Consumer complaint received 2018-12-31
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MI)

On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from Navient that my 12 month income driven repayment plan ( IDR ) will end soon, which would result in my monthly payment amount to increase to {$1800.00} starting XX/XX/XXXX. At the time under this plan, I would pay {$50.00} per month across five loans. I re-applied for IDR as soon as I received this email. I expected an increase in my monthly payment to be around {$200.00} to {$300.00} due to an increase in my income from the past year. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received confirmation from Navient that my IDR renewal had been approved. I continued to make monthly payments as usual, paying my monthly payment via auto pay and making additional payments when possible. In my Navient account I received a new document on XX/XX/XXXX that my new monthly total starting XX/XX/XXXX would be {$1600.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX I called Navient asking them to review my new monthly total forXX/XX/XXXX. I stressed that I am concerned with the payment amount, that I am hesitant to make any additional payments if my payment amount is {$1600.00}. The customer service agent noted that I was ahead of one of my loan payments, which may have affected the XX/XX/XXXX loan amount to be reflected correctly. The agent stated that they would escalate this issue and that I should see a resolution to this issue by XX/XX/XXXX. They said that if this issue is not addressed by XX/XX/XXXX to call Navient back. The agent stated that this amount is definitely not correct and should be a monthly payment of {$200.00} to {$300.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX I received two new documents from Navient. The first document stated that my new monthly payment total for XX/XX/XXXX would be {$1600.00}. The second and most recent document stated that my new monthly payment total for XX/XX/XXXX would be {$1800.00}. It appeared to me that not only was the IDR I filed in XXXX not applied and resolved, but the amount had in fact increased by {$240.00}. After reviewing these documents I called Navient. I wanted this issue resolved immediately, as I was concerned that the holiday season could further delay my issue.The customer service agent I talked to stated that the reason for the incorrect monthly payment amount was because I was ahead of one of my loan payments and that they would need to refresh the counters. They stated that unfortunately this issue would take about two weeks to resolve, meaning it would not be resolved by the first monthly payment due date for XX/XX/XXXX. I asked why this issue wasn't already resolved. The customer service agent stated that you need to request for counters to be refreshed and that you need to request that you want an income driven repayment plan. I stated how am I supposed to remember to remind Navient to refresh counters if this information is not provided to me in advance. I applied for IDR and in my call on on XX/XX/XXXX I stressed that I want the my XX/XX/XXXXmonthly payment amount to reflect IDR. How am I supposed to remind Navient of an internal process they need to complete in order to finalize a request? I requested a hold on my account or some sort of reprieval. The customer service agent stated that they could not provide any of the suggested solutions and instead my first payment amount for XXXX would go in forbearance. I requested to speak to a supervisor. Unfortunately, the supervisor was unavailable. However, the customer service agent stated that they will address my issue in 48 hours to reflect the correct monthly payment amount for XXXX. ( The agent also reviewed with me payment options. They stated that when making an overpayment you can select whether this payment delays your monthly payment or if you want to pay more on your balance. They stated that my additional payments appears to have delayed my monthly payment for one of my loans with the lowest balance. I stated I was already aware of overpayment options and that my extra payments were in fact directed to pay more of my loans balance. The customer service agent made a change to my settings to insure that any future overpayments were applied to a loan 's balance. ) After this action was complete it would also take another 48 hours for this information to be correctly reflected in my Navient account. As of XX/XX/XXXX, at least five business days, I did not see any new updates to my account. I called Navient. The customer service agent stated that reason for the delay may be due to my account still having auto pay. The service agent deactivated auto pay per my request so that the payment amount could be reflected accurately. They stated that they would work on getting my new XX/XX/XXXX monthly payment issue addressed as soon as possible, with this information being reflected in my account the latest by XX/XX/XXXX. The agent did mention that it is possible that this correction to my payment amount could happen as late as XX/XX/XXXX. Periodically between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I checked my Navient account for updates. No updates were made. I called Navient on XX/XX/XXXX asking for an update. The customer service agent stated that my issue was in queue to being worked on, however, it has not yet been resolved. They stated that my new monthly payment amount could be reflected as early as later in the day of XX/XX/XXXX or possibly not until XXXX. The customer service agent stated that they will place my payment on hold, interest would accrue, but I would not have to make a payment. 

I am extremely frustrated with this process. I applied for IDR in late XXXX. Almost four months have passed and I am not confident that my issue has been resolved. I have always made my monthly payment and I am have already paid ahead for some of my loans. I allowed auto pay through Navient because it would lower my interest rate for my loans by 0.25 %, which would allow me to save money and pay off my loans faster. However, I have less confidence in auto pay if monthly payment amounts are not reflected correctly in my account. If I did not actively review my account, I could be paying at least five times as much for my monthly loans. This leads me to believe that other loan borrowers may have paid more through auto pay than anticipated. 

I also find it hard to believe that my case is an ad hoc case, where Navient does not have a system in place to adjust monthly loan repayments for loan borrowers who both pay monthly loans in addition to making extra payments. Through my communication with Navient, it appears my case is a unique case. But I find it hard to believe that there is not a large enough population of loan borrowers who make monthly loans and addition payments that would merit a system in place to adjust IDRs without the need for borrowers to constantly call Navient to follow through on applying IDRs and refreshing counters. Based on this assessment, I am worried that this issue may arise again for me in the future and for other loan borrowers who make similar payment decisions.