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Navient Settlement 2022

Pennsylvania v Navient

The Settlement

On January 13, 2022, a proposed settlement was filed with the court. At the time of the publishing of this page, the settlement has not yet been reviewed or approved by the court. That means the terms may change and more or less people could qualify. This page will be updated when the settlement is approved by the court.

Below is a quick survey to help you figure out if you qualify for relief as the settlement is written. For more information about the settlement, watch my video.

  1. Do you have a Sallie Mae or Navient loan? If no, none of this applies to you.
  2. Do you live in Alaska, Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, or Wyoming? If yes, none of this applies to you.
    *NOTE* If you have a military zip code, you can ignore this part – continue reading below to see if you qualify.
  3. Is your Sallie Mae/Navient loan Federal or private? If Federal, you should receive a check for $260. There is no other relief for Federal loans.

    Continue reading only if you have PRIVATE Sallie Mae/Navient loans.

  4. Was your loan originated between 2003 and 2014? Only loans between those years qualify for relief.
  5. Have you missed 8 or more payments prior to June 30, 2021, so that the loan status is “charged-off”? Default is another way to say this. If your loan is in active repayment or forbearance/deferment, you do not qualify for any relief under this settlement. If you’ve only missed a few payments, but not 8, you do not qualify for any relief under this settlement.

    If you haven’t been disqualified by the above questions, you only need a Yes for one of the following questions to fully qualify for discharge.

  6. Was your loan originated under an Opportunity or Recourse program?
  7. Was your loan to attend any of the following for-profit schools/trade names/owners named below:
    • ACT, ABC Training Center of Maryland, TCI
    • Alta College
    • Apollo Group
    • ATI Enterprises
    • Bridgepoint Education
    • Career Education Corporation
    • Center for Excellence in Higher Education
    • Corinthian Colleges
    • DeVry University
    • Education Corporation of America (Willis Stein & Partners III, L.P.)
    • Education Management Corporation
    • Globe/MN School of Business
    • Graham Holdings
    • Infilaw Holding
    • ITT Technical Institute
    • Lincoln Tech
    • Marinello School of Beauty
    • Premier Education Group
  8. Was your loan a non-traditional loan:
    • You attended ANY for-profit university (not limited by the list above) and your FICO score was below 670 at origination;
      OR
    • You attended a public or non-profit university, and your FICO score was below 640 at origination.

If you got this far and answered YES to either #6, 7, or 8, you qualify to have your full balance discharged.

If you qualify for discharge, and you made any payments after June 30, 2021, that amount will be refunded to you.

A note about the discharge. If your charge-off date is more than seven years before June 30, 2021 (your charge off happened before June 30, 2014), you will not receive a discharge UNLESS the statute of limitations in your state is longer than seven  years (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – are the states that may be affected.) It is best to check with a local student loan attorney to verify what the state statute of limitations is, or simply contact your state Attorney General’s office.
Why seven years or statute of limitations? Because what Navient is really doing is promising not to sue on the debt. If the statute of limitations has expired, you cannot be sued. In other words, the contract cannot be enforced. If it cannot be enforced, there is no reason to “discharge” the debt. Further, credit reporting is only allowed for seven years as well, when it comes to unpaid debts. If your private loan has been in charge-off (default) for more than 7 years, it cannot be reported on credit reports.

If your loan charged-off within the seven years mentioned, it will be discharged and the loan be deleted from your credit reports. So far, this seems to be an automatically granted discharge. There does not seem to be a requirement to complete paperwork.

Problems with this settlement:

  1. You’re still paying, or the loan is in a forbearance/deferment – you get no relief. Even if you meet the criteria for #6, 7, or 8, you still get no relief.
  2. Your loan charged-off more than seven years ago, or it’s been longer than your state’s statute of limitations. If you happen to have made some payments after charge-off, you may have restarted the statute of limitations, which means it may not have expired yet. If the loan is not discharged under this settlement, will Navient sue? It is my belief that Navient has no plans to sue for loans that would otherwise qualify, but may have reset the statute of limitations because post-charge-off payments were made. But I’m just watching from the side-line. Protect yourself immediately by contacting your Attorney General. You can find yours through the National Association of Attorney Generals.