Consumer complaint received 2016-10-11
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Received bad information about my loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (WA)

A few years ago, I asked to consolidate my XXXX and non-XXXX loans with XXXX XXXX, who was my servicer. I was on interest-only, and I wanted to start paying principle, make a dent. So, for various reasons, this consolidation took somewhere around a year and a half to complete. Now, normally this may be cause to complain, but this is ancillary to my main complaint. 
Because it took so long to complain, the loan officer told me to apply for deferment. I did, but did n't meet the criteria. They then said " since it 's been taking so long, I will put it on an administrative hold and you wo n't accumulate any interest during this time, until we get the consolidation done. '' Now, I 'm somewhat financially savvy, so I knew this was tantamount to XXXX XXXX taking on a small part of the burden of my loan themself. I asked if they were sure. They confirmed it. I called BACK and talked to a different loan office, and they confirmed that while it was on this administrative hold I would n't be collecting interest. I said it looked like the loans were accumulating interest, and they assured me this was just because it had n't been consolidated, and the new loans would be the same as what I went into the administrative hold with. 
So ... of course interest was accumulating the entire time. Of course both the loan officers were wrong Of course I now owe over {$4000.00} more in interest charges that I could 've been repaying, but they told me not to. I owe the interest on this {$4000.00} for the next 25 years as well. 
I do n't think these lies/mistakes/misinformation was given to me maliciously. I think these XXXX officers genuinely believed they were able to defer the loan for me since they had done such a poor job consolidating. But at the end of the day, they have cost me a good deal of money. And I know what I 'm doing. I actively manage my finances and try to do right by my lenders. I have XXXX missed payments on my credit report. XXXX XXXX ( and then Navient, since ths consolidation took so long ) simply failed me. I do n't see how they 're providing a useful service. Why do n't they just lower my interest rate a tiny bit, cut out the middle man, and have me repay directly to the federal government if they can not service loans, if they are so ignorant of what they can and can not do. 
I guess I 'm lucky. I can still pay these loans, even those they 're higher than they would 've been if Navient were competent. However, what about others? i want to know that this will never happen again. Otherwise, what 's to prevent them from misinforming customers to line their, and the governments ', pockets? 
It 's to the point where I 'm considering emptying out my XXXX, bankrupting my retirement, to pay off my student loans. I know I 'll take a 10 % penalty on top of whatever taxes I would owe, but what 's that compared to 5 % interest compounded over 25 years? Literally the only thing stopping me is the fact that in the event of my untimely death, my loans would be cancelled out, while my XXXX would remain. 
This is pretty sad. What I would n't give for the ability to refinance my loans at rates that I can get for anything else, a home, a car, etc. I would save thousands a year. Moreover, I could deal with a competent bank instead of the incompetents at XXXX/Navient.