Posted on 08/05/2021 6:49:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
The road to justice can sometimes be long, winding, and tedious, but we can take comfort knowing that sometimes bad things do happen deservedly to bad people. Think of the hanging of outlaws in the Old West or hot wax being poured on Dr. Phibes.
Sometimes, big, dirtbag corporations run by corrupt ethical crooks get their comeuppance, or at the very least a judge rules that said corporation has to face said comeuppance in a court of law. One such trial (hopefully soon to be trials) I’m looking forward to with relish is the reckoning faced by the unbelievably slimy student loan servicer otherwise known as Navient. My wife and I call it “Deviant.”
Back in March, a judge in Washington State handed down a ruling in a lawsuit that the state’s attorney general has been pushing against Navient since 2017. The verdict stated that Navient, among other transgressions, violated the Consumer Protection Act and deceived its customers on the finer points of its cosigner policies. While the Washington State Attorney General’s claims were not all resolved in this ruling, a full trial is scheduled for the spring of next year.
What’s more, Washington State is not the only place where this cesspool of a company is in hot water. Just days ago, a New Jersey judge ruled against Navient’s efforts to dismiss a class action lawsuit brought on by a group of borrowers who allege that Navient misallocated payments to extend the life of the loans they hand out.
These developments are relatively new, but Navient’s mean streak is more than a mile wide and goes back years.
In 2015, the Department of Justice reached a settlement with Navient that saw the wretched company pay back $60 million in compensation to more than 77,000 service members who had been charged excess interest. Can anything be more low than taking advantage of the men and women who defend our country? Disgusting. One would think that all private citizens would have a little more respect for the people who put their lives on the line for us regular citizens, but this is the same company that likes to pickpocket teenagers going off to college, so why should they care about our service men and women?
After all, it’s not like the military fights for the freedoms of the same crooks who run Navient.
Likewise, Navient’s own shareholders lost patience with the company in 2016 and filed a class action suit. The lawsuit alleged that even as its market value dropped, Navient was misleading investors on financial reports. Given that Navient seems fine lying to shareholders, it’s no wonder they have zero compunction about lying to kids and their parents. The Internet is filled with stories of parents being taken advantage of by Navient.
Perhaps most despicably, this fraud of a company has the gall to pursue loans that were taken out by people who have since passed away before their time.
You read that correctly: in 2018, The Guardian reported that Navient had sent bills for collection to the guarantors and family members of a student who tragically died in a car accident years earlier. Despite maintaining a policy of debt forgiveness for unforeseen circumstances, for some reason Navient still felt compelled to chase after this poor kid’s family for money. I doubt it was the only instance of this disgusting and vile practice.
Can you imagine anything more embarrassing than the employees of Navient/Deviant having to put in their obituaries they worked there? The obituary just might read, “And the deceased also worked for the Navient scumbag corporation.”
Navient has only existed for a few short years, ever since it split from Sallie Mae back in 2014. Yet in that time, it’s proven itself more than capable of ruining lives and rubbing salt in old wounds.
This company is responsible for the loans of millions of students across the United States. But the blatantly obvious disregard it demonstrates toward its customers is almost admirable, that is, if you’re a systemic criminal like Al Capone. The fact it holds the financial fortunes of so many young people in its hands is downright frightening.
Thankfully, attorneys general in multiple states are taking action, and strong litigation against Navient seems to be on the horizon. My fervent hope is that every judge and every jury across this great land sees the sense to treat Navient like the evil institution it is and throw the book at the amoral sociopaths who run that company for a living. The sooner Navient is run into the ground, the better.
The whole student loan thing is a mess.
BY the way, if you pass away while owing a student loan - then that becomes a debt of the estate, not the heirs (although satisfaction of that loan will direct the estate proceeds to the debtor, rather than the heirs.) That is the general rule for any debt - if you own a house with a mortgage, the morgage doesn’t disappear if you die.
Generally, though, minor creditors like credit card companies tens to write off, rather than pursue, the loan in those cases.
Found it!
I had to read almost to the end to find the real source of the problem. “Navient has only existed for a few short years, ever since it split from Sallie Mae back in 2014.”
Spun off from a quasi government agency. To me that explains everything. I now wonder Who & What (agencies) in the federal government have been protecting Navient and will they reup as soon as the whistleblowers start blowing their whistles.
https://www.thebalance.com/student-loans-after-death-4777625
Federal Student Loans
All federal student loans are dischargeable upon a borrower’s death, which is an important benefit of federal student loans.
Federal student loans are not passed on to anyone in your family or even your estate. If you die, your federal student debt is instead fully forgiven and is no longer owned or owed by anyone.
Sorry but this commentary is nothing more than someone that has real hatred for a company that they owe money to. It does not get into the actual allegations and the contracts people signed.
For example, the settlement about the military members being overcharged. The rules around that have been in flux at times and the requirements for when you qualify and when you don’t and what documentation is required is far from clear and often borrowers do not properly notify their lenders that they want to or are entitled to the benefit.
They may be a crappy company, I get that but the rant and allegations made in the screed are not likely the whole story.
It may be hard to remember but it was the Obama Administration that removed the public marketplace option from education loans. From 1965 to 2010, students could get education loans from multiple sources with the Federal Government guaranteeing those loans to the lenders. After the credit crisis of 2006-2009, private & bank loans became nearly impossible to get BUT the new Federal program had no sunset provision, so it became and still is the sole provider.
Anyone care to see the parallels to single-provider health insurance from the Feds? Anybody hear the echo of Obama’s then Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel’s axiom about not letting a crisis go to waste?
What isn't being said here is that Sallie Mae itself was a scumbag quasi government agency. Navient was created to help the ObaMao administration assume complete control over student loans but give the public the veneer of competition.
There are now a mere handful of alternatives to scumbag government student loans. Hillsdale College bans government loans but has their own group of lenders (offering better rates) because they tend to graduate students with the training and character to pay back the loans. The Bank of North Dakota is another good example. Although the bank is state owned, its default rate is near zero because they strictly limit loans for useless degrees and professional students.
Actually student loan debt is completely discharged for people who die. The loan obligations are not passed to any heirs.
My wife died and her loans were discharged. Of course, didn’t stop them from garnishing our last joint tax refund. Took 3 years to get Navient to return the money.
Navient / Sallie Mae is scum.
caveat emptor
Not true—if a federal student loan borrower dies, the loan is discharged. And if the borrower is a parent for their student child, the loan is discharged if either the parent borrower or the student dies.
Bookmark
No.
Federally backed student loans are discharged at moment of death, completely.
Some private SL lenders will do the same, they usually do.
If the SL loan has a co-signor that may be different.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/your-student-debt-doesnt-always-die-with-you
NO.
Navient is as the article says they are. I know this from personal experience and the vast experience of others.
Thanks. I didn’t know that.
“They may be a crappy company, I get that but the rant and allegations made in the screed are not likely the whole story.”
Except for pursuing family surivors of deceased debtor I have not seen what laws they broke.
Oh Joy!
I have a $20K Fedloan for my daughter. Started paying on it April 2018 and have made regular monthly payments of $360 Usually I send in more, it least $400 Since all Fedloads were placed in forbearance in March 2020 I have made regular monthly $800 to $2,000 in monthly payments.
As of today, that $20K loan balance is $8500 I don’t have the numbers with me now but I have paid, with including the last 16 months of no interest, about $11,000 in interest (on a $20K loan).
My plan is to make a $2,000 payment Sept 1st and another $2,000 by Sept 30th. I’m not at all convinced that the administration will extend the forbearance past Sept 30. Still this would leave me with a balance of $4500 subject to interest.
I should have this loan paid by the end of Dec of this year. Which means in rough numbers it cost me $12K for a $20K loan that I paid off in 3.5 years (or 6.5 years early). If I had made the recommended $360 monthly payment for 10 years, the interest would have amounted to 23K which is more than the principal. This is, don’t forget, a Fedloan.
Huh?
I feel dumber for having tried to read this confusing story.
There is a whole lot of name calling and. not a lot of facts.
The DOJ and Attorney Generals pursuing a company - is that a bad thing or a good thing? Probably depends on if it is one of the good groups or the corrupt groups.
It’s great there’s been no interest on student loans since covid. A silver lining.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.