Consumer complaint received 02/14/2017 about Student loan (Non-federal student loan) with Navient Solutions, LLC. (IL).
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are handled

Complaint: I have a few issues with Navient, my private loan holder. First, me and my co-signer have contacted them about different options for repayment, as right now and for at least a 2 years majority of my payments are going to the interest, not principal. Customer service never provided alternatives to this extreme imbalance in what my monthly payment is going towards. Secondly, Me and my co-signer were told by representatives of Navient that if we stayed in the program we 've been on and consistently paid on time for one year, we would qualify for co-signer release. After a year of this, and before I submitted the paper work, customer service informed me they would check my credit, take in to consideration my income, expenses, and payment history, and also it would take 30 days then a decision will be made and I 'd be contacted. Before the 30 days was up I called in to ask more questions and I asked if something changed, could I submit additional income information. I was told yes and that the 30 days are n't up. I was told to send it and mark " Additional information. '' Again the representative stressed the 30 days, it would take exactly that and I 'd be notified. At this point it was maybe 10 days left of the 30 and I submitted the additional information exactly as I was instructed by this representative. A few days later my co-signer told me she spoke with someone and they could n't tell her the decision so I called and they said it had been denied and a new inquiry was submitted when I submitted the additional income information, including another credit check. So my credit was hit one time that I agreed to, and then it was hit again when I sent in new information to be considered for the initial co-signer release!! I WAS ANGRY. The person I spoke to told me a decision had already been made when I sent in the new information, yet when I called to ask about sending new information NO ONE TOLD ME THIS OR ANYTHING ABOUT A DECISION BEING MADE ALREADY. I told the new cus. service agent what happened and they could offer NOTHING to help fix or remedy or relieve the situation. 
Lastly, I have contacted Navient customer service about taking classes and I called to find out if I can defer payment while I 'm in school and how many credits I will need to do this. In what seems to be a pattern with Navient, I was told two different things in less than ten minutes, by XXXX different employees. The first person I spoke to asked me what school I 'd be attending and looked up the school code and told me as long as I am XXXX, whatever the school I 'm attending considers part time, I can do an in school deferment. After this conversation I asked to speak to an account representative ( someone who is supposedly higher on the scale than the first customer service agent, someone more knowledgeable about Navient ). I asked this company representative the same questions and this person told me 6 credit hours. I said " what?! '' and told them what the first person told me and they started to stumble over their words and said " oh oh yes part time. '' At this point I 'm staring at the phone in shock and asked " ok which one is it? '' This person went from 6 crhrs to 3 to XXXX and I still do n't know what 's needed for in school deferment and I 'm not even sure if it would be processed correctly. 
Since then I 've felt helpless in this loan repayment with Navient. Their customer service tells you one thing and the next minute someone else who works there will tell you something completely different and they will DO whatever they want. I have tried refinancing with other companies but have not been able to be helped there either.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation