient were not entirely clear, which meant that one had to click on and open an e-mail before one could understand what was happening, what was being communicated, and what action, if any, was required. In fact, one of the first e-mails notifying me that I needed to recertify my income this year did not say " Action Required '' or " Need to Recertify Income, '' but only " Your payment will increase soon! '' ( XX/XX/XXXX ) Because my loan was in forbearance or repayments were temporarily forgiven, it struck me as strange that an e-mail would announce that my " payments '' would increase soon. Given the sensational and somewhat fearmongering quality to the subject line in this e-mail, my first instinct was to disregard it, for fear it was a message from an unscrupulous lender attempting to convince me to move my loan to them. My next two ( 2 ) e-mails ( XX/XX/XXXX and and XX/XX/XXXX ) from Navient both had the bland and uncommunicative subject line, " New document ready to view! '' In fairness to Navient, however, two more reminder e-mails followed, " Reminder your payment will increase soon '' ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and " New document ready to review '' ( XX/XX/XXXX ). 

I was awoken from my neglect only on XX/XX/XXXX, when Navient 's e-mail subject clearly stated, " Action needed - your payment is increasing. '' For some reason, as soon as it was stated that " Action [ is ] needed, '' I immediately visited the Navient website on XX/XX/XXXX and discovered that I had missed their deadline to recertify my annual income by XX/XX/XXXX. Though by now I was five ( 5 ) weeks past the deadline, the information requested and action required seemed routine, and easily exchanged had the mode of communication ( e.g., US mail or telephone call leaving voice message ) or the words used in the e-mail been different. 

My complaint is that my punishment for missing this deadline to recertify my annual income is {$13000.00}, i.e., Navient capitalized my outstanding interest to my principal once I failed to recertify my income on time. While I fully accept that I was late to recertify my income, I do not feel it is appropriate for a loan servicer to penalize me by adding {$13000.00} to my principal balance, especially given that they could have chosen alternate means for communicating with me about when and how to recertify my income. 

I called Navient, and spoke with an agent named XXXX and a supervisor named XXXX, but both were adamant in referring to the precise terms of my loan agreement, especially a provision they called Section 10. When I protested that I had held this loan over twenty ( 20 ) years and never before been allowed to let such an important deadline pass without first being called, XXXX the supervisor said that did not change anything, and that when I was called in the past it was most likely over a payment that was late to be submitted, so the lender was offering the courtesy of notifying me of my failure to pay on time in order that I could make the payment before incurring penalties. 

If there is any way CFPB could reverse Navient 's action, and to remove the {$13000.00} in capitalization of interest I experienced simply for missing a deadline for filing annual income, I would be most appreciative! Failing that, if there is any way CFPB could require loan servicers to communicate more clearly about upcoming changes in terms of the loan, and to allow borrowers, especially low-income borrowers, a certain grace period to overcome any oversights, that too would be greatly appreciated!