
How Can You Use the Navient Lawsuit to Get Loan Forgiveness?
I created this Guide to help you figure out what the Navient Lawsuits are all about and to determine whether or not you’ll be able to use them to help eliminate your Navient loans via loan forgiveness or discharge programs like Borrowers Defense to Repayment.
However, since the Lawsuits could drag on in courts for years to come, I’m also going to introduce you to a faster, surer path for getting rid of your loans that you can start on now, using one of the many excellent Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs currently on offer.
No matter what your student loan situation may be, and now matter how the Navient lawsuits are resolved, the good news is that there’s a really good chance you can find a path to getting rid of your Navient loans without paying for them via a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, the Non-Profit Student Loan Forgiveness Program or a Government Employee Student Loan Discharge.
With that said, let’s start by looking at what the Navient lawsuits are all about, then go through your potential options for eliminating your loans!

Why is Navient Being Sued?
In 2019, Navient is facing several massive lawsuits brought against them by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Attorney Generals of Illinois, Washington and Pennsylvania.
In these lawsuits, Navient has been accused of grossly mishandling their Federal student loan servicing and processing duties by doing some wildly illegal things, including:
- Mishandling payments by applying them against borrowers’ best interests (like using them to pay down interest, rather than principal balances of loans)
- Suggesting that struggling borrowers use forebearances to pause monthly payments (which racks up tons of additional debt) instead of better options, like getting on an Income-Driven Repayment Plan
- Intentionally making it difficult for borrowers to understand, apply for and receive an approval for a co-signer release
- Purposefully obscuring the process for re-enrolling and completing annual certifications to remain on Income-Driven Federal Student Loan Repayment Plans
These are serious charges because they basically amount to fraud, threatening Navient’s continued contract for handling Federal Student Loan servicing duties.
But what’s most important here is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked the Federal Courts to force Navient to offer compensation to borrowers who were affected by their shady business practices, which means that you could end up getting money back if the Courts rule against Navient.
I am almost certain that ALL Navient borrowers will see at least some form of loan forgiveness or refund benefit issued this year, so make sure to bookmark this page and check back regularly, because I’ll update it whenever news is announced.
But Before I Explain the Navient Lawsuits in Detail…
While I am expecting significant debt relief to arrive once these Navient lawsuits do get settled, that process could take years, so I don’t recommend sitting around waiting for the benefits to arrive.
If you're truly struggling with student debt, then you should also consider paying a Student Loan Debt Relief Agency for help. Why? Because the people working at these companies deal with student loans all day, every day, and they're your best chance at figuring out how to get your loans back under control.I've interviewed all sorts of debt relief agencies over the past 10 years, talking to all sorts of so-called "experts", and I can tell you that in all honesty I've only found two companies I trust to offer actual financial relief to people struggling with student loans.
For help with FEDERAL Student Loans: Call the Student Loan Relief Helpline at 1-888-906-3065. They will review your case, evaluate your options for switching repayment plans, consolidating your loans, or pursuing forgiveness benefits, then set you up to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible.
For help with PRIVATE Student Loans: Call McCarthy Law PLC at 1-877-317-0455. They will negotiate with your lender to settle your private loans for much less than you owe (typically about 40% your total outstanding balance), then get you a new loan for the much lower, settled amount so you can pay off the old deb, repair your credit and start making much lower monthly payments. NOTE: McCarthy Law can ONLY help with Private student loans, so please do not call them if you only have Federal loans.
If you do decide to call one of these companies and you have a bad experience with either of them, PLEASE make sure to come back and let me know about it in the Comments!

Links to Specific Sections Within This Guide
To help you quickly navigate to the information you need, here’s an outline of the topics that this Guide covers:
- What Caused the Student Loan Debt Crisis?
- What Was Navient’s Role In The Process?
- Who is Suing Navient?
- Why Do These Lawsuits Matter?
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- What are the Specific Allegations of the CFPB’s Lawsuit?
- Does the CFPB Lawsuit Cover Both Federal and Private Loans?
- The Illinois State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- The Washington State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- The Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- New Developments in the Lawsuits
- Will All Navient Loans Be Forgiven? Will All Borrowers Receive Refunds?
- Navient’s Friends in High Places
- President Trump’s Plan for Reforming Student Loans
- Navient Is Not Your Friend
- Should I File a BDAR Discharge Complaint?
- How to File a Successful BDAR Application
- 2019’s Best Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- 2019’s Best Student Loan Discharge Programs
- Loan Forgiveness & Taxable Income Laws
- References

Why Do the Navient Lawsuits Matter?
These lawsuits against Navient matter because they prove that we’re finally headed the right direction on the student loans crisis, with the Federal Government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and several States Attorney Generals all standing up for ordinary Americans and attacking the country’s largest student loan servicing company.
What these lawsuits show is that there’s a sea change occurring across America, and that the tide is turning against the massive corporations who’ve been raping and pillaging ordinary Americans bank accounts for decades. Just so you’re aware of how big this movement has gotten, Navient isn’t the first servicer to get sued, as there are already pending lawsuits against FedLoan, the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, and Aequitas Capital too.
But it’s not just the student loan services under attack, because some of the country’s biggest and most well-known schools have also been getting hammered by complaints and lawsuits as well, with DeVry, Corinthian Colleges, ITT Tech, University of Phoenix, Westwood College, Walden University, Full Sail University, Heald College, WyoTech, Le Cordon Bleu, and Kaplan College all experiencing significant problems continuing on with business as usual, due to all the negative consumer reviews and legal issues they’re facing.
At the end of the day, we should all be celebrating that the student loan crisis is finally getting the attention it deserves, and I want to particularly point out that anyone who still owes money to Navient, or who has already paid off a Navient or Sallie Mae student loan needs to be paying close attention to these lawsuits because they could end up offering you tens of thousands of dollars via loan forgiveness or refund opportunities.
What Caused the Student Loan Debt Crisis in the First Place?
The Student Loan Debt Crisis is the direct result of legal changes that began way back in the 1970’s, when Congress began changing laws to favor student loan lenders over student loan borrowers. Student loan experts aren’t surprised by the current crisis, because they’ve been warning that these legal changes would lead to certain disaster all along.
There are three specific pieces of legislation that spelled certain doom for ordinary Americans buried by student loan debt, including:
- The 1978 Bankruptcy Reform Act – This act was passed to prevent students from being able to file bankruptcy on their student loans within the first years of graduating from school. Passing this law turned student loans into a well-protected product that allowed lenders to be far more lenient about who they gave money to, including people who previously seemed to risky to lend to, because the law protected them from having those borrowers default quickly, and avoid paying back any of the money that they had borrowed.
- The 1990 Update to the Bankruptcy Reform Act – This change to the previous Bankruptcy Reform Act extended the time period banning Federal Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges from 5 years post-graduation to 7 years post-graduation, making borrowers suffer through two additional years of repayment before they were able to attempt to discharge their debt via bankruptcy proceedings. Once again, it helped the student loan lenders and servicing companies at the expense of ordinary Americans.
- The 1998 Higher Education Amendments – President Bill Clinton modified Federal student loan bankruptcy laws once more to extend the no-bankruptcy discharge period indefinitely, meaning that loans could never be discharge via Bankruptcy no longer how long the borrower had been struggling with them, unless they could prove that they were facing an “Undue Hardship” because of the debt, which requires claiming that the loans are literally threatening their ability to cover essential costs (like Food, Housing, Healthcare, etc.) .
The stated purpose for passing these laws was to make it easier for poor people and people with credit problems to borrow money to go to school, which legislators claimed would help them improve their lives since they could now afford to get that college degree, which was supposedly the door to a great job, high income, and the American Dream.
Unlike mortgage loans, car loans and other types of large loans, student loans have never required any collateral, so prior to these changes, lenders were hesitant to give money to people they thought were credit risks, but now that borrowers had no way to wipe out their debt, lenders went hog-wild, approving anyone with a pulse for massive student loans.
Colleges realized that it was so easy for people to borrow huge amounts of money that they could start raising tuition rates as much as they wanted each year, fully understanding that it didn’t even matter how much they charged since everyone had access to essentially unlimited amounts of money via easy student loans.

How Did Navient Make the Student Loan Debt Crisis Worse?
Navient, (“Sallie Mae” at the time) played a major role in exacerbating the student loan crisis after realizing that they could guarantee repayment for their loans by serving as the lender, loan servicer and debt collection agency for any loans that went into default.
By having their hands in all three cookie jars (representing the entire life cycle of a student loan), they were literally certain to make more money off each loan, and especially on the loans that went into default, where they were able to charge much higher interest rates, called “reasonable fees”, ranging between 16-25%, compared to the 5-7% or so they could get from loans still in repayment.
This incentivized Navient to issue loans to riskier borrowers, since the company would stand to make even more money on any loan that went into collection. As a result, anybody and everybody who wanted one was able to take out a massive loan, no matter how bad their credit looked, and pretty much everybody did, which is how Navient became the servicer to more than 12 million customers and over $300,000,000,000 (that’s BILLION) in Federal and Private student loan debt.
The strategy has worked wonders for Navient’s bottom line, Navient’s executives, and their investors, as the company recently announced they had acquired $10,000,000,000 in new student loans in 2017, and reported core earnings for the year at $254,000,000. This is something they accomplished the same year they were slammed with four major, class-action lawsuits, so just imagine how well they could have been doing had nobody been attacking them on the legal front?

