Consumer complaint received 2017-05-23
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem lowering your monthly payments
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (MD)

I recently sent this to Navient " I have had a baffling experience with your Customer Service department over the last few months. I called in  XX/XX/XXXX  to discuss consolidating my loans. During that call, I was told that consolidation would not affect my repayment amount. You might, then, be able to imagine my shock when I received a message in  XX/XX/XXXX  informing me that my repayment would increase from {$250.00} per month to {$900.00} per month.   When I called to find out why, I was told that I had been moved to a Revised Pay As You Earn plan, which meant that my spouses income would be included in my repayment calculation. I was surprised to learn this, because when I sent in my paperwork i n   XX/XX/XXXX    and    XX/XX/XXXX    for my yearly  IBR  renewal, I included her pay stub and it did not affect my repayment in either year. Nor did her income information affect my repayment when I sent in another  IBR   XX/XX/XXXX  due to a decrease in my income. I was told that I needed to resubmit an  IBR  and indicate that I wanted to move to a  PAYE  plan. I sent in that paperwork sometime during the first week of  XX/XX/XXXX .   On  XX/XX/XXXX  I called to discuss the status of my paperwork. I was told that it was in the pipeline and would likely be processed later that week or early the following week. I was also told that my repayment should be {$200.00}, but a later look at the repayment calculator on the FAFSA site indicated that the foregoing amount was likely inaccurate.   When I still did not receive any notification by  XX/XX/XXXX , I called once again to ask about my paperwork. I spoke with a woman named  XXXX , who told me that my recalculation request had been processed on   XX/XX/XXXX   and that my repayment amount would be {$900.00} per month. When I asked her to look again, she told me that I had incorrectly filled out the IBR form and that I needed to send in more paperwork- this time checking the box to indicate that I wanted to move to a  PAYE plan. When I  communicated my bewilderment at the sudden inclusion of my wifes income in my repayment calculations, she informed me that this change had nothing to do with whether I was on a  PAYE  plan or a REPAYE plan. Instead, she continued, I had answered Ques tion   XXXX   incorrectly, and should have checked the box to indicate that I had no   reasonable access to my spouses income. She then asked for my gross income to give me an estimate on what my payment would be once my paperwork had been processed.   Very little of what she said sounded right to me, so I checked a copy of th e IBR form. Question   XXXX   does not as k whether I have reasonable access to my spouses income ; it asks whether I have reasonable access to her income information. Next, I ch ecked the FAFSA website. The FAFSA  website clearly states that REPAYE plans take spousal income into account regardless of IRS filing status, whe reas PAYE plans  only factor in spousal income if the couple files jointly ( we do not ). Finally  XXXX  asked for my gross income, but payments are structured around adjusted gross income, and given what happened prior to that, I have no faith that she calculated it correctly  XXXX  was wron g on two acc ounts ; she gave me incorrect information  which may affect the st atus of my current roun d of IBR paper work. I would like to know why I was told on  XX/XX/XXXX  that my paperwork was being processed when it was not. I would like to know whether  XXXX  simply did not know what she was talking about, or whether this level of service is what I can expect now that your legal department has opined that Navient has no obligation to counsel me about repayment. Finally, I would like my monthly repayment set at the rate of {$250.00} per month, as that amount is what the  FAFSA  repayment calculator believes I should pay.   I sincerely hope that I never have an experience like t his one agai n. '' Then a couple of other things happened.   " Follow-up- just received a delightful message that I can not switch repayment plans as I am not in my recertification period. N ot one of  your surely adequately-trained employees mentioned that I would need to be in a recertification period to change plans. The message went on to say that I could ask for a recalculation. You might remember from my previous email that  XXXX  assured me that my recalculation had gone through, thus putting me at the not at all unaffordable monthly payment rate of {$900.00}. Your customer service department is dysfunctional to a degree that surpasses most telecom companies. " And " Oh and hey, it looks like my direct payment has been turned off! What an incredible level of customer care! '' No response from Navient as of this writing