Consumer complaint received 2017-04-28
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. ()

My Student Loans are mostly managed through Navient but also through  XXXX  I live in  XXXX  but am a US citizen. For almost a decade now I have been repaying my  XXXX  student loans and my law school student loans. I have two types complaints the first is general regarding both Navient and  XXXX . The second is specific to Navient.      1 )  The options for repaying student loans from a foreign country are MISERABLE. While I understand that loan repayments must be made in  US d ollars, this leaves me with the option of mailing checks or money orders in  US .  This is not a problem save for the expense of mailing  XXXX  checks to  XXXX  different places ( about {$6.00} extra a month ). My real concern is that these companies continue to tell me they prepare invoices and mail them 20 days before they are due. There is no way to change that except through registering for e-notices. I do not want to go this route but my bills often come days after they are due. I live in  XXXX  outside  XXXX  so it is not like it should take that much longer to reach me.      2 )  Navient : I am sure you get tons of complaints about navient 's services. Their automated telephone receptionist is beyond unhelpful. As i said, I live in  XXXX  so there are always problems with my questions, e.g. payments. I can not reach a live person on the weekends ( i tried 4 times on  XXXX   XXXX  only to be disconnected when i asked to speak with a representative ). I called regarding a loan payment that bounced because of a banking issue. That was corrected and  Navient  told me the payment had gone through on Friday. I wanted to make sure after speaking iwth my bank on  XXXX   XXXX  and could n't reach anyone. I then called on  XXXX   XXXX ,   XXXX   at   XXXX   XXXX   to make sure again that the payment was fine. IT was not and I had a past due amount. When i attempted to make the payment over the phone I was informed they no longer took CC which is insane and the only way I could make payments in the past over the phone as i have no US bank account. They then took my debit card information and told me it went through but that I should check back. Again, that is insane. They charged me interest on the past due despite my efforts to make the payment and ensure things were corrected. Then I was told that they would charge me interest until my loan check arrived by mail if the debit card did not go through. This is unacceptable. I have made considerable efforts to ensure that I pay my loans on time including getting a US $ checking account at my  XXXX  bank. I am responsible for late fees despite getting invoices after they are due and while my check is in the mail to them ( an extra 7 days ) I have no options to make payments directly. Rather than make it easy to make loan payments and keep them current, Navient has reduced my " emergency '' options when a problem rarely occurs. I can not correct the problem and have to rely on smail mail at my cost and with interest while it works its way to Navient.