Who is Suing Navient?
Fortunately, the tide is turning against Navient, as they’re current facing several massive lawsuits from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and three separate lawsuits from the States Attorney Generals of Illinois, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
Each of these lawsuits accuse Navient of performing highly illegal (not to mention immoral) business practices, with all sorts of allegations in the mix, but basically boiling down to the fact that Navient has not been looking out for its borrowers, and that they’ve been purposefully making the student loan servicing and student loan repayment process as difficult, confusing and expensive as possible.
If you’ve ever dealt with Navient personally, and experienced any of the illegal business practices that the lawsuits accuse them of committing, then the good news is that you’re very likely to be eligible for a complete student loan discharge via the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, which I’ll explain in detail below.
And if you feel bad about pursuing a forgiveness discharge against Navient, because you think maybe you had something to do with your student loan servicing problems, it may be time to reevaluate that opinion, because Navient’s issues are no longer a secret: their poor service record has earned them a -98% rating on their Better Business Bureau page, and a 1/5 rating from Consumer Affairs.
To help you understand exactly what’s at stake here, let’s first look at each of the Navient lawsuits in detail, analyzing what they accuse the company of doing wrong, then we’ll talk about what the potential impact of these lawsuits may be, what the settlements could look like, and finally, how you can take advantage of the accusations against Navient to pursue your very own complete student loan discharge via the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program. If you’re in a hurry, skip to that section of this post by clicking here.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Lawsuit Against Navient
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is leading one of the largest lawsuits filed against Navient (formerly Sallie Mae), which accuses the nation’s largest student loan debt servicer of “systematically and illegally failing borrowers at every stage of repayment.”
The important part of that statement is the “illegally” piece, because it means that anyone who’s been “illegally” treated by the servicer has a good shot at receiving student loan refunds or forgiveness benefits even if the lawsuit isn’t settled in the CFPB’s favor, IF the Department of Education starts allowing Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges against Student Loan Servicing Companies.
Currently, this is not allowed under the existing rules of the system, however, so it’s basically a pipe dream for now. What IS currently possible is using the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program against the school you borrowed money to attend!
Further down in this post I’ll explain exactly what Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment is, how it works, and how you can use it to try and get your loans discharged, but for now, just keep in mind that it’s a potential option if the lawsuit settlements don’t end up offering enough relief for your loans.
What are the Specific Allegations of the CFPB Lawsuit?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn’t attacking Navient for being hard to work with, or for being obstructionist in processing and handling student loans, but for violating some pretty serious laws and operating totally unethically, including doing five things that are downright disgusting:
- Failing to Apply Borrower Payments to Their Accounts
- Strong-arming Borrowers to Pay More Than They Had To
- Hiding Details People Needed to Maintain Lower Payments
- Lying to Private Borrowers About Requirements to Release Co-Signers
- Ruining the Credit Scores of Disabled Borrowers, Including Veterans
But that’s not all, because the CFPB has also accused Navient of taking shortcuts when handling situations for their borrowers, failing to operate in the borrower’s best interest by refusing to help people enrol in the Income-Based Repayment Programs that offer eventual Loan Forgiveness, and instead pushing them to sign up for Forbearance and Deferment programs which are faster for Navient to configure, but which cost borrowers more money over the life of their loans by racking up addition costs due to interest accumulation.
And Navient doesn’t even sound ashamed of this behavior, as their response to the allegations was that that they were doing this stuff strategically since they weren’t being paid enough to spend the required amount of time needed to provide the proper service to their borrowers. Seriously guys?
I guess in Navient’s eyes, it was better for business to keep borrowers trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt, using those Forbearances and Deferments to accumulate interest and inflate the amount of money that borrowers owed to them, instead of getting them signed up for the proper income-based repayment plans they wanted, and which would let them discharge their loans entirely once they’d hit certain requirements.
The good news about this whole thing is that these allegations will open Navient up to being attacked via the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment program once the rules are changed and BDAR works against student loan servicers.
When will that happen? It may never, but if the Democrats retake the Presidency and install student loan-friendly personnel at the Department of Education, then we’d have a really good chance of it getting approved. Especially if Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders are involved.
In the meantime, you’ll want to look at utilizing the BDAR program to file a claim against your school, instead of Navient, since it offers complete student loan forgiveness benefits to people who’ve been wronged by their school, and those approvals are being handed out presently.
If you’ve ever had an experience with Navient where it’s clear that they advised you to do something against your own best interests, then you should document it, keep that stored somewhere, and wait to see if DOE starts letting us file BDAR Discharges against Servicing Companies, but for now, you want to look into filing against your school instead.

Does The CFPB Lawsuit Cover Both Federal And Private Loans?
Yes, and that’s the best part of the CFPB’s lawsuit against Navient; this lawsuit will help everybody dealing with Navient, whether you’ve got Federal or Private debt.
The most important specific complaint from the CFPB lawsuit against Navient accuses them of “creat[ing] obstacles to repayment by providing bad information, processing payments incorrectly, and failing to act when borrowers complained”, and this applies to both their Federal and Private processing services, so unlike most other forms of loan forgiveness, those of you with Private loans are in luck here.
Navient is further accused of having “illegally cheat[ing] many struggling borrowers out of their rights to lower repayments, which caused them to pay much more than they had to for their loans”, and again, if you’ve experienced this personally, it means you’ve got a great chance at getting approval for that Borrower’s Defense Discharge, once we’re allowed to use them against Servicing Companies, so make sure to start putting together materials required for submitting an application.
On the bright side, the CFPB isn’t just attacking Navient for the sake of ruining their business and smearing their good name, but they’ve literally stated that they plan on recovering “significant relief for the borrowers harmed by these illegal servicing failures”, which means that even if you can’t get approved for one of those BDAR Discharges I keep talking about, you’ve probably still got a good chance of having some money thrown your way in the near future when the settlement is reached.
The Illinois State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
On January 18th, 2017, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against Navient, as well as its subsidiary companies Navient Solutions Inc., Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc. and General Revenue Corporation and Sallie Mae Bank, accusing them of “mistreating student loan borrowers from start to finish – from originating student loans, to servicing those loans, to collecting on defaulted student loans.”
This wouldn’t be that big a deal if Navient didn’t have guaranteed Government contracts, subsidized by taxpayer dollars, but for a company that’s getting a free hand-out, we should hold them to a higher standard, and I personally applaud Attorney General Madigan for standing up against Navient, because you can bet that this lawsuit will put her own political career at serious risk.
Attorney General Madigan’s lawsuit seeks “relief for students who may have been impacted by the companies’ misconduct”, which means that she’s pushing for a monetary settlement that’s likely to include huge penalties from Navient, probably in the form of loan forgiveness benefits or refunds.
In her own words, the lawsuit “asks the court to provide restitution to all borrowers affected by Navient’s unlawful practices disgorge unlawfully gained profits, impose civil penalties, and rescind or reform all contracts or loan agreements between Navient and any Illinois consumers affected by the company’s unlawful practices”.
In short, Attorney General Madigan appears to be pushing for COMPLETE loan forgiveness for all Illinois residents, and if she’s successful here, then she would be setting an amazing precedent for borrowers across the country to pursue their own access to total student loan forgiveness benefits, so even if you don’t live in Illinois, you’ll want to follow this lawsuit closely.

Specific Allegations of the Illinois State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
In her complaints against Navient, Attorney General Madigan has attacked the way the company handles all of its services across the entire student loan spectrum, from lending to servicing and debt collection procedures on defaulted loans, stating that “Navient’s practices harmed borrowers and put the company’s profits before the interests of millions of student borrowers across the country.”
The suit’s complaint states that Navient “put student borrowers into expensive subprime loans that it knew were going to fail… leadding to student borrowers needlessly carrying billions of dollars in debt”.
Those are significant claims from a very high-powered Government official with all sorts of resources to prosecute Navient, so just like the CFPB lawsuit, this is a huge deal that you should definitely be following if you owe any money to Navient.
The Illinois Lawsuit Complaints About Navient’s Lending Practices
In terms of Navient’s loan original business, Attorney General Madigan “alleges Sallie Mae began peddling risky and expensive ‘designed to fail’ subprime loans to student loan borrowers across the country [which] carried very high interest rates and fees, and, not surprisingly, were mostly given to students at the worst schools – poorly accredited for-profits”.
The lawsuit further alleges that Sallie Mae “increased its unfair and deceptive subprime lending while disregarding evidence that these loans would likely default at extraordinarily high rates”, similar to the way that the subprime mortgage lenders behaved during their role in creating the country’s mortgage crisis leading into the 2008 real estate collapse.
And that’s an important point, because as I’ve regularly attested to here on my site, the student loan debt crisis is at least as big a problem to our economy as the mortgage crisis was, especially considering that student loans have outpaced credit card debt as the single largest form of debt owned by Americans, meaning that this ticking time bomb is a serious threat not only to our economy, but also our national security.
The Illinois Lawsuit Complaints About Navient’s Servicing Processes
In terms of Navient’s loan servicing process, the lawsuit alleges that Navient “failed to perform its core duties… fail[ing]to assist borrowers… struggling with their federal student loans… steer[ing] them into successive forbearances that increased the overall cost of their loans instead of telling borrowers about federal income-based repayment plans”, and also failing to advise borrowers who did finally obtain repayment plans that they needed to provide certain information in order to remain enrolled each year, which led to “costly and unaffordable increases to their payments”.
In her own words, Attorney General Madigan states that “My investigation found that Navient failed to perform core loan servicing duties properly on both federal student loans and private loans”, which means that her lawsuit could lead to assistance for both types of borrowers, “repeatedly fail[ing] to tell borrowers about affordable repayment plans that were available to them.”
The lawsuit also accuses Navient’s servicing personnel of improperly allocating monthly payments, which is a huge deal because that led to increased penalties, fines and fees, as well as “unfairly and deceptively promoting cosigner release broadly to its borrowers when in fact very few cosigners actually qualified” for the benefit, which sounds like false advertising to me.
The Illinois Lawsuit Complaints About Navient’s Debt Collection Operations
Finally, the Illinois lawsuit also attacks Navient’s debt collection companies, which it accuses of engaging in “deceptive collection practices”, including “allegedly repeatedly misleading borrowers about their options to get their federal loans current through the federal student loan rehabilitation program”.
That’s a huge problem, because the Federal Student Loan Rehabilitation Program was created to help borrowers who have fallen behind on payments, but who are willing to get caught back up, removing their loans from default, and getting back into repayment status.
It’s one of the best and most important Federal benefits packages, since it’s basically like a “Get out of Jail Free” card for anyone who has a one-time problem with their student loans, because of issues like unemployment, injuries or other unexpected financial disasters, so it’s atrocious that Navient was taking advantage of the complexities of the program to keep their borrowers stuck in default.
But apparently that’s not all they did in terms of illegal collections activities, because Attorney General Madigan lawsuit also accuses them of “misrepresenting the eligibility requirements for disabled student loan borrowers to have their federal loan debt forgiven entirely” which I’m guessing means that Navient’s collections personnel lied about the rules of the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge Program.
And that’s probably the worst complaint against Navient in the entire series of lawsuits brought against them (thus far), because the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge Program was created to allow anyone who is completely and permanently disabled – meaning they could never earn an income again – to get rid of their loans without paying for them. My opinion? Taking advantage of people who are totally and permanently disabled isn’t just wrong, it’s downright evil.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson launched a lawsuit against Navient Corporation, an offshoot of Sallie Mae, on January 18th, 2017, alleging that the company committed “multiple deceptive student loan lending, servicing and debt collection practices”, with similar complaints to those found in the CFPB lawsuit and Illinois State Attorney General’s Lawsuit outlined above.
The result of a several years-long investigation in conjunction with the CFPB and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the Washington AG lawsuit accuses Navient of “improperly steering financially distressed students toward short-term forbearances, engaging in aggressive and misleading collection tactics and more”.
Specifics include accusations that Navient, operating as Sallie Mae, did all sorts of terrible things when determining who they’d lend money to, and how they’d approach that process, essentially strategizing to milk as much as they could from the federal student loan system as possible, which in my opinion, sounds like they’re being accused of stealing taxpayer dollars.

