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Navient Predatory Student Loans Class Action Settlement Overview:
- Who: Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan companies, has agreed to a $1.85 billion settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general.
- Why: The lender is settling allegations it steered borrowers into costly repayment plans and predatory loans.
- Where: The agreement spans 39 states and will deliver $1.7 billion in private student loan cancellation to 66,000 borrowers nationwide.
One of the country’s largest student loan companies has inked a $1.85 billion deal to settle claims it preyed on students to write loans that saddled them with crushing debt that was near-impossible to pay off.
In a settlement filed Jan. 13 in a Pennsylvania federal court, Navient said it had agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in private student loans for nearly 66,000 borrowers and pay $95 million in restitution, MSN reports.
“This settlement not only holds [Navient] accountable but brings real relief to hundreds of thousands of Americans who are struggling to pay their student loans,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who helped lead a coalition of attorneys general to sue the lender. “We’re going to hold the powerful institutions in this country accountable when they take advantage of people.”
Pennsylvania, Illinois, California and Washington joined together to accuse Navient of encouraging struggling borrowers to postpone payments through forbearance rather than enroll in low-cost repayment plans tied to their income. The claims went back to when Navient was known as Sallie Mae.
Settlement Will Deliver $1.7B In Student LoN Cancellation, $95M In Payouts
The settlement agreement spans 39 states and will deliver $1.7 billion in private student loan cancellation to 66,000 borrowers nationwide and another $95 million in payouts.
The deal ends a major portion of linked legal actions that began five years ago when federal and state prosecutors sued the company.
Navient continues to deny the allegations and says the decision to settle was purely economic.
“This is really about eliminating a time-consuming, distracting and costly process,” Jack Remondi, Navient’s chief executive, told MSN. “With the ability to explicitly deny the claims that were made in these cases and borrower harm, I think it’s noteworthy that we’re not giving up on our defense here. We’re just agreeing that it’s time to move on.”
About 350,000 federal student loan borrowers who were placed in certain types of long-term forbearances will receive payments of about $260, MSN reports.
Last June, a group of former students who took out loans with Navient were given the green light to proceed with its class action lawsuit against the student loans servicer.
In March, Navient was hit with a separate class action lawsuit filed by investors who alleged that the company misled them about an alleged conspiracy to push borrowers into pricey forbearance plans.
Have you ever had your money managed by Navient? Tell us what your experience with the company was like in the comments section!
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543 thoughts onNavient to Cancel 66,000 Student Loans Amid $1.85B Predatory Loan Settlement
Hi,
I’ve had 2 of my kids went to college in MN one St. Catherine’s other Hamline University. Both took out loans from Sallie Mae & Navnet I was their Co-Signer. $150,000 for 1 $140,000 other. I/they were lucky their Grandmother had payed off St. Catherine’s Bill and 1/2 of Hamline. Thus was in her will but the other 1/2 did not get paid as he still had 2 years left at Hamline. I’ve done my best in paying until Covid hit. Still owed $13,000. With a diagnosis of SLE Lupus with Kidney involvement at that sametime. I couldn’t make anymore payments. I called and offered $30 a month was ($120.00) they all but laughed. Called my Son and myself daily 5-7 times threatening to getting him kicked out of school. I’m not a dumb woman. Every month depression has sets in seeing interest go higher and higher. I do know when we bought our home in 1990 my husband still owned “11,000 we had to pay it off before we got a loan praying it doesn’t happen to him. The payments now come to $276.00 monthly I’m on Social Security and only get $320.00. I really could use some help please Add me.
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Did 2 forbearance’s
Each time adding unimaginable payments tried to ask for other help like pay by income they always gave me the runaround. Oh one may ask what about my Son paying he passed away. Remember I’m the Cosigner. Sad but true.
Navient (formerly known as Salle Mae) was my student loan provider. I first applied for my first student loan in the Spring of 2007. I was expecting my first child and wanted to gain financial security. I would always see an ad for Everest Institute TV and thought why not check them out before I make a big decision on where to attend to continue my education. Sad to say but it was the biggest mistake of my life. Not only were the people very very pushy at Everest Institute I was getting hassle by Salle Mae for resuming payments even before it was time. Being a New Mom, working full time paying bills rent and food I worried how I would come up with $300/mth just to pay off $11,000 that I borrowed. I first was pushed into a forbearance over the phone as being my only option. Never did the Representative explained that there are other options for repayment. They ensured me that it was they best option and they made it sound good. No payment for 12 months! Who wouldn’t take it to help lessen the financial stress. Soon I learned that while I did not have to make payments for those 12 months and this was more than on one occasion I was pushing over the phone to either forbearance, deferment and/or economic hardship as my only choices to pause my student loan payments. I soon realized that I owed more money than I had borrowed and started asking questions but they either could never give me a straight answer or none of it made since to me. When Navient took over my loan services I thought it would be different. I was wrong. I experienced the same thing even a little bit worse and this has been going on for years. I tried my luck to attend college one last time back in 2015. I returned to SanfordBrown College located in Mendota Heights, MN. It didn’t last long. My previous loans from attending Kaplan University on-line some how was in default before the 12 mth time frame and even worse while I was in school which shouldn’t happen in either case. I was forced into consolidating my loans to help get on the right track and out of debt. Need less to say because of Navient aka Salle Mae and their predatory behavior with me I have been in debt mostly student loan debt since 2007 and was getting charged high interest the whole time. I only in total borrowed close to $30,000 in FSA but somehow accumulated $20,000 extra totaling my student loan debt up to $50,000. I still have almost $35,000 in student loan debt as of today. It has made it very difficult to overcome a lot of turn downs because of student loan debt. I haven’t been able to become a first time homebuyer because of student loan debt. It had stop me from getting new vehicles for transportation for me and my NOW extended family. Instead I’ve had to deal with one car breaking down after another and it gets very cold in Minnesota so to travel on public transportation with them just to get them to school, daycare and me to work because very stressful. I never knew that there were people out here taking advantage of people like me who tried to better my education and make a better life for themselves and their children. It has left a bitter taste in my mouth about college and that’s not fair to me. Between the school making false promises and tell you one price of tuition then in person it’s $10,000 more to Navient purposely pushing me in to major debt that I otherwise would’ve had in the first place upsets me a bit
add me please
Please add me to this lawsuit because I was charged for loans I never seen and they added all them interest rates
Please add me. I went to Concorde Career College from 09/2013 to 11/2014.
Please add me to this lawsuit
Please add me
Please add me