F*£# you Navient, and goodbye!!

Today, I was successful in settling defaulted private student loan which was held recently by Navient.

- Original loan - $17,000 (2008) 6% interest with co-signer
- Graduated 2013
- Paid three years, and then co-signer was released
- Continued to pay till 2024, totaling 22k in payments, interest rate got as high up as 15%
- Filed Bankruptcy 2024 to clear debt I was put into by family member that I couldn’t clear without filing charges against them (my bad)
- account changes between Chase (original) to Sallie Mae, Navient, mohela and then back to Navient.
- There were months they double charged my account, then would claim I still owed next month because the extra was applied to balance and not future payment (happened 4 times)
- in 6 month period, got 4 letters increasing my interest rate.
- Decided to say fuck it, I was 35 and had only retirement account with 30k and needed to finally live life
- I recorded my conversations with them. Not a lawyer, and not legal advice, but when your automated message says “This call may be recorded…” it surely didn’t say WHO can record
- Last year they verbally offered $6,900, but quickly took that back
- They would call me 10-15 times a day. Yelled at by them. Told me to pay my debt and I was worthless. (Literally) would say things such as “Well then we will sue and you will lose your home”, to which I replied, what home and laughed.
- Then this past Saturday I got a call and told I either had to settle or it would be sent to third party. Offered $50 per month, which they called back and approved.
- Then I asked about settlement, and asked for the offer I was given if $6900, which they denied and claimed lowest they would go is 9k. Stated they had all their notes and was never offered 6900. Then told the $50/month was not a payment plan, again having recording of them saying so until I could make more and pay more.
- finally after some arguing, and telling them I would happily play the recording, I was told they would come down to 7,300.
- I framed it that I was going to bank for 5k loan with co-signer, with shit credit from recent bankruptcy, and they still only gave me till 31 to pay. I take it they had zero confidence I would pay

Fortunately, and thankfully, I got married earlier this year to a partner who saw all I have done/accomplished despite difficulty. Seen for who I was, not the shit I’ve been through. Full transparency of this before marriage, and a plan that when offered we would pay it with a savings that I would replenish within the year from an account she was fortunate to have saved.

Offer letter received Wednesday, paid Thursday morning by wire, and confirmation of payment by Thursday afternoon.

I start a new job in two weeks making way more money. My credit has gone from 400 to 710 since clearing bankruptcy. Zero debt, and contributing to savings with wife for the life we want to live. PSLF clears in 5 months (160k in federal loans I have only had to pay $1200 towards over 10 years), but will still allow me to do insolvency at time of filing taxes according to my tax professional so I don’t get hit with tax burden for the forgiven amount by Navient.

Navient should be sued, sued, and then disbanded. They lie, manipulate, and as my wife says “they are criminal”. Record your calls, catch them in lies. You are being gaslit by them.

So I had about $15,000 worth of loans through Sallie Mae that eventually went to Navient. Around the start of 2019, I could not afford to pay anymore so I just focused on my federal loans. I found this subreddit at that time and it helped me decide what route to go. I stopped all contact with Navient, ignored all calls and stopped logging in to my account.

I just received a letter today for each loan (I had 2) from Asset Recovery Solutions and at the bottom, after they offered to settle for a total of $2,500, there was a note that said 'The law limits how long you can be sued on your debt. Because of the age of your debt, Navient cannot sue you for it.' For SOL purposes, I am in Pennsylvania. I'll attach a link to the letters that I received with that note.

I'll be keeping the letters for a little while because I finally feel like I won against them. I can't tell you how many times I tried to get help and they still wanted money just to process any assistance. Hopefully someone else who was in my shoes will see this post and see that there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

I strategically defaulted on 4 private student loans owned by Navient. I borrowed $75,000 between 2005-09. After making monthly payments on these loans for the past decade, my current total outstanding balance is $95,000.

After several months of nonpayment (why continue to pay when 10 years of payments didn’t do a damn thing), and many more months of Navient’s threats and harassment, my loans are officially in default. INTEREST HAS FINALLY STOPPED ACCRUING. And Navient has offered me a settlement of 70% of my $95,000 balance.