The Washington Lawsuit Complaints About Navient’s Lending, Servicing & Debt Collection Processes
In the words of the official complaint, the lawsuit accuses Navient of making “subprime, predatory loans to students attending for-profit colleges with graduation rates lower than 50 percent, despite clear expectations that an extremely high percentage of students would not be able to repay them… as part of “preferred lending” programs with schools in order to gain access to highly profitable federally-guaranteed loan volume and “prime” private student loan borrowers”.
Like the CFPB lawsuit and the Illinois lawsuit, the Washington lawsuit also accuses Navient’s servicing practices of “steering financial distressed federal loan borrowers into short-term forbearances, rather than assisting borrowers in applying for income-driven repayment programs where appropriate”, which again means that Navient was actively avoiding helping people out, hiding benefits from them, and using expensive forbearance programs to drive up their revenue.
Again, Navient is also accused of failing to “adequately inform those borrowers who did choose income-driven repayment programs of their yearly obligation o re-certify their income and family size”, instead sending those borrowers emails saying “only that that there was a document waiting for them and to log in to Navient’s website to learn more”, which borrowers ignored, resulting in being kicked out of their income-driven repayment plans, resulting in “significant monthly payment hikes”.
As a further failure of Navient’s role in servicing, this lawsuit also accuses them of “misapplying borrower payments and failing to follow borrower instructions concerning how excess payments should be allocated, causing borrowers to receive unnecessary collection calls, and requiring them to spend time correcting Navient’s mistakes.”
The final complaint about Navient’s servicing practices was the now familiar refrain that they “deceptively promoted a ‘co-singer release’ feature of private loans to entice family and friends to co-sign loans”, marketing these loans as allowing the co-signer to apply for release as soon as the borrower had demonstrated their ability to pay the debt, but in practice, “putting up arbitrary barriers and failing to disclose that very few borrowers ever achieve co-signer release”.
Finally, on the debt collection front, the lawsuit said that Navient attempted to “collect more than the amount necessary to cure the delinquency” from borrowers who had fallen behind in payments, asking for “the next month’s payment as well” in addition to the one that was actually due, referring to both the delinquent amount and the next month’s payment as the “Present Amount Due”, which is deceptive, and led borrowers to significantly overpay, or remain in delinquency when they could have gotten back into repayment had they known the actual amount required.
Like the Illinois lawsuit, the Washington Attorney General’s Lawsuit against Navient also asks the court to order the company to “stop these deceptive practices, and reform its loan servicing and collection practices”, but it doesn’t specifically call for “restitution” or any other sort of financial compensation from what I can tell, so I don’t think this lawsuit is as likely to lead to forgiveness benefits or refunds.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
On October 5th, 2017, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that he too was suing Navient, and again, for “widespread abuses” regarding the way they’d been handling their student loan administration duties.
This lawsuit could impact anyone living in Pennsylvania, including both Federal and Private borrowers, but especially those who’ve run into trouble with the way that Navient handled servicing or collecting their debt.
The Pennsylvania AG’s lawsuit against Navient makes 3 specific claims about Navient’s abuses, including:
- Navient offered predatory loans to students attending schools with graduation rates under 0%, despite clearly expecting that a high percentage of their borrowers would not be able to repay those loans, and would end up collections
- Navient disregarded evidence that the loans were likely to default at significant rates, and actually increased their subprime lending even after being warned about it, using subprime loans as a “baited hook” to convince some of the country’s biggest schools to turn them into a “preferred lender”, which allowed them to increase the volume of their loans, and the profitability of their loans (both federal and prime private loans)
- Navient steered borrowers into short-term loan forbearances and away from the better income-driven repayment plans that would have helped borrowers avoid interest accumulation, increasing the amount of money that Navient would collect ont heir loans, at the expense of the borrowers financial health, racking up $4,000,000,000 (BILLION) in interest charges using this deceptive, misleading practice
This lawsuit is quite clear in what it seeks to accomplish, and like the Illinois suit, and unlike the Pennsyvania suit, AG Josh Shapiro is looking for financial recompense for his borrowers, clearly asking the court to offer:
- Complete restitution to all borrowers impacted by Navient’s illegal lending, servicing and collections practices
- Disgorgement by Navient for all profits gained illegally
- Forcing Navient to stop collecting on any illegal loans that were issued, and to delete all negative credit details from any consumers impacted by their unlawful practices
- Rescission or reformation of all contracts and loan agreements between Navient and people living in Pennslyvania who were impacted by the illegal behavior
- Civil penalties, to be determined by the court
Navient has grown more and more brash over the course of these lawsuits being announced, however, and called the Pennsylvania AG’s lawsuit a “pointless, copycat lawsuit”, claiming that this suit is “legally deficient”, and that it will “unnecessarily burden the courts and parties, and would risk generating inconsistent rulings across the country.”
Instead of saying that they didn’t commit any of the illegal behavior they’re accused of in this lawsuit, they responded that it was “essentially cut and pasted from the FPB’s long ago filed complaint”.
I’m tracking this lawsuit, just like the others, and will continually update this page whenever any news is announced, so again, be sure to check back regularly for updates.

Will All Navient Loans Be Forgiven? Will All Borrowers Receive Refunds?
While I don’t think that all Navient’s loans are going to get forgiven completely, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see at least some form of restitution offered to 100% of Navient’s customers, including specific offerings for people at each step of the lending process.
I think we’re going to see some kind of forgiveness or refunds provided to Navient’s borrowers, servicing customers and collections targets, and I think the amounts will vary by state, and based on what those borrowers experienced in their dealings with Navient.
Basically, the more Navient screwed you over, the more money you should anticipate getting as a result of the lawsuits, so for those of you who never really experienced anything illegal, I wouldn’t expect to receive much, but for those of you who had your loans placed into forbearance even after asking about income-driven repayment plans, who had payments misallocated, or who lost money as a result of any of the other illegal practices outlined above, I think you’re going to receive significant compensation in the settlements of these suits.
New Developments in the Lawsuits
A story from ABC News details how one of their weather men signed up for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program to get forgiveness on his Navient loan, made the required 120 monthly payments, then was told when he applied for the forgiveness benefit that he had the wrong type of loan, after Navient had been telling him all along that he’d qualify for the program!
A story from Bloomberg has shed additional light on the contentious relationship between Navient and the CFPB, and it looks like Navient is attempting to weasel its way out of owning up to the abuses they’ve carried out by saying that their job isn’t to help debtors, but to collect as much money as possible for the U.S. Department of Education.
And while this is technically true, it’s turning into a public relations disaster for Navient, especially since the CFPB has been accusing them of all sorts of additional offenses, and more details are emerging about the specifics of their systematic abuse.
In my opinion, it’s not even what they’ve done that makes me the most upset, but it’s the attitude with which they’re treating the situation, attempting to dismiss it entirely and walk away scott-free, using arguments like “We’re not being paid enough for that”, “Doing the right thing takes too much time”, or “We’re just here to collect”.
I find it highly unlikely that the Federal Government will be able to continue to allow Navient to serve as their largest student loan servicer, and my expectation is that the company will be broken up at some point in the near future, or have their loan servicing contracts removed or at least reduced.

Unfortunately, Navient Has Friends in High Places
Navient is receiving help from some people in pretty high places, like our terrible Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who announced she was severing all ties between the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which means that the CFPB won’t have access to any new data from DOE, which will prevent them from being able to conduct investigations like the one they did against Navient, and which spurred all these lawsuits on in the first place.
Does it really matter though? We all know Betsy DeVos is nothing more than a stooge for the student loan lenders, the student loan servicing companies, and the terrible for profit colleges, so I don’t think anyone with any integrity will take her opinion on these matters seriously, and since the cat has long been out of the bag on Navient, I don’t think CFPB needs any more data than they’ve already collected against Navient itself.
My opinion is that DeVos is only further disgracing herself (and President Trump via association), with her terribly obvious corrupt moves to try and destroy all credibility of the Education Department, attacking student loan borrowers by doing things like trying to kill the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, attempting to pause the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, and now shutting the CFPB off from DOE data.
I’m still confident that the courts are going to rule in favor of ordinary Americans, especially after it’s been made so plainly obvious that Navient is not attempting to help borrowers earn the forgiveness benefits they deserve, instead trying to obscure any forms of financial assistance from their customers and literally doing anything they could to prevent borrowers from understanding how to reduce the costs of their loans.
I think Navient is in big trouble, and I’m still quite prepared to call these lawsuits in favor of the little guy, no matter what dirty tricks Secretary DeVos has up her sleeve.
President Trump & His Plan for Student Debt
Making things worse is President Trump, who has announced official plans to restructure the Federal student loan and student loan forgiveness system, in ways that I can only say wouldn’t be in the interest of most borrowers.
President Trump’s Plan for Student Loans include three major changes, each of which aren’t going to help anybody other than his friends at the big servicing companies or the for-profit schools (the same people Betsy DeVos is constantly sucking up to), including:
- Reforming the Federal Income-Driven Repayment Plans
- Eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
- Eliminating 100% of Subsidized Student Loans
All three of these decisions are going to make things worse for many borrowers, and if you’d like the details on exactly how this is all supposed to play out, please visit my page on President Trump’s Student Loan Debt Reform Plans here.

