My daughter's school loan suddenly had unsubsidized interest added on to a subsidized loan. She wrote letters, including a certified letter with proof o delivery, asking for an explanation and that the charge be removed. Sallie Mae never answered one letter, which is illegal. The interest kept going up and because I'd had the same thing happen to me with ACS that cost me $500 I never actually owed, and I was too busy to keep after her to keep after them, I paid off the $200.00 with a letter from her disputing the actual debt. At least it couldn't keep going up until we had time to devote to hassling with them.

To my surprise, last year unsubsidized interest was added to her bill, AGAIN. She is in school with an in-school deferment, which shows up on her account, and it is a subsidized loan. There is absolutely no reason for that charge to be on her account!

Again, she contacted them to straighten it out and they have entirely ignored her. It is now up to $200.00 again. Unless I pay it, which will total $400.00 literally stolen from us (in addition to the $500.000 ACS stole from me for my school loan), it will climb higher!

I see that Sallie Mae was completely privatized in 2004, with no more relationship with federal government. That is when these problems started.

Sallie Mae must believe they will never be held accountable because they follow no laws regarding contacting students before adding fees or interest for forbearances and defaults (which they are supposed to do a specific number of times if three payments are missed, and if they did students would know when the company is making a mistake on their account instead of discovering it down the line), and they do not bother to respond to disputes at all, let alone within the timeframe the law requires!

Sallie Mae is a horrible comapany all together. Customer service is probably the worst and no one knows anything. I wanted to pay off a loan which was over $20, 000 and they had the nerve to ask me why I wanted to pay it off and I should split the money up to pay other loans. Just today I called to speak to someone about a forbearance due to our economy and my recent lay-off. The lady informed me that they no longer did 6 months they decide how long you should have maybe 3 months manybe even two she told me. Who are these people? Do they have souls? She was the rudest person yet. They want you to pay a $150 fee to put your account into a forbearance...where does that money go? not my loan accounts! and now every 2-3 months!! HORRIBLE COMPANY!

Sallie Mae has the worst customer service via phone I have probably ever encountered. I like to think that as an on-time paying customer of Sallie Mae's for several years now, I would be treated with even a tiny bit of respect. Well, forget that. I'm sure they outsource their customer service to save a couple pennies. Leaving the customer high and dry at the end of this so- called conversation. Not only are the representatives rude and have little to no information about your account, you can hardly understand each other amidst this entire thing! It makes me wonder why I even pay on time every month. If i knew they could care a less about me as a customer and all they wanted was my money, I would have taken my business someplace else. Trust me, there are many other places willing to lend their money for educational purposes.
I'm feeling very betrayed by this company after all these years of paying my monthly bill on time and having never missed a payment. If you want to be treated with respect, take your business someplace else.

I graduated from a Tech school in December 2005. I have three private loans from Sallie Mae. Ive had several; forbearance on the private loans and have paid the processing fees to do so every six months. My account has been in overall good status since I graduated.

As of now Ive run out of the total allowed forbearance. My payments for the three private loans exceed $500.00 dollars a month and are unbearable. I have been trying to work something out with Sallie Mae since June of 2008 to consolidate my private loans because of now Im only paying interest payments, and not toward the actual debt I owe. The representatives on the phone they either hang up on you transfer you back into the hold queue or give out wrong information one of them told me as of June Sallie Mae has put a freeze on consolidation without reason and he had no idea why and recommended I find a bank or someone to help me consolidate because Sallie Mae will not help anyone in the private loan repayment consolidation nightmare.

Im contacting Dateline because this is a breach of contract in my humble opinion. When I was approved for these loans in my agreement it says Im able to consolidate, now that I want too Im being told I cant now. Two of my loans are 12% and the other is 15% interest only to make a grand total of $28, 426.34. The consumers need help; I dont know what else to do at this point. My loans are in good standing and I have a late fee of $157.47 to catch up, however the underlying point is the actions are unjust that Sallie Mae has broken our contract agreement and I dont know who to reach out too! This is unfair and I hope dateline or consumer affairs will start an investigation on this matter. I know I have documentation stating I could consolidate the private loans, and this agreement has been modified by Sallie Mae and I had no knowledge of this until recently. This is totally unfair and could possibly make me lose everything I have except my apartment I rent. Help!