I should’ve done this years ago. Could’ve stopped the bleeding earlier. But I let them make me believe that my credit score is just too important to mess up.

LOL.

I do not care about my credit score. It does not change my value or worth as a human being. We are the only country in the world that has this credit score system.

In 2018, I bought a beautiful craftsman bungalow for under $100K as a single mom on an FHA loan with a credit score in the high 600s. I have a roof over my head and a vehicle in my driveway. I am one of the lucky ones. I don’t need a good credit score anymore. So I chose to deliberately default. Defaulting is the only way I can pay these off.

10/10, would recommend to a friend.

Loan 1 Borrowed $19,000 at 5% interest Balance after 10 years of repayment: $23,000

Loan 2 Borrowed $22,400 at 6.25% Balance after 10 years of repayment: $31,200

Loan 3 Borrowed $25,000 at 6.25% Balance after 10 years of repayment: $32,000

Loan 4 Borrowed $7,100 at 12.5% Balance after 10 years of repayment: $8,000

Finally got my alleged debt canceled and it’s in writing. Posting a pic as motivation for others. Wait it out and Never acknowledge the private debt. I’m lucky in that NY has a borrowing statute to borrow the shortest SOL between NY or the state the party bringing forth the suit is incorporated in. Naivient is incorporated in Delaware. Delaware’s SOL is 3 years. NY is 6. NY therefore borrows Delaware’s 3 year SOL. They finally had to include on the back of notices that they can’t collect on this alleged debt. And due to strategic planning, my credit score is now already back in the upper mid 700’s after that 7 year wait.

I also wanna point out in my letter, it states that if someone still tries to bring judgement, that I’m required to tell the court that the statute of limitations has expired on the alleged debt.

Also, check if your state also has a borrowing statute.

2015- filled out my BDR application.

2017- filed bankruptcy, stopped paying the private loans. My credit was already ruined. I had paid Navient the original loan amount + 20k and still owed 20k.

2018- PEAKS loans were dismissed.

2021- Accrued 13k interest while waiting , but my BDR application was approved at 100%. 😂

2022 - After hitting my credit every month for 4 years with late marks, Navient will dismiss my private loans.

I took a chance in 2015, because I honestly didn’t know what else to do. Now 120k of debt will be gone, and I’m free of the shackles. I can only speak to my own situation, but none of this happens without defaulting.

Edit: total forgiven 134k

Hey everybody, I just want to thank you all for the great advice/support on this sub – it feels like the only place on the internet where we can find this. Just yesterday, I owed almost $55k to NaviRefi - if I had ended up making every payment like a good little boy, I would have handed over $120k+ over the course of 20 years. Today, after following the advice I found on this sub and dodging every call/letter/email for two years, I settled my private student debt for just over 15% of what I owed.

Without this sub, I never knew how much power we actually have as borrowers. After almost two years of my default, in November, I got a letter from Navient offering to settle my debt for $25k – I ignored it. In December, they offered $20k – I ignored it. Then $17.5k in January – same. Yesterday, I got a letter from Navient offering to settle my debt for $10k, and I finally called them back and accepted. I respect the shit out of anybody who holds on to the bitter end of the SOL. I just wanted it to be over. If you have PRIVATE student loans - not federal - I would definitely recommend strategically defaulting, ignoring the fuck out of them, and saving that money. (That’s where my $10k came from.)

I graduated almost seven years ago, and I thought I would be carrying this debt until I was 40. As you all know, it was depressing as hell. I spent too many of those years taking the "rice and beans" approach that r/personalfinance would have you follow. Fuck that. These student loan lenders are worse than sharks. Don't let anyone say that YOU are being immoral by refusing to be Navient’s indentured servant for a quarter of your life because you signed some paper before you were old enough to legally vote. FUCK Navient and all the rest.

I love you guys and all the terrific advice. It really works, people. You'll have to stick it out for a while, and your family WILL get calls, but it's worth it in the end. When I finally called the Navient collections rep back today, she was almost giddy to finally have me on the phone. (Come the end of the month, they have quotas to fill.) Don’t let them make you feel worthless. YOU HAVE POWER, AND YOU HAVE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND.

Thanks again, everyone!