Navient Is Not Your Friend
Even borrowers who should have qualified for financial relief programs like Economic Hardship Deferments, monthly student loan payments set at $0 because of insanely low incomes, and other significant money-saving solutions were actively denied the right to take advantage of those programs by Navient, and forced to repay far more debt than they actually owed.
Fortunately, CFPB has finally gathered enough evidence of Navient’s systematic disregard for current student loan laws and proper business practices that their lawsuit has a great chance of writing all the wrongs Navient has committed, and helping those of us who still owe Navient money get out of debt for good.
Not only is Navient accused of providing “bad information” over the phone, but they’ve also been said to have sent out blatantly incorrect information in writing (purposefully?), totally screwed up handling their payment processing duties, and generally making it much harder for borrowers to qualify to pay for any of the excellent Income-Driven Student Loan Repayment plans that would have saved them tons of money each month.
So remember, even if you’re the “turn the other cheek” type of person, Navient is not your friend, and you shouldn’t feel bad about pursuing a Borrower’s Defense Discharge against them. This company is accused of committing all sorts of highly illegal and immoral activities against its borrowers, and it deserves to be punished if these allegations are proven true in court.
Navient doesn’t deserve your trust, friendship, or continued business, and you shouldn’t hesitate to attempt to get their student loans forgiven now, because there’s never been a better time to pursue a Borrower’s Defense Discharge.
How to File a Borrower’s Defense Discharge Complaint
Since DOE isn’t allowing us to file BDAR Discharge Applications against student loan servicing companies, you can’t place a complaint against Navient, but you can attack the school you attended and attempt to get Navient to forgiven the loan anyway.
The thing about this is that you’re going to have to put together a compelling case that accuses the school of having done something illegal against you, either via violating a State or Federal law, or committing some form of fraud.
I’ve outlined exactly what this process looks like, and the sorts of examples you’ll need to come up with, on my Guide to the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, so please give that a read when thinking about how to structure your claim.
The other thing to do is to file a complaint against your school, hoping it will stick, but to also start preparing to file a claim against Navient themselves, in the chance that Betsy DeVos gets replaced and student loan laws are reformed, which is likely to happen if the Democrats retake the Presidency in 2020, or beyond.
Now that there is so much public record of all the illegal practices Navient used to suppress student loan borrowers knowledge about how to reduce the costs of their debt, and there’s so many different things that Navient has been accused of doing that were both immoral, but also highly illegal, there’s literally never been a better time to write up a Borrower’s Defense Complaint against the company.
While you won’t be able to submit it yet, since there’s no current process for submitting against Servicing Companies, I think it’s worth spending the time to put together since we will likely eventually see this offered by the Department of Education. It’s even possible that the resolution of the Navient lawsuits will force Betsy DeVos’s hand, and require the Department of Education to start accepting BDAR Discharges against them.
What you’ll need to do to get your application approved is to make sure that you point to some specific illegal behaviors that Navient committed against you, so you need to think back about all of your interactions with the company and see if you can remember any times that they did something blatantly illegal which harmed your ability to understand or leverage the benefits that you were legally entitled to.

How to Increase the Chances that Your BDAR Discharge Gets Approved
If we get to the point that BDAR Claims can be filed against Navient, then you’ll want to pay close attention to my advice here, because it’ll determine whether or not your claim is approved.
Read through the lawsuit allegations listed above in this post and think about whether or not you directly, personally experienced any of the same things that the CFPB or the State Attorney Generals from Illinois, Washington and Pennsylvania have accused Navient of doing to their borrowers, then list those as the reasons why your debt should be discharged when filling out your Borrower’s Defense Application.
But keep one thing in mind – DO NOT LIE OR EXAGGERATE ANY CLAIMS in your Borrower’s Defense Complaint, because this is a legal document, and if you abuse it, you could open your own self up to counter suits, fines, fees, penalties, etc. Also, don’t ruin a good thing that people who have seriously been harmed deserve to have access to.
If you didn’t experience illegal behavior by Navient, don’t accuse them of having done anything, and don’t pursue a BDAR Discharge, but instead look through the other pages of my site and see if you can take advantage of some of the other forms of loan forgiveness, discharges, or financial assistance programs currently on offer, as there’s plenty of assistance to go around these days.
2019’s Best Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
There are literally tons of ways to get help with students loans these days, especially for people who need Help With Federal Student Loans, but keep in mind that there’s also more Help for Private Student Loans available now than ever before, so no matter how you owe the money, you’re almost sure to find some program that can get you assistance.
Some of the most powerful financial assistance programs on offer this year are those offering forgiveness based on your income, employment, or other similar eligibility conditions, with most of these providing benefits to people working in certain high-need sectors.
Basically anyone with Federal loans will qualify for some form of Federal Student Loan Forgiveness at some point in the repayment process, so I highly recommend that you investigate the other pages of my site covering Federal Forgiveness Programs in detail, including:
- Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs Overview
- President Obama’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- The Pay As You Earn Student Loan Repayment Program
- The REPAYE Student Loan Repayment Program
- President Trump’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
- Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Doctors & Dentists Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- The Non-Profit Employee Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- Military Personnel Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Teacher Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Government Employee Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- State-Based Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
But people with Private loans aren’t getting left in the dust like they used to either, as there are now more Private Student Loan Forgiveness Programs available than ever before too!
You’re almost certain to qualify for at least one, if not more, of the excellent forgiveness programs listed above, so even if you can’t get your Navient loans forgiven as a result of these lawsuits or a BDAR discharge, you shouldn’t give up – you’ll just need to conduct a little bit more research before figuring out what exactly you need to do to wipe out that debt.

2019’s Best Student Loan Discharge Programs
Assuming you meet the worst case scenario and can’t qualify for any of the forgiveness programs listed above, you’re still not out of luck, because there are also plenty of Student Loan Discharge Programs currently available, including some excellent options for those with Federal loans, like:
- The Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program
- Federal Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges
- The Closed School Student Loan Discharge Program
And don’t forget that Borrower’s Defense can be used to attack any school! If you need help getting loan relief from one of the big for-profits, I’ve got you covered. Check out my guides to getting Borrower’s Defense Discharges from For-Profit Schools, linked below:
- The DeVry Student Loan Discharge Program
- The ITT Tech Student Loan Discharge Program
- The University of Phoenix Discharge Program
- The Westwood College Discharge Program
- The Walden College Loan Discharge Program
- The Art Institutes Discharge Program
- The Full Sail University Discharge Program
- The Corinthian Colleges Discharge Program
- The Heald College Discharge Program
- The Wyotech Discharge Program
- The Le Cordon Bleu Discharge Program
- The Kaplan University Discharge Program
And if you happen to have loans serviced by someone other than Navient, you may have a shot at going after them for the same sorts of illegal behavior that Navient has been accused of, as many of the largest student loan servicing companies across the country have been hit with similar lawsuits of their own, including:
- The FedLoan Discharge Program
- The National Collegiate Trust Discharge Program
- The Aequitas Capital Discharge Program

Loan Forgiveness & Taxable Income Laws
One thing to keep in mind is that if you do receive any form of Student Loan Debt Forgiveness benefit, you’re going to need to make sure that you understand whether or not it’ll come with any tax liabilities attached, because most of the time, the IRS is going to require that you claim the amount of money forgiven as taxable income in your IRS return.
It sounds insane (trust me, I know), but the IRS requires you to declare any loan forgiveness benefits you receive as “taxable income” during the year you receive them, which means that you’ll end up owing taxes on whatever amount of debt you get forgiven, and you’ll have to pay the same tax rate on the forgiven debt that you’d pay for regular income.
Don’t neglect this important part of the forgiveness process, because taxable income laws are a big deal. As an example, if you pay something like 20-30% in income taxes, and you had $10,000 in debt forgiven, you’d owe $2,000 – $3,000 to the IRS at the end of the year, and you’d be forced to make that payment in a lump-sum, one-time amount, rather than stretched out over a period of many years (like you get to do with student loans).
To find out exactly how it all works, visit my page about Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits and Taxable Income Laws.
Don’t Get Devastated by the Taxable Income Trap
For people with huge debt loads, like $100,000 or more, this can end up getting them into way bigger trouble than simply having to make monthly student loan payments, because they could find themselves with a tax bill of something like $20,000 – $30,000, again, due all at once! Who has that kind of money laying around?
Because of all the forgiveness benefits coming due in the near future, through programs like Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits, Military Loan Forgiveness Programs, Non-Profit Forgiveness and Government Employee Forgiveness, I’m certain that we’re going to see all sorts of people in all sorts of trouble with the IRS.
And that’s exactly why I created a new website, called Forget Tax Debt, where I go through the same kinds of information I do here at Forget Student Loan Debt, but offering the same type of advice for dealing with back taxes and IRS debt instead.
If you are worried about facing tax problems, or if you’ve already got some, please visit Forget Tax Debt to find out how to do things like Apply for the IRS Fresh Start Program, Hire a Reliable Tax Resolution Company, or Settle Your Debt with the IRS.

