Um...not to be a jerk here but after this second comment it's clear what happened: Sallie Mae/Navient flat-out gave up, deciding to actually lose money on your account now and very possibly forever.

They set up a payment plan of some sort with you and went through this charade of having a nice lady talk through your budget, but this was basically throwing in the towel, not 'becoming' reasonable. Even the most politically or fiscally liberal accountant on Earth would probably agree with me here. The reason they didn't just say "fuck it, loan forgiven, go away" is to avoid setting the precedent they would just write off student loans for people who bitched enough. And probably some institutional wounded pride.

1% on any loan - of any kind, from any source, for any amount - is beyond belief. I'd chew off my fucking leg to get 1%, whether it's for a house or a degree or a car or a wild ass plan to transmute human gold (piss) into actual gold. It's below inflation 8 years out of 10. Only banks lending to banks get that kind of money (actually they get way better), and most Americans aren't real pleased that banks get such excellent interest rates with each other. You know, considering the bailouts and the fact private lenders charged students 3.5% to 7% for 100% federally guaranteed student loans.

Back on track though, the company will lose at least 1% every year on you simply because the value of money goes down faster than your interest payments come into their pockets. Inflation is generally 1.5-3% in stable times for the US, IIRC, so getting 1% from you means they basically lost 0.5% - 1.5%. Not to mention all the costs for recordkeeping, accepting your payments, blah blah blah. These aren't an entire percentage point or anything probably, but they're real costs.

You honestly didn't 'hack' or negotiate until Sallie Mae/Navient became reasonable; you balked and whined until they gave in, and tried to cut their losses.