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Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
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Asking on behalf of someone else, like some of you know, Besty DeVos's company, in a draconian way, took over just about all of the Student Loans in the States. However, while they did sent out paper work to have "an income adjustment payment" after the fact that they took over his/her loan, they went ahead and increased the monthly amount without telling the borrower. That caused the borrower to fall behind and become delinquent by 2 months. It wasn't a huge amount they fell behind by, but what company can legally do that without telling the borrower? Their excuse was, "we didn't have the monthly payment information from the previous company." Seems highly fishy and dishonest.
increased the monthly amount without telling the borrower
I'm not sure what this means. Is the monthly payment being drafted from a bank account electronically? How did the borrower not notice that more money than usual was suddenly drafted? I'd be paying attention to stuff like that, especially knowing that the loan servicer had recently changed.
What exactly is an "income adjustment payment"? I'm asking because my kids are still in college and I'm not familiar yet with student loan payments.
Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
5,152 posts, read 8,530,192 times
Reputation: 2038
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtab4994
I'm not sure what this means. Is the monthly payment being drafted from a bank account electronically? How did the borrower not notice that more money than usual was suddenly drafted? I'd be paying attention to stuff like that, especially knowing that the loan servicer had recently changed.
What exactly is an "income adjustment payment"? I'm asking because my kids are still in college and I'm not familiar yet with student loan payments.
Something you fill out to reduce your monthly payment.
The person just sent checks under the previous amount agreed to with the company Navient took the loan from.
Something you fill out to reduce your monthly payment.
The person just sent checks under the previous amount agreed to with the company Navient took the loan from.
Didn't Navient send a bill showing the new amount owed? I don't get how the borrower can fall behind if the lender is sending bills and the borrower is sending checks in return.
Is the complaint that Navient is charging late fees? Won't they just waive the late fees? I've been charged late fees by this creditor and that, over the years, but if you don't do it too often the creditor will usually waive the fee.
Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
5,152 posts, read 8,530,192 times
Reputation: 2038
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtab4994
Didn't Navient send a bill showing the new amount owed? I don't get how the borrower can fall behind if the lender is sending bills and the borrower is sending checks in return.
Is the complaint that Navient is charging late fees? Won't they just waive the late fees? I've been charged late fees by this creditor and that, over the years, but if you don't do it too often the creditor will usually waive the fee.
They did, and while I get that the borrower should have looked at it, it's not unreasonable to think that the payment amount would remain the same. A company seemingly, just can't refinance any loan for you, without your consent.
I'm in a mess over a similar situation with a different company. Apparently they mismanaged my payments for years--not paying enough towards interest, to the point that I wasn't actually paying down my loans. At one point, they sent me a notice saying that they had 'recalculated' my payments and my payments actually dropped by about half.
I called and asked what the heck was going on and they said they had the right to decide what kind of payment plan I was on, and decided that a different plan was better for me. I questioned whether they had a right to make that decision and they claimed they did.
Now I have a new loan processor, who disagrees and is trying to help me fix the situation (reallocating my payments toward interest) but have advised I get a lawyer and contact the inspector general. I'm waiting, because I think I only have one shot at this, and I don't think the current administration would be amenable to correcting a mistake that negatively affects a borrower.
Income contingent repayment plans and income based repayment plans require you to give the company your tax information every year to "prove" you still qualify for the lower payments. Companies are notorious for not telling borrowers when their "year" is up and hiking the payment - sometimes up to 3 times more - which can cause people to overdraft and/or default. We have a friend that this happened to with his med school loans. It's criminal - especially in his case - because the "delinquent" payment and the subsequent process to remedy it meant that he had to start from zero in terms of his loan forgiveness program (which requires 10 years of on time payments). With undergrad and med school, he was up to over $250K in loans and had 7 years of on time payments - now he's got to start over.
What OP is talking about sounds like the same sort of funny business. "Oops, we can't find your records from the old company so your monthly payment is going to triple" - while perhaps technically legal (though I'd like to have a lawyer weigh in on this) - is some shady sh*t. My own loans have changed companies no less than 6 times and my interest rate changes every time they are sold (always going up, no surprise) - and this was on consolidated loans through the government that were "guaranteed" to stay at a fixed percentage rate.
I feel like the student loan operation is dangerously close to becoming like the payday loan business - preying on people who don't have the money up front and damning them to a life of drowning in debt.
Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
5,152 posts, read 8,530,192 times
Reputation: 2038
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterdragon8212
Income contingent repayment plans and income based repayment plans require you to give the company your tax information every year to "prove" you still qualify for the lower payments. Companies are notorious for not telling borrowers when their "year" is up and hiking the payment - sometimes up to 3 times more - which can cause people to overdraft and/or default. We have a friend that this happened to with his med school loans. It's criminal - especially in his case - because the "delinquent" payment and the subsequent process to remedy it meant that he had to start from zero in terms of his loan forgiveness program (which requires 10 years of on time payments). With undergrad and med school, he was up to over $250K in loans and had 7 years of on time payments - now he's got to start over.
What OP is talking about sounds like the same sort of funny business. "Oops, we can't find your records from the old company so your monthly payment is going to triple" - while perhaps technically legal (though I'd like to have a lawyer weigh in on this) - is some shady sh*t. My own loans have changed companies no less than 6 times and my interest rate changes every time they are sold (always going up, no surprise) - and this was on consolidated loans through the government that were "guaranteed" to stay at a fixed percentage rate.
I feel like the student loan operation is dangerously close to becoming like the payday loan business - preying on people who don't have the money up front and damning them to a life of drowning in debt.
Where are the State Attorney Generals when it comes to this crap? Clearly, the Attorney General sides with companies like Navient, no help expected there.
Even if it may have been in the deep fine print, that you have to prove you still qualify for income based payments, there's no reason for the borrower to not call or write, to remind you that your year is up and you have to send proof for income.
The friend just said screw it and accepted the higher amount. Student Loan Services, the previous borrower didn't put you through a boatload of question and scrutiny to get the income adjustment plan. Navient does.
Income contingent repayment plans and income based repayment plans require you to give the company your tax information every year to "prove" you still qualify for the lower payments. Companies are notorious for not telling borrowers when their "year" is up and hiking the payment - sometimes up to 3 times more - which can cause people to overdraft and/or default. We have a friend that this happened to with his med school loans. It's criminal - especially in his case - because the "delinquent" payment and the subsequent process to remedy it meant that he had to start from zero in terms of his loan forgiveness program (which requires 10 years of on time payments). With undergrad and med school, he was up to over $250K in loans and had 7 years of on time payments - now he's got to start over.
.
I signed up for IBR the first year that program was offered. I always got a letter 2 months before my signup deadline, offering me the option to sign up again (because you do need to re-apply every year).
Normally I would be getting that letter right about now, with my deadline for reapplying being the end of November, but I won't be getting one this year, thankfully.
It is incumbent for the BORROWER to keep track of things like when their year is up and when they need to re-apply. Your friend should have been keeping track of when he was coming to the end of his year and contacing his loan company to re-apply. Once you've been in the program long enough to have done one reapplication cycle the whole process is pretty self-explanatory.
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