Check Back in Regularly for Updates
Whenever more details about these lawsuits, the eventual settlements or the actual benefits getting sent back to consumers are announced, I will be sure to update this page.
For your part, if you spot anything that I haven’t yet covered which is mentioned elsewhere (on any media source, including websites and forums), then please let me know what I’ve missed so I can add it here.
Again, if you have other questions that haven’t already been answered here, or if you have any updates or news that hasn’t been included in this story, please feel free to share them in the Comments section below.
References
- The CFPB Lawsuit Against Navient
- The Illinois Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- The Washington Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Navient
- Other Resources
- https://consumerist.com/2015/03/17/you-cant-discharge-your-student-loans-in-bankruptcy-because-of-panicked-1970s-legislation/
- http://www.finaid.org/loans/historicalrates.phtml
- https://www.navient.com/about/investors/stockholderinfo/earningsinfo/default.aspx
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navient_Corporation
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/01/20/navient/#72320c196c39
- https://www.nasdaq.com/article/navient-lawsuits-what-student-loan-borrowers-need-to-know-cm855944
Disclaimer:Information obtained from Forget Student Loan Debt is for educational purposes only. You should consult a licensed financial professional before making any financial decisions. This site receives some compensation through affiliate relationships. This site is not endorsed or affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education.
So i keep seeing this and actually got a call regarding this today.
What are we supposed to do, how do we become a part of this and make sure we are qualified for any potential refunds.
I graduated in 06 and fully repaid my loans by 17. I went into forbearance multiple times and all the interest got added to principle.
So what are my next steps? that is what I can’t find anywhere.
Hi Jonathan,
I’m a little skeptical of anyone who’s calling around trying to get class action participants – that could be a scammer trying to trick you into providing personal information. Be very, very careful about what you provide.
Refunds probably aren’t going to happen, to be perfectly honest, so I would not worry about it much. Keep watch of the court cases and proceedings and see if you can find a class action to join, if it’s legit.
Hi Tim,
Thank you for the helpful information. I borrowed 58k for my bachelors and master’s degree in total and now owe close to 200k due to interest at 8.25%. My loans are still in forbearance because despite having 5 dependents at the time, I was told that I didn’t qualify for any type of income based repayment through Navient- they actually increased my monthly payment. My interest is at 8.25%. I have suffered so many abuses from Navient along the way and I am a resident of PA. I tried to work through a Congressman’s office a couple years ago and they contacted Navient with no helpful response. Any advice for me?
Hi Jennifer,
Are you trying to get your loans forgiven or what? What’s the objective here?
Are the loans all Federal, or do you have Private debt too?
Abuses from Navient, unfortunately, won’t do much for you, because BDAR discharges are all about the SCHOOL’S behavior, not the servicing company.
My student loan used to be with Navient and are now with Great Lakes student loans. I tried to obtain my loan information from them but can’t get an information. Most of the interest on my loan grew as a result of them suggesting forbearance/deferment when I would call in. I never was provided alternatives. Can you assist? Thank you!
Hi Dheena,
I can’t really assist, and unfortunately, you’re kind of stuck at this point. BDAR Discharges are not being offered for servicing issues at this point, so the only option is to hire an attorney and try to sue them to get the loan discharged, or wait for the Democrats to retake the White House and restore sanity to the Department of Education (may not happen any time soon…).
Is your loan Federal or Private? If it’s Private, call McCarthy Law, because they should be able to help. You can reach them at 1-877-317-0455
I didn’t get anything in the mail, what do I do to become part of this class action? I have Navient loans totaling 25k, it used to be 35K+. I was thinking about paying off some of the smaller ones, but am not sure if that’s a good idea with this lawsuit going on.
Haines,
There isn’t anything you can do to become part of the class action. At least nothing that I’m aware of. I would pursue a BDAR request of your own.
Hi Tim, Thanks for all the information. Do you know anything about the loan forgiveness for people who’ve had to declare bankruptcy. I head about it a few years ago but no updates lately. Thanks,
Carol
Hi Carol,
I’ve got full Guides on Student Loan Bankruptcy – here’s my Guide on Federal Bankruptcy Discharges, and here’s my Guide on Private Bankruptcy Discharges.
The short answer is, it’s still really, really difficult to get a discharge based on bankruptcy.
I’m not aware of any major program that exists to offer loan forgiveness for people who have had to declare bankruptcy, and even though there are certainly widespread discussions in the Media and even from some members of Congress around the topic, the odds of seeing bankruptcy come back as a viable way to eliminate student debt are quite low.
Hello Tim Marshall. Thank You for the important information you have created. First my wife has had her wages garnished due to her student loans. She hasn’t paid as she didn’t know who to trust as there were several calling her and requesting to negotiate her student loans. Agencies were general revenue corp, Navient ascendium, even the irs. She didn’t know who to trust and didn’t reply because of it. After reading your posting more than once and discussing it with my wife, she has situations same as the borrowers in the Navient suits! Especially now as she just received a week ago from Navient approving her for forbearance on her student loans. My question to you is how do we get connected to someone who can help us? We are located in Hawaii so would you direct me to the people that can help us please? It very appreciated.
Hi Hanalei,
It sounds like you guys are a little lost in trying to figure out what to do. If you need help dealing with your loans, then I have two groups I refer people to, based on the type of loan they have (Federal vs. Private).
For Federal Loans – I suggest using the Student Loan Relief Helpline, who review your case to look at opportunities for relief, forgiveness, discharge, consolidation and refinancing opportunities, and who you can reach by calling: 1-888-906-3065
For Private Loans – I suggest speaking with McCarthy Law PLC, a group of attorneys who are settle private student debt for pennies on the dollar, and who will get you a new loan at the settled lower amount. You can reach them by calling 1-877-317-0455
These are the only companies I suggest speaking with if you’re going to pay someone for help. There are LOTS of scams floating around out there, so you have to be very, very careful about who you agree to pay for assistance.
Ok. So I did contact student loan relief helpline and it has a recorded message about pursuing Navient by suing should contact DOE?
Am I putting aside the Navient suit for now & have them just help us on getting our loans in a better situation?
Yes, the Helpline can’t do anything for you if all you’re trying to do is sue Navient. That’s an unrealistic approach to dealing with student loans though, and people wanting to do that have been flooding the Helpline and wasting their time, so they basically try to divert anyone looking to do that elsewhere.
You could still try contacting DOE for help with Navient, as they MAY be able to assist, but it’s a real long-shot. I’ve heard of very few people getting any actual assistance by complaining about Navient. There are massive lawsuits against the company right now that are still being worked on, and those MIGHT bring relief when they’re done, but it could take years to finish.
I would definitely see if the Helpline can do anything to get your loans squared away. It sounds like you want to deal with the debt, and I have a feeling this will be your best option.
Yes I do! Especially getting the garnished of wages stopped. I will contact them today and let them help us out. Thank You
I had one more question to ask. If the documents submitted by Navient claiming I am responsible for the student loans and the information to my wife’s identity isn’t exactly my wife’s personal information? What can we do? Our options?
My wife’s name is misspelled and it doesn’t match her personal identification information. Just checking another negative claim against Navient to see if we have a claim to discharge
Hi Hanalei,
That MIGHT open you up to some kind of legal case against them, in that the loan may not be valid. In this case, I’d try contacting an attorney, probably one who specializes in Contracts? I would definitely get that reviewed, because it may make it far easier to get rid of the debt than having to pursue a discharge via the official student loan-related programs!
Hi I had my loan with navient and they were charging me ridiculous amounts in interest so my parents took a private loan that I am paying a very large quantity. Then today the department of education called me.And.Told.Me.That I qualified for the student loan forgiveness. When I called navient they told me.That the could.Not do anything because i paid the debt with them. But of course i pid them. They were.Damaging my credit. What can I do?
Hi Jennifer,
Did you apply for forgiveness? The Department of Education doesn’t randomly call people to tell them that they are qualified for forgiveness. This sounds like it could have been some kind of a scammer trying to get money from you. If you already paid your debt off at Navient, then it’s gone and you won’t be able to do anything regarding forgiveness, discharges, refunds, etc.
Hi Tim,
Your site is a great find, thank you for the time you have put into this cause! I just had my Chapter 13 Bankruptcy discharged, and my student loans are back. After 4 years in the Bankruptcy, my student loans went from $9,683 to $13,695 as $4011 in interest was just capitalized. My husbands $52,524 went to $65,294, capitalizing $12,769 in interest. So in this 4 year period we increased our student loan debt by $18,000!! Need advice where to start.
Thank you!
Ashley
Hi Ashley,
Are these Private or Federal loans? If they’re Federal, you’re going to need to start finding a way to qualify for Forgiveness. Look at my page on Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs for details there. Your best bet would be trying to get Government jobs that allow you guys to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and then use an Income-Driven Repayment Plan to reduce your monthly payments as you work toward earning the forgiveness benefit.
If your loans are Private, it’s time to start looking at debt reduction options via settlement. I can steer you to a great LAW FIRM who specializes in this, but they only work with Private Student Loans, so let me know!
Hey Tim, great information in your articlie and i appreciate you spreading all this knowledge a lot of us aren’ aware of. I am uncertain and what to do and would love for some guidance. I took out a private Sallie Mae loan in 2015/2016 for my school. University of Tampa, which Fl doesnt have any lawsuits and my school was private, not sure if that matters. I went due to connections with a department head in my field i studied. My mom is still in 60k debt from school loans and im getting there with the ridiculous interst of Sallie Mae. I paid a little sum of $25 a month while i was in school and not working and now i pay a ton and havent even been employed for 6-8 weeks due to relocating. When ive talked to them in the past they gave me absolutely zero help on the phone. They said i couldnt do a income driven plan and i couldnt reduce my payments at all unless i agreed to terms that would give me a little break but the interest would destroy me. I feel like were practically paying for their salary and not our education at this point. I honestly have no idea what to do. I even have it on auto-pay so i get the reduction but my interest is still 12%! I really cant afford it, my bank account is almost depleted and dont know how to go about this or what i can do. Any help would be greatly appreciated Tim.
– Josh K
Hi Josh,
Thank you for the kind words!
Unfortunately, your options are SEVERELY limited because you have private loans and there’s simply very little to be done with private debt.
Almost all of the big forgiveness programs on offer are only available to people with Federal student debt.
Try looking at my page on Private Student Loan Relief Programs and you may be able to find something that you could get access to, but remember that the odds really are quite low.