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/sallie_mae.html

It’s hard to think about what is the right thing and what is the wrong thing to do. I feel like I’ve always tried to do the right thing for myself and those around me. Why, then, does it feel like everything I’ve accomplished in recent years is a mistake? In 2002, I did what most high-school graduates do: I applied for college. I was accepted into the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, which meant relocating from Tampa, Florida to Plattsburgh, New York. I suppose this was my first error in judgment.

Going to college is great, no doubt about it. I chose to go to a school out of state (way out of state), though, which meant a greater cost of tuition. Not only that, but my financially not well-off parents apparently made too much of a combined income for me to be offered any sort of support to help pay for college.

Immediately, I was thrust into the world of student loans. My parents and my brother did their best to help me out when I first started my college career, but soon enough I had built my own positive credit and was able to acquire loans in my own name.

That sure felt nice. I was financially independent from my parents. I was learning and growing on my own. I was becoming, or was preparing to become, a functioning, important part of society.

And then I graduated.

That’s supposed to be a time for great joy, right? Celebrations and parties. Pats on the back and hand shakes from those who have taught you for the past four years. A first step into the “real world” where you could find a good job. A job that would put everything you’ve studied for the previous four years to work. A job that would help you sustain an adult life.

Now, I realize that you’re not guaranteed a firm landing feet-first as soon as you receive a diploma. I didn’t expect, though, that it would take two years for me to find a job that applied even a hint of what I had studied each day.

So, there I was. Finally. A job that I enjoyed in a field that was related to my degree. Things were looking up, right?

Wrong.

Because I still didn’t make enough money to cover the costs of my growing student loans. The main problem? Loans through Sallie Mae. A company, who I’ve found, through research online and from word-of-mouth, is one of the most customer unfriendly loan-servicing companies around. A quick Google search of “Sallie Mae Complaint” will bestow upon you a bevy of sites chock full of people voicing their displeasure with this company.

I could be one of them. I should be one of them. Each month, Sallie Mae expects me to pay them in excess of $400. That comes out to be a third of my paycheck each week. That doesn’t sound so bad, until you factor in some other things. Things like rent, groceries, bills... oh, and let’s not forget – my other student loans.

I spoke with Sallie Mae. I tried to tell them that there was no possible way that I could afford that payment each month. I tried to tell them that I just didn’t make enough money to make ends meet. I tried to work with them to lower my payments. I tried. They didn’t. Every response was a canned response. Every solution came from a playbook intended to drive my debt up even further while I flounder.

I’ve met with a student loan advisor whose advice to me was: “You need to have more money. Or marry someone who does.”

Solid advice.

I sought out additional employment, and I’ve finally come across it. Now I work two jobs – one full-time, one part-time. From 9 to 5, I have a day job where my degree is put to use. From 5 to 9, 10, or 11 PM, I wash dishes. Is this it now? Are fourteen hour work days the American Dream?

It might be, but I wasn’t done there. I’ve now got a third job! A design job on a project-by-project basis. 24 years-old with three jobs, and I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to fully support myself. Maybe that’s it? The unending stress and helplessness that comes with being a college graduate? Is that the American Dream?

I know that I’m not alone. I know that I’m not the only person who is affected by a loan company keeping them from experience a life that is free of doubt and sadness. I know that I’m not the only person trying to work with a company to set some sort of realistic payment plan to work on paying off a debt.

I know that I’m not alone. But maybe nobody else knows that. Maybe other people in my shoes don’t know that there are others just like them. Maybe the people who would fight for us don’t know that there are enough of us out there who are struggling. Maybe the people who are holding us down need to know that there is a better way. Maybe the people who outrank them need to see that there is something happening that just isn’t right.

I’m not looking for an easy out. I’m not looking for a way to get out of paying my loans back. I’m just looking for a way to pay my loans back. On time. At a rate that I can afford without having to decide if I’d rather not buy groceries this week or not pay a bill.

I thought I had it all figured out. High-school. College. Graduation. Job. I took all of the right steps. I did all of the right things. Still, I win and lose. I succeed and fail. I take one step forward and one step back. All at once. Every day. I am going nowhere with these problems looming over my head.

If this is how it is supposed to be – if this is the American Dream, then I hope that I wake up to a better reality.

Corey Collins
Plattsburgh, New York
(813) 468-7596
[email protected]