I saw a post here yesterday about a rebate retraction and remembered that I'd received a similar letter from Navient a few months ago, so I decided to look into it.
The language was slightly different for mine, rather than a rebate I had been offered a 1.5% reduction to my principal for making 12 monthly payments on time, but the gist was very similar.
Now, when I'd initially received the letter, I assumed it was correct. There was a period of 3-4 months several years ago where I'd allowed my loans to become delinquent due to a serious financial problem and a shame/reluctance to call my creditors and explain or ask about my options. That was a huge mistake, but it isn't the point of this post.
After reading about several people receiving these notices in error, I decided to check into things a little more. For starters, I thought, my initial few years of loan repayment had always been exemplary. My payments had been on time and in full, and surely I'd managed that for at least a year before my financial troubles started.
I didn't have ready access to all of the documentation I'd need, so I thought I might save a few steps by calling Navient first. It seemed to me that if the retraction of benefits was correct, they would have dates and everything that would allow me to narrow down my search.
Getting in touch with someone at Navient wasn't easy. I quickly discovered that mentioning the letter (various forms of the phrase "retraction of benefits" had me immediately shunted to a dead end phone menu) wasn't the smartest course of action. Then I tried playing dumb and, after several warnings that hold time currently exceeded 30 minutes, was connected to an operator. (Pretty damn annoying to be honest, wait time was less than five seconds after at least three messages warned me and tried to get me to hang up and call back. )
Anyway, I eventually connected to an operator and said "I don't understand this letter your company sent me back in August. Can you help me understand what's happening?" I was being cautious because that letter seemed to be a hot button issue with Navient that instantly shut down people's helpfulness. Phrasing it this way allowed me to get her talking, though her tone left much to be desired. Without being terribly helpful, she managed to inform me that A) Not paying your bills on time has consequences, and B) I should understand exactly why I'd received the letter.
This is where I dropped the big unanswered question on her. "This loan has been handled by 3 different companies over the last 11 years. Why am I just being notified about a loss of benefits now?"
That stumped her pretty quickly and her attitude definitely softened. She placed me on a brief hold before returning to inform me that her records showed several missed payments to Navient between 2005 and 2006. Her best guess was that I'd simply fallen through the cracks up to this point.
That raised several red flags for me. A) Navient was founded in 2014. They weren't around when my loan was initiated. B)The initial loan disbursement was on 09/22/2005 and I remained enrolled until February of 2007. Therefore, I wasn't due on any payments until well after the dates she'd quoted to me. C) As I mentioned above, I have been transferred through 3 different companies over the years. My loan was originally handled by Direct Loans, so how had I missed payments to Navient?
I asked all of these questions in pretty quick succession, pretty much as fast as they occurred to me to be honest, and was placed on a much longer hold so she could consult with a supervisor.
While she had me waiting, I reviewed the statements I'd received from Navient in July and September of 2016. Since the retraction of benefits arrived in August, this seemed to be the best way of determining how big their error was. The answer is much bigger than I ever would have dreamed before reading the other posts here on /r/personalfinance
In short, not only had Navient mistakenly withdrawn the 1.5% reduction to my principal on the loan in question, they'd withdrawn it across all of my student loans. Worse, they had retroactively applied interest going all the way back to 2005. This is a HUGE amount of error and the substantial amount of money it's going to save me is why I'm pointing this out to anyone who deals with Navient.
First of all, I have a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized loans. If I understand the system correctly (and it's entirely possible that I don't) the subsidized loans shouldn't have started accruing interest until mid-2007 or so. Worse, one of the loans I'm paying back wasn't even started until 2011. They applied interest for more than 5 years before the loan even existed.
All told, I saved $1,100 to my current principal and at least that much again in future interest charges on two loans that should have been unaffected.
I had to dig through my credit report and some scanned documents I keep online to find enough proof to convince the lady at Navient, but they've now admitted "a strong likelihood of error" and forwarded my issue on to an accounting department who can determine just how badly the mistake has screwed up my accounts.
I've got a friend who used to work as a forensic accountant, so I think I may just pay him to sort out what I actually owe and see how closely our numbers match when all is said and done. The only downside so far is that Navient claims they won't be able to process a final resolution until mid-March.
TL;DR: Initially disregarded a retraction of benefits from Navient, then I saw a post here on pf about people receiving them in error. Checked into mine and found enough mistakes to reduce my loan balance by 30-40%
Submitted January 24, 2017 at 11:36AM by rackerson3 http://ift.tt/2jVF0w8