My loans were taken out by The Art Institute of Orange County, which closed in 2018. I went there in 2002, 2003, one full semester, one partial. I got injured on my federal job, its permanent partial, and I have not worked since 2003. I quit paying student loans in 2009, when I got my bankruptcy. My student loans were not dismissed, but I couldn’t pay. I have been on federal disability since, and Navient cannot touch my income. Now I got a letter from a creditor….it has quoted, “The law limits how long you can be sued on a debt. Because of the age of your debt, we can not sue you for it, and we will not report it to any credit reporting agency.” It has come off my credit. How long before they no longer pursue the debt? I am going to join the California lawsuit, for deceptive practices to have even gone to the Art Institutes. Just curious your take on this!
Hi Connie,
Good question, and I don’t think that anyone could give you the answer about how long they it will be before they no longer pursue the debt.
My guess is that they would keep trying to collect from you forever, just that they won’t be able to sue you, and that they can’t use a Student Loan Wage Garnishment or any other form of collection activity because of your disability protections.
It sounds to me like you’ve basically got them beat as long as you just keep ignoring them!
I went to Brooks College which closed years ago. I received school loans through Sallie Mae and was loaned way more money than they had no right to loan me. I now owe more than my house loan because of all the interest that has added up. Do I have any options for discharge?
Hi Rachel,
Your explanation here doesn’t really include any of the sorts of things that would qualify you for forgiveness.
Look at my Guide to Creating a Successful BDAR Application for details on what you’d need to do to pursue a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge.
I’ve been with this Student loan since 2005. they were Sallie Mae, then converted to Navient. I have not been able to pay for my loan totally. I’ve made $9,000 in payments so far, and need to pay $6,000 left on this loan and I’ve called them numerous times to try to lower payment. and I’ve been put under the deferrment a few times, but the interest keeps going up and it’s not fair cause this loan will never get paid. I was wondering what program I should try to apply for to get this remaining balance diminished! It would be greatly appreciated! I’m in FL.
Hi Nellie,
Yeah, you need to stop using Deferments and Forbearances, because all they do on an unsubsidized loan is rack up interest, and more debt.
Did you ask them about using an Income-Driven Repayment Plan? That would probably be your best bet for short-term relief.
Meanwhile, you should also look into the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program to see if you have any chances at getting your debt discharged.
Look at my Guide to Building a Successful Borrower’s Defense Application for details on how to write your BDAR paperwork.
I graduated, but my school was trash and is also not closed “advise – never attend a trade school!”. Any way for me to get out of the crazy high cost I owe now? Also any way to get out of the 10+ loans the dumb school got for me? I know I can go apply for a private loan to consolidate them but that also seems risky and may even get declined since it’s for such a high $$ when you already owe a high $$.
Hi Walter,
I’d look into the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program, as that may be your only hope for getting rid of this debt.
I am confused. Is the only way to apply for BDAR against Navient to go against the school that you attended ? Because I have private loans with Navient and I know for a fact that they:
“Failed to operate in the borrower’s best interest by refusing to help people enroll in the Income-Based Repayment Programs that offer eventual Loan Forgiveness, and instead pushing them to sign up for Forbearance and Deferment programs which are faster for Navient to configure, but which cost borrowers more money over the life of their loans by racking up addition costs due to interest accumulation.”
in my specific case BUT also I use to get an harassing amount of phone calls from them anytime my payment was slightly delayed.
What do you think my options are if any?
Hi Jodi,
You can’t use the BDAR program for private loans, unfortunately. They still remain essentially totally unregulated and wildly out of control. This program is for FEDERAL student debt only.
If you’re having issues with Private Debt, look at my page on Getting Help with Private Student Loan Debt. The best option currently is typically going for a Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharge, unfortunately, as that’s virtually the only way to get rid of Private Loans.
Hi, I was with Sallie Mae back in 2005 when I left university. I paid until I just could not, then paid again until I had to get a low paying job. I became disabled officially by social security in 2009.
Through the times I couldn’t pay the company always told I could only do defferment or forebarence. I tried to ask about income based pay and they would always tell me an outlandish amount that was close to what I was already paying.
When I became disabled and was finally able to talk to someone (mental health), they “lowered” the payment to 250-300 usd, again very close to my original payment, and I was only receiving a bit over 400 a month. I earn even less now that I’m married. I told them I could pay 50 a month, but they said it wouldn’t cover enough to matter because my interest rate was putting on more than that. They even implied that the money might not even be put toward the loan, only the intrest.
By this time it was in default, but they said I could still go though them once I was able to pay again. About 9 months later (they called every 3 months) a “nice” lady called, and when I told her I couldn’t pay the amount she quoted, she started berrating me. She told me that if I couldn’t pay, I should have never gotten the loan to start with. When I emphasize that I was disabled, she told me I should have thought about that as well before getting the loan. She brought me to tears, and told me to “toughfin’ up” and “get over myself”. Then when I mentioned that my disability was my mental health, she told me I was more than likely acting, and that the company would sue me. At this point I hung up and blocked their number.
I have not filed for disability forgiveness on my federal loans yet, due to my husband and I not having near the amount needed to pay the irs. And also because conviently I “forgot” a part of the application despite filling it out properly at the time they only took doctor’s notes and not social security letters.
My federal loans were transferred to Sallie Mae before 2006 as they said it would make my payments easier and lower. Which it did…by maybe 100 usd.
So, I’m not sure if I qualify for this lawsuit or not. I live in MS and I know they have some stipulations on loan companies (including a clause saying they cannot take from my disability SSI payments unless the we over a specific amount). So, I’m not sure what they would need to pay.
Hi There,
You have some very specific issues at play here so I would request speaking with an attorney to try and resolve what you need to do. Fortunately, you can get help from the Student Loan Ombudsman Group, a Federal Government-backed group of lawyers who offer FREE legal advice on student loan-related issues like yours. Google their name for their contact details and give them a call!
Thanks, I’ll check them out
I had loans through sallie Mae which was sold to navient the problem is I was never supposed to be granted any financial aid at that time I did not have a high school diploma or ged what steps do I need to take to get these loans discharged
Hi Lalia,
You may be able to use the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge Program. Check it out.
Hi Tim. This is great information.
I am slightly confused as to how to proceed, though. I attended ITT between 2011-2015 and all of my Federal Loans are owned by Navient. My repayment status is good, but I don’t want to pay another 21 years for a scam that I feel duped into by ITT. Who do I file a defense to repayment against though? ITT, because they mislead me into believing I’d have lifelong support from their services and job placement was in the 90% range, or Navient, because they are the handlers of the loans now??
Hi Justin,
File it against your school. Things have changed since I originally wrote these articles and the DOE is not accepting BDAR requests against Student Loan Servicing Companies.
You’ll need to make sure that you’re CRYSTAL CLEAR about how the job placement data was used to convince you that you should attend the school though. Don’t just say “I was told Job Placement was in the 90% range”. Explain who told that to you, when, where you were, how it impacted your decision to take out loans, etc.
My Sallie Mae was sold to Navient then they sent it over to Higher education Services at $95,000 . After reaching out for help since I couldn’t find be employed from failing my boards they insisted that I could not continue to put my loans on forbarrance and was requesting 100s of dollars a month to be paid which I could not pay . They then sent it over to a collection agency which they are claiming I owe $270,000. My credit is screwed I can’t move forward in life because of this. Any advise ?
Hi Nat,
Are these Private or Federal Loans? Can’t you retake the boards and get going on your career?
Hi I have Navient student loans, I have been paying sometimes I haven’t but I haven’t worked in my field. So I was paying them and the interest wouldn’t go down. So I am up to 22,000.00 it only went down a couple one hundred dollars. I have had this loan since 2009 they never told it was a private student I was going to an online school the school never told me they just said it was a loan if I could e sign it so I did
Hi Cindy,
You’re in trouble because you didn’t pay attention and took out a loan without doing any real due diligence to understand what you were getting yourself into. It’s going to be really hard to get rid of a Private Loan, and my advice for you would be to pursue a Bankruptcy Discharge since that’s typically one of the easier ways to discharge Private Student Loan Debt. Look at my page on Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges.
So when I graduated from northern Illinois in 2008, I had my first forbearance/ deferment I’m December of 2008. From December 2008-jlaugust 2015 I was either using forbearance or deferments. I would constantly have to call every 6 months or a year to re apply for which ever one was available. They never once mentioned to me anything about the Income based repayment plans even when I asked of there were better options than forbearance and deferments. I finally found out about the. Income based repayments 1 and a half years into my navy career I’m 2015 when I read that the pslf program rerquired a income driven plan and loan consolidation. When I called navient about this, 2014, they then directed me to feed loan servicing to sign up for a income based plan and the pslf program
You may have a shot at a BDAR Discharge because of their failure to fully inform you. This is exactly the type of situation the lawsuit stems from.
What kind of attorney would I contact about a lawsuit against predatory lending? I live in Georgia. Who can I contact? Where do I begin looking?
Good question Tasha. Try to find someone who has experience in that specific field. Look for financial specialty attorneys, or contract attorneys. Maybe even debt lawyers.
I just received a robocall saying an agent name and number and that “your student loans have been accepted into the Navient settlement and are now subject to complete loan forgiveness. The great news is this applies to all loans, even those in default. To apply your benefits, and be entered into the settlement, please call 877-394-4713 now with your reference number *****. Have a great day.”
Is this a scam? Is this for real?
This sounds like a scam to me, but it’s hard to be certain. I don’t think a legitimate law firm would be robodialing like this though – you’d at least get a letter in the mail. I would probably not provide these people with your information.
Thanks for sharing this information.
I have my student loans through Salie Mae. They continuously offered forbearance NEVER explaining that my interest would be continuously growing and ballon from 20k to 100k. I also had nearly 2o years of federal service in law enforcement. Navient steered me clear of the FedLoan payback program.
Do I have a case here?
Hi Joel,
I’m not sure that it’s their requirement to explain how Forbearance and interest accumulation works, but it may be worth taking a shot at it anyway.
Hi Tim! Thank you so much for all of the info you’ve provided. Personally, I have been with Navient since it was Sallie Mae. My mom co-signed with me for my student loans and I got my BA from AIU London which has since closed after an audit for corruption charges. AIU cloaked how much debt I was accruing by forcing students to get new student loans every semester/term and never showing me how much I was racking up. I was never consulted about interest rate options or other lenders. Post-graduation, I was totally overwhelmed at my balance of over $180K in student loans!!! I did manage to consolidate some of my loans at one lower fixed rate versus the higher variable rates I had been on.
