Consumer complaint received 2016-03-14
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan — Can't get flexible payment options
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MA)

I 've had a long 7-month battle with Navient over XXXX unconsolidated private student loans I have with them. For years, I have been on an " interest-only '' payment plan with Navient where my payments were roughly around {$650.00} dollars. I was on this payment plan due to the fact that the interest rates on my loans, ( some as high as 9.5-11.5 % ) make it nearly impossible for me to make a monthly payment on the principal. If I were to make a monthly payment on the principal I would be looking at roughly, {$1500.00} dollars a month for 20 years or so. There is no way humanely possible I could make double the payments on this to start chipping away at the debt, unless by a miracle of God himself where I won the lottery. This is negating the fact that I have other student loans and monthly expenses. I moved back into my parent 's house in XX/XX/XXXX because finding employment in my career field was extremely rough. Since then, I have made small strides and have had little improvements in terms of higher income. My XXXX Degrees were in XXXX which unfortunately does n't allow me to generate the kind of income needed to make a dent in these loans. 
My current base pay is a little over {$40000.00} dollars a year. After constantly battling with Navient in trying to negotiate payment arrangements that I can live with, ( i.e. ) I am turning XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and would like to be able to move out of my parent 's house at some point in my life because they are looking to sell the house and relocate to Florida to retire ) they were unwilling to negotiate with me. As of XXXX XXXX XXXX, I decided to stop paying Navient all together and sought out legal counsel to help negotiate some sort of debt settlement or payment options. The attorney I currently have representing me is the Law Offices of XXXX XXXX XXXX. They have sent out numerous letters of demands requesting the promissory notes on my student loans. The only demand Navient has complied with is that they stopped harassing me with 10 phone calls a day. 
All cellular contact was ceased. However, that does n't stop them from flooding my email inbox with notifications of missed payments, etc. It has been 7 months since I have made a payment to Navient and at the beginning of this journey my credit score was somewhere in the low XXXX range and as of today it is a XXXX. The current amount owed to Navient on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX was {$77000.00} and as of XXXX/XXXX/XXXX it is now {$82000.00}. I knew once I stopped paying them this would be XXXX of the consequences I would have to deal with. Unfortunately, in my career field, one of the areas that XXXX agencies look at is credit history and credit reports. Not only has these loans hindered and crippled my ability to live independently on my own and start my life, it is has prevented me from advancing in my field of work. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I received a voice message from XXXX XXXX claiming to be from Navient 's " internal recovery unit. '' The number that he left for me to call him back at was XXXX. Once I got him on the phone, he informed me that as of XXXX XXXX, XXXX my XXXX unconsolidated private student loans were officially in " default, file # XXXX. '' He advised me that he was sending me out a letter with the consequences of this situation. I informed XXXX that I have in no way tried avoiding Navient and that I would like to pay back my debt and that I hired an attorney, XXXX XXXX and Associates to represent me in this matter, however Navient has refused to acknowledge him as my legal counsel and has neglected to present him with the appropriate documentation he requested. XXXX informed me that he was not aware that I had legal representation because he is in a different branch from the " customer service unit of Navient. '' I then gave him the proper contact information for him to contact my attorney