Consumer complaint received 2018-12-14
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem lowering your monthly payments
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MA)

I graduated from college in XXXX of XXXX. At the time my loans, both private and federal were finnanced through Sallie Mae, totaling around {$160000.00}. With the collapse of the economy in the fall of XXXX and employment opportunities limited, I was unable to secure employment in my field but was able string along a variety of odd jobs to make ends meet. My income at the time was barely enough to live on forcing me to move back home with my parents in an effort to save money. Even then I still couldnt afford to make the required student loan payments to Sallie Mae. I needed to put my loans into forbearance till I could afford to begin repayment. After two years of this I finally was able to land an internship in my field. Along with the internship I continued to work side jobs and was able to restructure my payment plans through Sallie Mae. I began an interest only repayment program on my private loans and was able to defer some of my federal loans. While going through this, my debt was continuing to compound and grow but there was little I could do or afford to mitigate the growth. I did the best I could in managing my debt and after a year of interning I finally secured full time position in my field. Now armed with a decent salary I was ready to attack my student loan debt. I still continued to live at home with my parents in an effort to maximize my student loan repayment. Once again I restructured my repayment program. I quit the interest only program and begin making full payments towards my student loans. By this time though the damage had been done. My original debt of {$160000.00} had ballooned and skyrocket to {$240000.00}! Throughout this time Sallie Mae had made things difficult when it came to managing my loans. It was almost impossible to direct over-payments towards specific loans that allowed me to best pay down my debt. Either through their website or via the representatives over the phone, their allocation system was convoluted with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It seemed my loans were in a constant state of flux and I would regularly incur late fees which only added to my debt. Because of this state of flux myself and my family members would be constantly badgered by phone calls from Sallie Mae collection representatives. Some of my family members had no connection at all to my loans but were still roped in. As I continued to try and manage my debt the status of my loans constantly changed. From phone call to phone call with Sallie Mae I would get a dirlfferent stories from their reps. That too was s problem, each call was with different representative, there was never a way to deal with the same person each time. The only consistenticey in all of this was the constant state of flux and badgering phone calls. At some point I restructured my repayment plan and entered into automatic repayment for most of my loans, both federal and private. My account has since changed from Sallie Mae to Navient. It is is now XXXX and I have been repaying my student loans now for 10 years. After 10 years of repayment I have finally reached my initial balance of {$160000.00} that I graduated with. This debt has been debilitating. The dream of home ownership and starting a family is just that, a dream. This burden will continue to haunt me for another 10-15 years till it is paid off, a far cry from what I originally signed up for with Sallie Mae. Choosing to use loan Sallie Mae/Navient to  finance my education has been an absolute nightmare. It is almost like signing a deal with the XXXX. To me they are nothing more than a glorified, legalized loan shark, that the government has empowered and allowed to prey on the masses. Thus far Sallie Mae/Navient has made almost an extra {$100000.00} off me, and at this rate I will end up repaying nearly double of what I initially borrowed. Yet there is no help for me and others like me. We are limited in our options. Claiming interest for taxes is capped at {$2500.00}, and dependent upon income, so in some cases not allowed to be claimed at all. There is no option of bankruptcy unlike most other debts. We are simply at the mercy of the lenders. This is not a cry for total loan forgiveness by any means, all Im looking for is to make things fair and equitable and to give myself and others like me a fighting chance.