Consumer complaint received 2018-02-22
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (WA)

I want to start with saying this issue is not only with Navient but also with University XXXX XXXX. When I originally signed up for school at XXXX, Navient was still XXXX XXXX. Throughout my time at XXXX there were a couple times I had to take a break due to medical/personal issues. During this time ( and even after I left the school ), I would talk with a representative at XXXX who would then do a 3-way call to a representative at XXXX XXXX/Navient. During these conversations I was continuously pushed towards going into forbearance as the better option. At the time I had no job or any other way to make money. When this happened while I was still in school, the time frame for the breaks were short and lasted for maybe 6 months or so. They kept telling me it wouldn't be an issue and since I had no income that was essentially the only option. It did make some sense to me because I had no real income so how could I make any payment at all? 

Not all, but some of the loans I believe, were still gaining some interest during this time but I was not required to pay until I graduated. At XXXX I was constantly told they provided career services and would help me find a job as soon as possible. This had never happened and I could not get any information about it. The only calls I received from XXXX was salesman trying to get me to come back for a 4 year degree rather than the 2 year degree I went for. I denied them repeatedly and asked them to stop calling me. I kept telling them the 2 year degree alone had already cost me over {$40000.00} for very sub-par learning experience from multiple classes. I felt that most of the instructors should have not been allowed to teach and did not necessarily even have a teaching background or degree. The " books '' needed for these classes were PDF files that were barely ever used, if ever. The cost of them also started to exceed {$1000.00} for required learning materials, per class. 

It was at that point I had been talking with representatives that I had to call multiple times and wait up to an hour to even talk to anybody on multiple occasions. Again and again I went through the same thing with them pushing me towards a forbearance for the same reason, no/little income. I had no idea at the time there was the option of getting into an income repayment plan. It was not until fairly recently that things started coming together. Once I was free of XXXX and Navient came to exist, I started working with them directly and had their website to log into along with more knowledge to start researching things. 

I have found a lot of information about XXXX getting lawsuits against them for their predatory practices and Navient for the way they handle things that I have experienced. With the current lawsuits against Navient, coincidentally one of which was filed with the attorney general of Washington State where I live, I have started to really get things making more sense. The current lawsuits against them as of XX/XX/XXXX, started in early XX/XX/XXXX, had 5 major points, two of which I have experienced directly. These points were " Steering struggling borrowers towards paying more than they had to on loans via talking them into forbearance. The 2nd was obscuring information needed to maintain their lower payments. Point 1 is obvious from the information above, point 2 came at least a couple times with Navient 's annual notices for renewal of payment plans. There were multiple times I was not notified of any renewal and suddenly had nearly {$1000.00} payments that were not made. It took calling them and waiting for very long periods of time to understand what happened and get things corrected. 

All of this said about both University XXXX XXXX, which has seemingly been getting shut down in various cities they operated out of ( mine included ) and Navient has been extremely stressful and nothing less than a nightmare to deal with. XXXX in no way helped me to get a proper education in my chosen career of XXXX XXXX but they were very successful in gaining tons of government money via loans taken out in my name. It took me teaching myself everything I know to even get into the career field to begin with. It took a long time to even get a job because multiple employers actually laughed at the idea of me attending XXXX and didn't give me a fair chance because of the schooling I had. 

Now dealing with Navient has also become a nightmare as I am looking at $ 45k+ in loans, making nearly {$300.00} payments every month on a payment plan, and seeing the interest only add up month by month. I honestly feel like I am trapped and if for some reason I find myself without a job and unable to make any payments, I am completely out of luck. My only hope is to be able to get enough money to pay things off or pray that all of these lawsuits against both companies are found to be in the favor of the thousands of people negatively affected by these companies.