I got a job where I had apprenticed during school, but the 2008 recession affected the business and I was forced to find more sustainable employment in a lower-paying job outside of my field. When my UK work visa came up for renewal, the processing took 3+ months longer than normal and caused my employer to have to suspend my employment. I was unable to make student loan payments during this time and only partial payments after re-starting employment due to the backlog of loss of wages in the interim. This resulted in all-day, every day harassing phone calls and nasty letters to my mom as Sallie Mae wouldn’t call overseas. She would call me totally stressed out and in tears because they convinced her they were going to take us both to jail for the debt. My dad got mad and blamed me although the visa situation was completely out of my hands. During my visa waiting period, I ended up homeless and couch-surfing with friends and I couldn’t even travel out of the country because they hold your passport in the UK while they’re processing your visas. I eventually got pushed into forbearances and deferments by Sallie Mae because there was no way I could keep up. I was given no other options. In addition, they put my privacy at risk by continuing to send my statements to my last US address despite requests not to and my signing up for emailed statements.
Even after returning to work once my work visa cleared, that work dried up due to the economy. I found another job, but I still couldn’t swing the full payment, so more forbearances and deferments ensued. I eventually moved back to the US and got a job, but the economy had not improved, so due to stagnating wages, I was struggling to get by. This meant more harassment, more forbearances and deferments. During this time, Sallie Mae became Navient and the harassment lightened, but the forbearances and deferments continued for my Federal loans. they wouldn’t allowany more forbearances/deferments on my Private loans, so I ended up having to do autopay under their Rate Reduction Plan (RRP).
During this period of time I caught them misallocating my RRP payments on more than one occasion because I started getting late fees and the harassment started again. It took hours of my time, dozens of phone calls and leveling up to several managers to get them to straighten up their act and go back and fix the misallocations. Ever since then, I have been in a holding pattern with the RRP because of how high the accrued interest has inflated the payments & balance. In addition, they keep shortening the term period for the RRP and raising the interest rate for the loans. They only recently offered me the option for an Income Driven Repayment Plan, but were pushing for me to do other options instead. My balance now ($180K) is only a few hundred dollars less than the original amount loaned, despite paying on it since 2008 (11 years to-date!)!!! Is there ever any hope of getting off this hamster wheel of debt?
Hi Krisalyn,
Well, it sounds like you’ve been put through the wringer, but you haven’t necessarily outlined any slam dunk BDAR approvals cases here. What I would do if I were you is to contact the Student Loan Ombudsman Group, a group of Government-backed lawyers who offer free legal advice on student loan-related issues, and see if they can advise you on how to proceed.
I’d also follow these Navient lawsuits VERY closely to see if you end up getting access to any sort of relief from their resolution, and I would pursue a Borrower’s Defense Claim against your school, but only after you’ve put together a much more compelling case for ILLEGAL and FRAUDULENT behavior that they committed against you.
You’ve got quite a few options, and BDAR vs the school is probably your best bet at this point. DOE is no longer accepting any BDAR applications against servicers, so even though Navient made a lot of mistakes in your case, there’s really nothing you can do against them quite yet.
Vote Democratic and get everyone you know to do so too. Without Betsy DeVos and other Trump-appointees ruling the DOE, these things will change, but until that happens, we’re mostly stuck with the corrupt system currently in place.
(BTW I’m NOT a Democrat, but I do at least recognize that Republicans are terrible on student loan debt issues).
Good luck!
So reading all this information is helpful. I attended Collins College 2006-2007 but dropped out due to loan payments to the school “not going through”. I ended up with $22000 debt for 4 mounts of school. I then went into the Army and was making regular payment and even use my sign on bonus to pay off $15000 of the debt. When I was discharged (honorable) i had issues because I was unemployed for 6 months and began to fall behind on payments. I still owe around $16000 it has been this way for the past 5 years I was unaware that my co-signer could be removed from the loan any time I asked for a lower payment I was told I could only do so when a payment was not due. I am currently 2 days from default and only last week have they offered a lower payment but I would have to do 6 mounts auto pay something I stoped doing ever since Navient Charged me twice for a single payment and refused to cancel the duplicate payment.
Hi Mack,
I would definitely take their offer and get back on autopay. You do NOT want your loan to default, because it turns into a complete disaster at that point!
Check out my page on Student Loan Delinquency & Default, then look at my pages on Rehabilitating Defaulted Student Loans, and Stopping Student Loan Wage Garnishments. Trust me on this one – you DON’T want to Default!
I had student loans and my husband and I have parent loans out for our kids. All has been consolidated. Sallies loans were sold to Navient. I always make our payments but Navient keeps hounding us about lowering our rate, etc. I am wondering why they are do eager and going out if their way for us. O knew nothing of any lawsuit, now that I do I’m wondering if I did go with Navient’s new deal would that keepe from filing any kind of a claim? I don’t know yet if I have grounds for a claim but I am flabbergasted by their eagerness to help? Thanks
Hi Sue,
You’d have to speak to an attorney for full details on eligibility for filing a claim. I probably wouldn’t change anything without consulting with a lawyer who’s familiar with student loans, but I would also probably wait to see how all the lawsuits against Navient settle out, and I’d also make sure that if I did choose to alter anything or sign some new agreement, it didn’t have any language included within it that said it limited their liability for any sort of lawsuit or claim against them down the line.
Wondering if i qualify. I went to a school (profit) ITT which closed down now. The school lied and said by the time students ready to transfer credits would be transferable. It’s not acredited and now the school is closed! Navient has not out me in a repayment plan that suits my income. They send me emails about forebarence only. I went on the website and enter my information to get a repayment plan and they gave me a high amount that my income does not suit. I have student loans for credits i can’t use and a school that is closed. Do you think I qualify ?
Hi Brenda,
You MIGHT qualify because of the lies about credit transfers. I know a few schools have been sued for that specific mis-statement, so it’s probably worth taking a shot, but it doesn’t sound like a perfect case either.
I have a different problem, my employer forced me a few years to cosign a loan or lose my job. e has bad credit. 12 years he still does and he is no longer my employer as I left the job.
Now he is not always paying the loan back and has no interest in doing sp. Navient has now started coming after me. Should I get a lawyer to protect my interests and should I talk to Navient.
He also signed me up for a second loan.
Hi David,
I would definitely hire an attorney here. You need to get legal assistance with this if what you’ve said is true.
Hi,
Navient made me pay them starting March when I was actually out of school December. I then called and said I have 6 months but the call center agent told me that from dec-March was 6 months and that I would have to start repaying them. I then asked for an income driven repayment plan and was told I was not eligible for one. If I can’t make my loan payments, my only option was to get them deferred. Honestly the call center agent pissed me off sooo bad just bc he honestly thought that from Dec-March was 6 months.
Hi Christina,
This sounds pretty typical from some of the other comments I’ve received about them. Unfortunately, it sounds like BDAR can not be used against servicing companies now, so I don’t know that you can actually do anything about this other than maybe trying to file a lawsuit? I would submit an official complaint to the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and contact your State’s Attorney General to see if there’s anything that their office can do to help you with legal advocacy.
I am a co-signer on a Navient Student loan. The student defaulted, filed bankruptcy and has fled the country. At the time I agreed to co-sign, I admit, I was quite naive about student loans. I do specifically remember asking “will I be released as co-signer after 1 year of on time payments made by the student?” and I specifically remember the answer being YES. I only knew to ask this from prior experience of a friend who co-signed on a car loan. Several years later, after the student had graduated, I started looking at my options to be released as co-signer to find out there was much more involved than 1 year of on time payments. I feel like I was mislead into co-signing. Not only that the amount I co-signed for at my income level is preposterous. I feel like I was taken advantage of because I had an extremely high credit score with very low debt for a woman.
I’m tired of beating myself up over this for make a very stupid decision. I just thought this was how student loans work and I have been paying my dues. The greed of this company is nauseating at the least.
I appreciate your information!
Hi Deb,
Yes – it definitely sounds like you were lied to – and maybe even had fraud committed against you? Misrepresentation at the least. It’s possible you may be eligible for some kind of discharge due to the way that they handled those conversations, but with cosigners, everything is more complicated than usual, and it becomes even harder to get any assistance. Good luck!
I’m a teacher and have tried several times for loan forgiveness through Navient, but have been told that since my wife and I consolidated our loans and that they were taken out before Oct. of 1998 that we do not qualify for any type of loan forgiveness. I seen in your article above that you said everyone should qualify for some form of loan forgiveness, do you have any ideas of where else we can try?
Hi Dusty,
That 1998 limit is a pretty significant limitation, BUT, are your loans Federal? What Repayment Plan are you currently using? If you can qualify for one of the Income-Based Repayment Plans, like REPAYE (you won’t qualify for PAYE because your loans are too old), you may be able to start working toward forgiveness at the 20 year mark.
It really is tough out there for people who borrowed long, long ago – Politicians didn’t set anything up for older borrowers because it didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as it is now, but I’m totally with you in understanding that we’ve basically left an entire generation to hang out to dry.
Hi, I’ve been through the program that helped me out of default. They stretched out payments of $5 basically for 10 months then when Navient contacted me about them taking over they I had it on auto pay (when it for $5) and something told me to check. The few times it took the money but somehow it never went through and they never told me. So I paid over the phone. Then randomly I checked online to make sure it actually went through and that’s when I saw they raised my payments to $300+ . But they didn’t inform me. Luckily I know a lil bit but so I called and requested to have an income based payment plan. They put my account in 2 months forbearance. And I got approved for a lesser payment. I still don’t trust them on auto pay. Is that enough to qualify for forgiveness because during that 10 months I paid the $5 dollars my total went up a lot.
Hi Tori,
No – that sort of thing wouldn’t be enough to qualify for BDAR. You need to be able to prove that you’ve had some sort of fraud committed against you, and this sounds like maybe an administrative error? Maybe just a misunderstanding?
I have a son ( a veteran), who secured a loan when attending ITT, that required a co-signer (which is how I got into this) In 2017 Navient began hounding him and making threating calls to me as well; giving an impression that they were out to help him.
I got involved when the made a threating call to me and when I called them back, they explained that if my son paid them $200 that they would forgive a portion of his loan(s); when I told them that I would pay the amount, I was informed that they would not deal with me ( we did make arrangements to give him the $200); at this point I was never a party to any agreement that was made between Navient and my son( who states that there was on agreement.
I then asked several times to receive a copy of the documents, that I had signed, only to be told that a digitized signature was legally recognized as good as the actual signature, which I disputed, verbally; stating I wanted the actual copies; I finally received a copy without a signature and also w/o an amount.
