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UpdatedSep 25, 2023   |  5-min read
Reviewed byJeff Gitlen, CEPF®
Expertise:Student loans, personal loans, home loans, insurance, credit cards
Jeff Gitlen, CEPF®, is the director of content operations at LendEDU. He graduated from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware.
Learn more about Jeff Gitlen, CEPF®
If you have student loans, there’s a good chance that you’re sending your student loan payments to Navient. It’s one of the largest student loan servicers in the U.S., handling both federal student loans, including Parent PLUS loans, and private student loans.
Navient manages the billing, services, and the loan repayment process. But it also launched a company, NaviRefi, in 2018 that offers student loan refinancing.
There’s so much more to know about Navient, whether it processes your loan payments or if you refinance your student loans through its related company.
In this review:
- Getting to Know Navient
- Refinancing With NaviRefi
- Navient Benefits
- Navient Drawbacks
- Alternatives
Get to Know Navient
Navient was once part of Sallie Mae, which started as the government-sponsored enterpriseStudent Loan Marketing Association in 1972. In 2010, the U.S.Department of Education announced it would begin issuing federalstudent loans directly to borrowers. This meant the U.S. government would no longer depend on companies like Sallie Mae to distribute federalstudent loans.
To manage this change, Sallie Maesplit into two public companies in 2013. Sallie Mae continues to provide a variety of services, including issuing privatestudent loans.
The Navient spin-off was designed so the company could focus on loan servicing for private and federalstudent loandebt. Since the spin-off, Navient has taken over many contracts that Sallie Mae previously held with the Department of Education.
In 2017,Navient acquired the financial technology company Earnestandlaunched NaviRefi in 2018to offer student loan refinancing.
Refinance With NaviRefi
At this time, NaviRefi is only extending an offer to refinance student loans to current Navient customers by invitation through email or letter. Once you get invited, the application process is fairly simple, and you can receive a quote within minutes. You can refinance your student loans to lower your monthly payments or pay them off faster.
Once approved, you can refinance multiple loans and have one simplified repayment plan. You can refinance a minimum loan amount of $5,001 up to $250,000 for loans for medical, dental, pharmacy, or veterinary doctorate programs. There are no origination or prepayment fees.
Since this service is fairly new, there isn’t a lot of feedback yet on how it works. You will, however, likely need a good credit score and good repayment history on existing student loans. And the loans are not available in California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, or Nevada.
NaviRefi offers fixed-rate and variable-rate loans, but some states will only allow fixed-rate loans from NaviRefi.
NaviRefi loans are made by Earnest Operations (see our full Earnest Student Loans Review here) and serviced by Navient Solutions.
This is considered a private loan, so if you refinance your federal loans through NaviRefi, you will lose the benefits and protections of your federal student loans, including access to income-driven repayment plans and other repayment options.
>> Read More: NaviRefi Student Loan Refinancing Review
Benefits of Navient
There are some advantages to working with Navient. For one, it offers a variety of repayment options and as noted above, for some customers, the opportunity to refinance. Borrowers have the option to customize their monthly payments within certain parameters, set up automatic payments from your bank account, more.
When it comes to federal loans, borrowers have access to the standard lineup of federal loan benefits including income-drivenrepayment plans; standard, graduated, and extended repaymentplans; forbearance and deferment; and the potential for student loan forgiveness and discharge.
The company also offers hardship optionsfor privatestudent loans, including a rate reduction program, term and rate modification, interest-only, and extended student loanrepayment plans. Your eligibility depends on the terms of your loan and a review of your financial situation in some cases.
Drawbacks of Navient
Navient has experienced its share of controversy over the years. Last year, itbegan issuing refundsaveraging about $770 each to 80,000 veterans who were overcharged for their student loans. Navient will have to pay $60 million total.
Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan filed suit against Navientfor alleged misdeeds,and a few other states have followed. It has also been investigated by theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB) for allegedly cheating borrowers. And it is currently facing several lawsuits claiming the servicer harmed student loanborrowers during the repayment process.
The financial institution has had numerous consumer complaints about its customer service and actually received the most CFPB complaints of all student loan companies in 2018.
>> Read More: Navient Lawsuits: Updates and Impact
Alternatives to Navient
If you’re considering getting rid of Navientstudent loans, you can consider several private loan alternatives.
- Earnest offers refinancing loans with rates as low as 2.39%
- ELFI offers refinancing loans with rates as low as 2.39%
- Citizens Bank offers refinancing loans with rates as low as 2.72%
You should always do your homework before taking on a new student loancompany. Get quotes from multiple companies so you can ensure that you’re finding the best deal possible in terms of interest rate, loan program, repayment options, and overall benefits.
If Navient services your federal student loans, but you don’t want to refinance those loans with a private lender, you might be able to switch to a different loan servicer by applying for federal direct loan consolidation.
>> Read More: List of student loan companies
