Consumer complaint received 2016-04-06
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (KS)

I paid for XXXX school with loans as there were no grants or scholarships available. My school told me when I got the loan that I had to go through Sallie Mae. This turned out to not be true. After graduating, I consolidated my XXXX debt with the grad school loans under Sallie Mae. 
This was where things get shady. I had a loan still in deferment. I made sure to consolidated and lock in the ultra-low interest rate, and was told by Sallie Mae that when the second loan came out of deferment, it would automatically be added on. This was in, I believe, 2006. Several months later, my loan was still not appearing under my account. I called several times ( from XXXX where I was living, no less ) to discuss the issue. I was told at first that it was n't a problem and it would be fixed, etc., still nothing. Finally, on the third call, I was told that I was supposed to resubmit the paperwork to add the second loan, and that doing so would mean that I was past the deadline for the lower interest rate and thus I would no longer qualify for it and must take the higher rate. 

The worker went so far as to inform me that not only was I misinformed, but that I had been intentionally misinformed. She said that several workers had been caught lying to customers so that they would be required to take the higher interest rates, and I had been caught up in the mix. I was also told that it was too late and nothing could be done because the interest rate was federally set, and they did n't have the power to change it back to my previous rate, even though I had been lied to by the company. 

Needless to say I was livid. I tried calling again, tried speaking to a supervisor, but was always told that this was just how things were. My interest rate went up over 1 %, which is a huge amount when you are talking about such a massive ( over $ 60XXXX ) loan. I have been repaying the loan, and for several years I paid XXXX in interest every year, only to see my actual balance go down only a XXXX dollars. To say it was disheartening is an understatement. 
A lesser issue, but XXXX that is also frustrating, is the inability to choose which of the XXXX loans listed on my account the money that I pay goes toward. When possible, I would love to put extra toward the smaller of the XXXX to try to get it paid down first so that the interest I 'm paying would go down, but if I pay, the company decides how to allocate money between the XXXX loans. 

My account has since become run by XXXX, which I had no choice in. I was simply told that they would now have control of my account. I feel that if the company is no longer going to be in control of it, I should at least have a say in where it goes, but such is the current world of student loans, I guess. I was screwed over by a school who misled me, and by a company who outright lied to me for the sake of their bottom line. I have had to pay thousands more than I would have, and I had done everything right. 

I went to the classes on loans. I called the company when I was supposed to. I contacted them multiple times when things were going wrong while living halfway around the world and having to pay international calling fees. None of that mattered to anyone.