Consumer complaint received 2017-01-19
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan — Can't decrease my monthly payments
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (NY)

This is a response after seeing an article in the XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX I graduated XXXX in XXXX, at that point I realized in 6 months I would have to start paying back almost {$1000.00} a month to Navient ( XXXX XXXX at the time ). I decided to take this seriously, my father is a cosigner on the loan and I did not want his credit to be affected. Also I wanted to payback my loan and be out of debt. However living in XXXX would be too expensive. I decided to move back home to upstate XXXX with my parents, away from the place I was most likely to receive jobs in my field. The other problem I would face is that working in this industry most of the time potential employers would expect someone new in the field to work for free for the first year or so. This was n't an option for me, I knew I had to work hard and fast. A month after moving back home I got my first job on a small movie, no pay but the experience and people were amazing. From working hard and making the right impressions, one of the producers hired me on another small film, again no pay however that job lead to another one that was paid. {$250.00} a week for a month which is n't too bad and I would have had that {$1000.00} however I also had a car payment and insurance. Now I had one month left to start paying back my loan and I had pretty much a few hundred dollars to my name. I had gotten another paid film job after the first one but it still was n't enough. I ended up calling XXXX to discuss any options I had, the first one being a forbearance. I was told pay {$50.00} and delay your loan payment 3 months ( with added interest of course ) I had no other options so what was I going to do? Three months later I 'm struggling to find a job in my field, using the money I had for gas or train tickets to interviews, I was then again forced to forbearance my loan. This happened a few times, XXXX eventually offered me a reduction in my loan payments to about half of the initial payment ( about {$500.00} ) which basically I was paying the interest and not touching the principle. I was forced to get a part time job at a local retailer, eventually getting XXXX to XXXX jobs at certain points. Flash forward to XX/XX/XXXX, my reduction plan ended and again was expected to pay close to {$1000.00} month on top of my rent, car payment, insurance, and other bills. I called up Navient to discuss options, as I was willing to pay on my loan however I could not afford the {$1000.00} a month. I then took a financial statement over the phone to where the woman on the phone offered me a {$600.00} a month payment option which I was willing to take but only if I could get my dad to call in and do a financial statement so they could have it on record. I said sure whatever it takes ... after my father calls gives his financial statement they tell him he makes too much and tries to collet the {$1000.00} payment from him. My father WAS doing well the year before however at the beginning of XXXX he got hit with financial issues which he had to disclose with me because of the loan situation, by the way not something I wanted to know. I called Naivient back to let them know I 'm the only person paying for this, why was I lied to about the {$600.00} payment then ended up in a yelling match over the phone where the only thing coming out the operators voice was " your father makes enough money! '' and I do n't yell. A week later I decide to pick up a call from Navient, told the operator everything that happened and even told him I 'm not destroying the relationship with my father over a student loan/my education. The operator agreed and then offered me 3 options ... and we figured out a 4th option. Where were these options before? Why was I XXXX for a month? and how come I 've paid back {$30000.00} plus in interest and never touch the principle? I do n't mind paying my debts but how much money does this company need to make off my education?