Now this past year they have started making threats again.up to the point that I received a letter, delivered via UPS through USPS outlining the procedure of filing a lawsuit against me is I did not contact them by Jan 30, 2019.
My question is do I have any legal grounds re; forgiveness for the student?
Hi Hubbard,
Honestly, I’m not sure. This doesn’t really sound like something that would qualify for a BDAR discharge though. Try contacting the Student Loan Ombudsman Group to see what they think. They’re a group of Government-backed attorneys who offer free legal advice on student loan related problems. Google their name to find their phone number.
I was finally signed up for the income debt repayment plan after they said they never received my paperwork which I sent 4 times and it still is accruing interest Is it supposed to
Hi Krista,
I have no idea. You haven’t provided enough details here and there’s no such thing as an “income debt repayment plan”. Do you mean an Income Based Repayment Plan? What type of loans do you have? If they’re subsidized, then you shouldn’t be accruing interest, but if they’re not subsidized, then interest will continue to accumulate.
Hello!
Slightly confused after trying to track down more info on borrowers defense against Navient for a private loan. I spoke with the student loan relief helpline (janice:)who told me no borrowers defense was available for private loans at all… Did I jump to conclusions after reading the “Does The CFPB Lawsuit Cover Both Federal And Private Loans?” portion of this page to think that if Navient forced me into forbearance and deferment I may have a case for discharge or forgiveness? Thanks so much for your time!!
Hi Elissa,
Yes, you can’t use Borrower’s Defense on Private Debt. It’s only for Federal loans.
Hi Tim. Thank you for such valuable information. I am a co-borrower who has been paying back my ex-husband’s school loans. The loans were first with Sallie Mae, then Sallie Mae switch the account to Navient. Since I have been making the payments, can I file for the BDAR application to see if I am eligible? If I am, will the monies be refunded to me or would it go to my ex-husband? Your advice would be appreciated.
Hi M,
How would you be qualifying for BDAR? You have to have a reason why you deserve the discharge, and it needs to explain how you were defrauded.
Basically, you’re liberal. anti-Trump and pro-Obama? How does that help anyone????
Hi “Me”,
If you look at my old content about President Trump, I literally thought he was going to be the “Student Loans President”. While he was campaigning, he talked about fixing the broken system, making EVERYONE eligible for Forgiveness at an earlier date, making EVERYONE utilize the same Repayment Plan, etc., and these were all decent ideas.
As soon as he got elected, he started ignoring student loans completely, put Betsy DeVos (the literal enemy of the common person) in charge of the Department of Education, and allowed her to start gutting all of our most important Federal Forgiveness benefits. He has not lived up to his campaign promises on this front at all.
Obama did a great job to help reform student loans, introducing much more lenient repayment and forgiveness programs, and I applaud his efforts on that front. I don’t like any Politician, period, as I think anyone crazy enough to get elected has some kind of disorder and should be banned from service in the first place.
But thanks for your ignorant comment.
So, what if I have been paying, have a good job that allows me to pay, and have never asked for restructuring but I still feel like I am being taken advantage of by Navient?
Hi Kortney,
If you can prove to the DOE reviewer that some sort of fraud or illegal activity was committed against you, then you might have a shot at earning a discharge. If you can’t, it won’t work.
I had the same question but my only problem was I kept applying for INcome base repayment plans but they never seem to got a hold of my paper so I gave up and just paid the full amount I had too since I didn’t want to go in default.
Would I qualify?
Hi Mai,
I can’t tell you for sure without knowing more details about your situation, but if you’re asking can you qualify for a BDAR Discharge because they didn’t get you put on an Income-Based Plan? I don’t know if that’s a strong enough argument, especially without knowing how many times you tried, how long this time period lasted, etc. I don’t think it’s going to work in your case though – this doesn’t sound bad enough.
Hi Tim,
I’ve been paying back a student loan to Navient since 2008. Many times I had feelings that something just wasn’t right. They did at one time give me a income based payment for two years. Before I realized it my principle shot up way past the original amount I borrowed. This is because I was only paying interest which I didn’t know at the time. Another things I notice when I was making my normal payments, if my payment was a day or two late the entire payment went to interest. The total amount of money I have sent this company is very close to the amount of my original loan amount and yet I still owe them so much I feel like I will never pay them off.
Do you think I would qualify?
Hi Phyllis,
That issue with interest-only payments comes back to bite so many people; it’s one of the best scams lenders have going to rapidly inflate the price of the money you’ll end up paying them back. “Just give us a little now…”, but they never say “… and a WHOLE LOT MORE LATER!”.
I do not think this is enough to get a discharge, because you really do need to come up with a claim against the SCHOOL. Rules have been clarified and BDAR Discharges are not being approved against lenders (though they should be…), and that’s probably going to remain the rule until President Trump is turned out of office and Betsy DeVos is replaced at DOE.
My son’s loan is being serviced by Navient, My son is still in school and need FAFSA financial aid to pay for school. Would filing a Borrower Defense To Repayment against Navient affect my son’s FAFSA application for financial aid?
Hi GigV,
As far as I know, BDAR applications don’t impact eligibility for FAFSA. I’ve never heard of the one causing an issue with the other.
When I applied for a Teacher loan forgiveness program, I filed all the required paperwork and made sure I had the correct people sign and verify. Navient denied my application. I never received an explanation as to why.
Hi Charles,
Better get in touch with Navient to find out why it was denied! Next thing I’d do, if they provide a reason that you don’t agree with, is contact the Student Loan Ombudsman Group, which is a group of attorneys who are backed by the Federal Government, and who provide student loan-related legal advice FOR FREE! Google their name to find their contact info.
If I no longer live in Illinois would I still qualify for this lawsuit? Do I have to submit a request for me to be apart of the lawsuit? I also attended DeVry ( where total in loans come from). Am I able to file against both? How should I approach this?
Hi Cecelia,
I can’t provide details about the lawsuit – you’ll need to speak to an Attorney for any information about those sorts of legal processes.
who can i call to verify if i qualified for the Lawsuit against Navient?
Hi Meruany,
You’re going to need to speak to an attorney.
What if Sallie Mae advised loans could be consolidated into one loan then advised at the time pmts were to begin said “no we can’t provide that any more”. Or if when applying for any forbearance had to pay a $150 fee first.
Was also not advised of income driven repayment early in when it would have made a huge difference.
Hi Donna,
These all sound like legitimate reasons to apply for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge. I would DEFINITELY try to file against them, and I’d provide as much detail about these failures as you can possibly remember. It’s really important that you convince whoever is reading your application that they committed fraud against you.
So how do I apply for this? I feel that I have a solid case for such an issue, I have been working on my student loans for 14 years and its ballooned over 100k more than when i actually graduated!
thanks!
Anthony
Hi Anthony,
Pull up the Government website for the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Application, fill it out and submit.
Will we get paperwork through the mail or do we have to do it ourselves to find out?
Hi Natalia,
You’re probably going to have to do your own research and your own work to qualify for anything I mention on this site. Student Loan Servicing Companies aren’t really on your side, and they don’t offer forgiveness or relief benefits unless you FORCE them to do it.
I cannot tell you how greatful I am that you are putting this information out there. I have been threatened, lied to, harrassed at work via phone, hung up on, called a liar, been profanely berated…and could go on and on by Navient. I have tried a number of times to get a final payoff number only to be hung up on, given a nonsense amount through the mail, and then the following month receive a bill with a $1000 increase, with zero explanation and another $1000 increase the next month. I cannot get this resolved. Navient refuses. I have the paperwork and would gladly share it with you to prove what I am stating. I have paid back over $23,000. towards a borrowed amountnof $13,000 total. Navient continues to increase the amount I owe. I am so overwhelmed with this debt I have had over my head since 1999. I did not graduate. I have not ever made more than $23,000/ year gross. I have had tax returns taken for 10 years. I am sure this arbatross attributed to my divorce. I live in the state of Idaho where the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. I am trying to get a handle on my debts. I do not have credit card debt (with my scores??) I have paid off a few car loans over the years, these are the factors that make up my credit history…student loans and car loans. I could go on and on. I am very greatful for the information you are putting out there. Thank you. I will continue the struggle. According to Navient, suicide isn’t even a good reason to stop paying them. But alas, forward movement. Please keep informing the masses.
Hi Kathryn
Thank you so much for your kind words! Your story is not unique – MILLIONS of Americans are plagued by the same excessive debt that you’re facing, and the only thing we can do about it is to keep calling our Congressional Reps and Senators and asking them to do something about it, and VOTING for people who care!
I won’t stop as long as it remains an issue!
Hi tim iam also dealing with navient just got off a forbearance plan with them u think i am included with this lawsuit?
Hi Arthur,
Hard to say – you’d need to speak with an attorney to figure out the lawsuit end of things. What I do know is that the lawsuits against them make it MUCH EASIER to convince the Department of Education to approve you for a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge, so I’d look at filling out the BDAR Application if you feel that they committed some kind of fraud against you.
I heard Navient loan server had a lawsuit, and am one of the borrowers they mess with my account, with high fees,and high interest up to 14.9%.Today Navient transfered my account to Nelnet.So is it means they get away with everythings.
Hi Najwa,
No, transferring your account won’t mean they get away with it. You will still have options for going after them. Hang tight and pay close attention to how all the lawsuits play out.
Right now Navient dont want to deal with my Private Student Loans. As they say the family income is too much when it actually decreased! Its kinda hilarious, not only that they had the nerve to ask my father who they list as student his personal credit card information. I want it gone as they are just predatory at the moment just like the one in charge. For years been paying it until 3 months ago till they told me .38 payment October and 0 payment November now they just charging 1800 for those 2 month s after their own recorded rep said it but they dont want to hear that. I want to sue and all the money back I paid
Hi Brett,
You may want to try contacting an attorney. Only a lawyer will be able to help you with the lawsuit element here.
Is there a form to fill out for a “Borrower’s Defense Discharge”, or do you just right a legal-type letter? There is a lot of good information here, but I don’t see specifics on how to proceed.
Thank you..
Hi Cindy,
Yeah, in the old days you did write a letter, so perhaps you read some stuff on my site that needs to be updated? There’s an official Borrower’s Defense Application available online now, and you can find it here.
Could this apply to Parent Plus Loans for Parents that took out a loan for their child and loan built up to life issues preventing payments?
Hi Linda,
Parent Plus Loans are a tricky situation and I typically won’t comment on them because I’ve seen it go both ways. My suggestion is to contact the Student Loan Ombudsman Group and ask for their assistance. This is a group of attorneys who offer free legal advice on student loan-related issues, and who are backed by the Federal Government. They will be able to help you.
Please come back after speaking to them and let me know what they say!