Primary tabs
In Navient Lawsuits, Unsettling Echoes of Past Lending Crisis
A man in Boston rolled several student loans into one, and his balance doubled overnight, with no explanation. Near Chicago, a 39-year-old former graduate student who had a financial windfall sent in a $10,000 check to pay off his loans — and the payment was promptly lost. The same thing happened to a woman in Maryland, who uncovered the problem three years later, after her loan had grown by $11,000. And in New York City, a 41-year-old homeless man, who should qualify for reduced monthly payments, has been pleading for a break on his loan payments but says that no one is listening.
Sound familiar?
State and federal lawsuits filed this week accused Navient, the largest collector of student loan payments in the nation, of the kind of sloppiness and misleading tactics that emerged in the mortgage market in the years after the financial crisis. The company, which is fighting the lawsuits, has denied wrongdoing. “Navient has a well-established, superior track record of helping student loan borrowers succeed in repayment,” Patricia Nash Christel, a company spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We will vigorously defend against these false allegations.”
Click Here to read the full article.
