There are thousands of student loans that are going to be canceled after Navient reached a $1.85 billion student loan settlement. This is a settlement with the states and will cancel the balances of over 66k student borrowers. This is also intended to resolve allegations of some deceptive and unfair practices according to the state attorneys general.
Navient is one of the largest student loan services that exist in the country and this is a huge settlement agreement that will be life-changing for thousands of students. This is a settlement with more than three dozen states to try and resolve different predatory lending allegations over deceptive practices that might have gone on over a decade. This means handing over the $1 billion in private student loan debt by moving forward with the cancellation.
Students have been asking for and wondering throughout the pandemic what more might be done about student loans. For years students have been calling for help with the forgiveness of those student loans. Aside from the thousands that are canceled for loans, there will be others who also might see some compensation that’s hundreds of dollars.
Allegedly the loan service management company had tried to steer borrowers into more student loan debt with predatory forbearance practices. They are facing allegations that they repeatedly placed profits ahead of student borrowers with deceptive and abusive practices. Under the settlement agreement, Navient is denying that it violated consumer protection laws or that it caused borrowers any harm.
So far the company has served millions of student loans around the United States who collectively have taken out hundreds of billions worth of student loans. It’s estimated to be over $300 billion in student loans that they’ve serviced for American students. There are still millions of students who are in debt, with student loan debt estimated to be around $1.7 trillion in the U.S.