The Navient lawsuits ended in two big deals. In 2022, Navient settled with 39 state attorneys general for $1.85 billion, most of it private student loans that were canceled. In 2024, a federal court entered a CFPB order that banned Navient from servicing federal Direct Loans for good and made it pay $120 million.
If you had Navient, there’s a good chance it isn’t your servicer anymore either. Navient moved its student loan servicing to MOHELA on October 21, 2024.
Here’s who got relief, what Navient was accused of, and what you should check on your own loans now.
The short answer
- 2022 state settlement: about $1.7 billion of subprime private loans canceled for nearly 66,000 borrowers, plus about $260 each to roughly 350,000 federal borrowers steered into long-term forbearance.
- 2024 CFPB order: Navient is permanently banned from servicing Direct Loans and pays $100 million in redress plus a $20 million penalty.
- Nobody had to file a claim for the 2022 money. Eligible borrowers were to be notified by Navient or the settlement administrator.
- Your Navient loans are now serviced by MOHELA, with the same account number and your auto pay carried over.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Navient and its collection arm, Pioneer Credit Recovery, on January 18, 2017. State attorneys general investigated the same conduct, and their 2022 agreement came with its own complaint and consent judgment. You can read the CFPB’s original complaint if you want the full detail.
If you had Navient and spent a long stretch in forbearance, this part is about you.
The biggest charge was about forbearance. Borrowers with long-term money problems were steered into forbearance, which is meant for short-term hardship and lets interest keep piling up, instead of being told about income-driven plans. The suits also said Navient:
- didn’t give borrowers on income-driven plans proper notice that they had to recertify their income every year, and misled them about what happened if the paperwork was wrong or incomplete
- misled private loan borrowers about what it took to release a cosigner
- misapplied and misallocated payments
- reported inaccurate credit information for borrowers whose loans were discharged for total and permanent disability
- misled defaulted borrowers, through Pioneer, about how loan rehabilitation would change their credit reports and which collection fees would be forgiven
The 2022 settlement: who got relief
On January 13, 2022, a bipartisan group of 39 attorneys general announced a $1.85 billion agreement with Navient. It covered two very different groups of borrowers.
| Relief | Who it was for | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Private loan cancellation | Nearly 66,000 borrowers with subprime private student loans, mostly made to students at for-profit schools and colleges with low graduation rates | Nearly $1.7 billion in balances canceled, plus refunds of payments made on those loans after June 30, 2021 |
| Restitution payments | About 350,000 federal loan borrowers who had been placed in certain long-term forbearances | $95 million in total, about $260 each |
| Payment to the states | The attorneys general | $142.5 million |
Did you have to do anything to get it? No.
Nobody had to apply. Borrowers whose private loans were canceled were to get a notice from Navient. Federal borrowers who qualified for a payment were to get a postcard from the settlement administrator, and the only thing they needed to do was keep their studentaid.gov account and address current.
The deal also changed how Navient had to treat struggling borrowers. It had to explain income-driven plans and offer to estimate an income-driven payment before putting anyone in optional forbearance, train staff on Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and stop paying call center reps in ways that rewarded rushing borrowers off the phone.
Federal loans were not canceled
The 2022 cancellation covered private loans only. If you have federal loans, the settlement didn’t wipe out any of your balance. Federal forgiveness still runs through federal programs like PSLF and income-driven repayment, which our list of student loan forgiveness programs covers.
The 2024 CFPB order
The CFPB case dragged on for more than seven years. On September 12, 2024, the federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania entered a stipulated judgment that:
- permanently bans Navient from servicing federal Direct Loans
- bars it from consumer-facing servicing of FFEL loans and from buying more FFEL loans
- requires $100 million in consumer redress and a $20 million penalty
For you, the ban is the part that sticks: Navient can’t service your federal Direct Loans again.
The CFPB’s case page doesn’t say how or when the $100 million gets paid out. If you’re owed part of it, expect an official notice. Ignore anyone who wants money up front to get you into a settlement. Federal Student Aid’s rule is simple: never pay an outside company for help with your federal student loans.
Navient doesn’t service student loans anymore. MOHELA took over on October 21, 2024, and Navient says all of its student loan servicing moved, with rare exceptions such as defaulted loans.
Your account number, loan terms, interest rate and benefits stayed the same. So did your user ID and password, your auto pay and any deferment, forbearance or repayment plan you were already on. So what do you actually have to do? Not much. What changed is the website, and you now log in at servicing.mohela.com.
Navient’s contract to service federal Direct Loans for the Department of Education had already ended in 2021, and Navient isn’t on studentaid.gov’s list of federal servicers. If your federal loans were with Navient years ago, they moved to another servicer back then. Here’s who the federal servicers are now.
- Find your current servicer. Log in to studentaid.gov and open My Aid, or call 1-800-433-3243. For private loans that were with Navient, log in at MOHELA.
- Check your repayment plan. The federal plan menu changed a lot, and SAVE is over. Our repayment plans guide shows what you can use now.
- Look at your history. If you spent years in forbearance and you work in public service, PSLF buyback may let you pay for those months once you have 120 months of qualifying employment.
- Pull your credit reports. They’re free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com. Dispute anything about your student loans that’s wrong.
And if money’s tight, learn from what got Navient in trouble. Ask about an income-driven plan before you accept forbearance. On the Repayment Assistance Plan, the payment can be as low as $10 a month, and those months still count toward forgiveness. Run yours in the RAP calculator.
The CFPB and state attorneys general said Navient steered struggling borrowers into costly long-term forbearance instead of explaining income-driven plans, misapplied payments, misled private loan borrowers about cosigner release and misled defaulted borrowers about rehabilitation. The states settled in 2022 for $1.85 billion, and the CFPB case ended with a court order in 2024.
No. The 2022 settlement canceled nearly $1.7 billion of subprime private student loans for nearly 66,000 borrowers. About 350,000 federal borrowers got restitution payments of about $260 each, but their federal loans were not canceled.
No claim form was needed for the 2022 settlement. Borrowers with canceled private loans were to get a notice from Navient, and eligible federal borrowers were to get a postcard from the settlement administrator. Never pay anyone to get you into a settlement.
MOHELA. Navient moved its student loan servicing to MOHELA on October 21, 2024. Your account number, loan terms and auto pay carried over, and you log in at servicing.mohela.com.
No. Navient’s contract to service Direct Loans ended in 2021, and the 2024 CFPB order permanently bans it from servicing Direct Loans. It is not on the federal servicer list at studentaid.gov.
Sources (9)
We use primary sources wherever we can: Federal Student Aid, the U.S. Department of Education, the IRS, federal regulations and each company’s own site.
- New York State Attorney General. Attorney General James Secures $1.85 Billion From Deceptive Student Loan Servicer. ag.ny.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Navient Corporation, Navient Solutions, Inc., and Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc.. consumerfinance.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Bans Navient from Federal Student Loan Servicing and Orders the Company to Pay $120 Million. consumerfinance.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Complaint: CFPB v. Navient Corporation et al.. consumerfinance.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Navient. Loan Servicing: Say Hello to MOHELA. navient.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Who’s My Student Loan Servicer?. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. PSLF Buyback. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Definitions: RAP and Tiered Standard. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Getting a free copy of your credit reports. consumerfinance.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
