Consumer complaint received 2022-05-01
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (NY)

To Whom It May Concern : Not ONCE in my years of constant contact about my student loans with Navient was I made aware of IDR. This included any time I contacted them to ask for lower payments so I could keep working away on the debt. Theyd instruct me to do another forbearance. I was NEVER informed of any of other options- early on, it was explained to me by representatives that deferment was my only option and then, when that ran out, forbearance. Id watch, dismayed, as the interest accrued to staggering proportions. All along, for years, the interest kept building and building until I now owe nearly DOUBLE what my original loan was. 

I am a first-generation college student, raised by a single mother at poverty level. When it came time for me to take out student loans in order to pay for higher education, I signed whatever I was told I needed to in order to attend university. I had zero adult supervision when I made these financial decisions and zero understanding of how these loans would work. I was eighteen-years-old. I am now forty-eight and it was, and remains, the biggest regret of my life and I do not say that lightly.

When the time came to repay my loans, I was just starting out in my career and making very little money. Once Id used the maximum amount of deferment, Navient, gave me ONE option, as I was not making enough to meet my seemingly set-in-stone minimum payment of {$550.00} per month, and this was, and remained, forbearance. Again, they were adamant about forbearance being my only option. For years, I made the minimum payments when I was able. When I would call to see if I could make lower payments, I was ALWAYS told that another forbearance was my only option. 

The first Id ever heard of the IDR option was only LAST YEAR, when the utter brokenness of this system and a governmental failure to protect those who needed educational loans, was brought to light through various coalitions gaining online traction via XXXX and investigative stories ( XXXX recently, for example ) which have since gone viral and are gathering even more publicity. 

Again, I spent countless hours on the phone over the years- I was struggling financially but trying my best to keep my student loans from falling into default. Forbearance was, I repeat, THE ONLY OPTION I WAS GIVEN. It was strongly encouraged, in fact, by my Navient representatives. 

Never once was IDR mentioned for me, not ONCE in all those years. The entire time I have had these loans, not once was I informed of IDR as an option for me until a year ago, during Covid. 

Not informing someone of their most basic legal rights as they undertake huge, life-altering loans is so massive a failure, its unfathomable to me that this kind of malfeasance was allowed for so long. 

All these years I could have been paying regularly on these loans, no matter what my financial situation, by using IDR. As an eighteen-year-old, without any guidance at all from parents, I actually trusted Sallie Mae/Navient to be truthful . I truly did and I figured, the government surely must be keeping an eye on them. After all, Sallie Mae/Navient serviced so many Americans educational loans.

I didnt realize that I was effectively signing my financial future away. I didnt have children or buy a house because of this crushing debt that only grows bigger each year with the astronomical interest rates. And now, I learn that this happened because of massive governmental failure to safeguard student borrowers. 

From XXXX XX/XX/22 Some student loan servicers have directed student loan borrowers to choose student loan forbearance over an income-driven repayment plan. As a result, these student loan borrowers have experienced higher student loan interest and higher total student loan balances. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) and state attorneys general have sued student loan servicers for improperly steering borrowers into forbearance. As a result, borrowers in continued forbearance may have a higher likelihood of student loan delinquency or student loan default. In contrast, income-driven repayment offers borrowers who are struggling financially as low as {$0.00} a month in student loan repayment. 

With income-driven repayment plans such as IBR, PAYE, REPAYE and ICR, student loan borrowers pay their federal student loans based on their family size and discretionary income. As such, borrowers could pay as low as {$0.00} a month. After 20 years, student loan borrowers can get student loan forgiveness for their college student loans. 

From the beginning of repayment, whenever it was an option, I absolutely would have agreed to IDR. I was told my only option was forbearance. For almost twenty years now- I was essentially not informed of my rights as a borrower and to be perfectly honest, LIED to. I was lied to for years as were so many other people who relied on loans to afford higher education. And all of this happened while borrowers trusted their government to be policing what these servicers were doing. 

I ask that you answer this systemic failure and corporate malfeasance with decency and fairness and help me rectify this awful situation. Given the severity of Navient 's transgressions against its poorest, most vulnerable borrowers, I believe that full student loan forgiveness is warranted here. 

Thank you.