Sallie Mae Reviews

A week or so after my consolidation application was submitted, I was contacted by the company and told that Sallie Mae had prohibited them from consolidatin my loan. Consequentially, I was unable to consolidate with Sallie Mae before the July 1, 2005 deadline. I consolidated the loans, along with my 2L law school loans, in June 2006 at 4.7%.

Over the life of the loans, I will end up paying thousands of dollars in additional interest. Sallie Mae is responsible for this, unless what it did was legal. If so, then the other company is responsible for this, because it should have known that it could not consolidate my loan, and that attempting to do so in late June would leave me unable to consolidate before the July 1, 2005 deadline.

I have the June 2005 consolidation application at home, which has all the information of the company I attempted to consolidate with.

Approximately $35,000 of my loans were consolidated at 4.7%, when they would have been consolidated at 2.8%. The net damage to me will be thousands of dollars in additional interest, compounded.

In todays mail my son got a notice from an attorney saying he was in default on his loans and they are charging him $1600 in collection fees on top of loans and interest. We are getting buried by this group. Never talk to the same person twice, no one there knows of the payment agreement I made years ago, and the debt is now over $120,000.

My son's account is in default, I can't see how we will ever be able to pay off what they say is owed and my health is suffering from the stress.

Second complaint, I was applying for a consolodation loan, and I had a question about their application on thier website, there is a question that confirms the last school I atteded, and it was wrong from, and they didn't have my school in the list, so I sent them an email on how to fix this, and they replied that I needed to check the website for the answer, I replied to them that I couldn't find it on the website, and they replied back to me, thanks for using sallie mae.

Third complaint, I have three loans with them and two of them they bought from another company, without my knowlege or consent, (I guess they do that all the time with would explain why they don't care about their customers) I don't think they should be allowed to do that, I don't want anything to do with sallie mae. Fourth complaint, one of my loans is for a school that went bankrupt and closed when I was about half way through it, and I never got any money back, I was not able to get a job for what i was going to school for, even though I aced every class, I had nothing to show for it, I was not able to use any of the schools resources to help me, the main reason I went there was because they talked so highly about job placement, and I didn't have that opportunity. I think that's about it. Thanks, Sam Davis

I called back on 4/3/07 and there was no record that this conversation even took place. I finally spoke to a manager, Sharon, who was even more useless than the low level reps. Her explanation is that my previous lender did not authorize the discount. When I pressed her for an answer as to why my previous lender has any say in the scenario being that my loan is with Sallie Mae and this is a Sallie Mae promotion, she had no response. After a month of getting the run around, I am finally fed up. Is it too much to ask to actually speak to someone that understands his business and that speaks English clearly? I am doing whatever I can to get my loan over to another company.

As the end of the day approached nothing happened so I called again. This time I was told that it was not possible. I explained to the Customer Service Manager Michael High, that I was told that the letter would be snt seven days ago and again promised the letter later in the day in question. The manager said that he could not help me, and became very rude and annoyed when I asked for someone who can. He refused to give me the name of his manager, he refused to give me the number for the Corporate Office and he refused to identify his location so that I could file a complaint.

I've had to put my loans in forbearance twice now and that process alone takes about 4 to 5 calls to 3 different places. At one point, I was dealing with three people, one at the Servicing Center, and two in the forbearance office each of whom sent me different forbearance forms through email, not to mention that they were very generic documents. One of them didn't even have Sallie Mae anywhere on it!!! It's as though their offices have no communication between them whatsoever. You call one person, and they give you one option, but when they transfer you to someone else, somehow that offer is no longer available. And trying to get Economic Hardship...forget it.

I only make about $1300 a month, yet they actually expect me to make a $500 good faith payment in addition to the $150 dollar fee. If I had that kind of money, don't you think I would be making my payments as scheduled! There has not been one person who has adequately answered any of my concerns regarding this issue, and I am beyond PO'd. I will never understand what happened to Sallie Mae's customer service or how it could have changed so drastically between 1999 and today.

My major complaint is their non-English speaking reps who don't understand your questions half the time, and then end up transferring you to someone who has no clue why you were referred to them. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's having to deal with this mess, and I'm really sorry I ever agreed to any of Sallie Mae's services. I've already requested the contact information for corporate offices, but who knows if anyone will actually provide me with that information. If anyone else has corporate information, please post it. I scoured the site for actual contact info, but not surprisingly it's not available.

This caused me to have a nervous breakdown. I did not finish school. I cannot get decent rates on cars and forget buying a house. They caused me so much economic hardship that all my loans went in default because of them. I feel so used and there collection agency is rude and disrespectful. I still have the documents from all my claims. If someone can help me to fight them. I would appreciate it. I have all my evidence locked in a vault. They caused me alot of mental and financial hardship. I was going to school and was doing fine until they purchase my loan from EdAmerica. I never had any of my loans go into default. I was very responsible with my loan until they took what life I had away from me. I did report them to my local State Attorneys Office last week.

I recently received a payment book and have found out that I now owe over $1000 in accrued interest and that they are charging me payments and interest over 9 years at a cost of over $16,000 to pay off $3000. I think that is criminal.

Now, I am continually receiving letters from Sallie Mae and their bill collectors to pay for all loans. The college I attended was not an accredited institution and now I have 9 months of classes that I cannot transfer to other colleges, I have a partial education that is of no use to me and I am continually being threatened that my wages will be garnished.

After a year or two, they stopped applying my payments to principal and only the interest. I can't seem to understand how is this possible. If the interest is driven by the principal why not pay it?!?!? Since I couldn't get answers from them, I told them that I was going to have another education loan company take over. I applied and the company told me that they have had problems with Sallie Mae. Either they refuse to hand over the loans or they ignore the requests. If the loan is going to be paid off by a government endorsed loan company why won't Sallie Mae take it?

Then I watched 60 Minutes. They did a report on Sallie Mae. And it dawned on me -- Sallie Mae gets paid regardless, if someone defaults on a loan the government pays it. And who pays in the end? We who pay our bills. They get paid more money from those who pay. I need someone's help. HOw do I get out of business with Sallie Mae? How can I get them to tell me how their math works? How can I get them to explain to me why they keep trying to have me pay over 400.00 in monthly payments? Clearly any answers will not be found through their customer service!

I am mainly upset and trying not to default on this loan. I am taking economic hardship.

I was in so much debt before I knew it now I am not sure if I will ever be able to pay it off. I can't afford anything. You can't find a high enough paying job at my age of 21 to pay this loan of fast enough. It's like im paying for a house not an education. At this rate I won't ever be able to afford a house or a family. I wish someone would have warned me ahead of time. I would have choosen not to get an education.

My loan started at 7.75% with a principle balance of $21,000. I was sent a letter a couple of weeks ago stating the interest went up to 11.75%. Two weeks later I went to the web site to check my loan status and payoff amount and the interest was at 12%. My total 15 year term went from 41K to 50K within a year!

Everything about the initial process revolved around the English lanugage. After the fact though, I can't seem to talk to anyone who speaks fluent english.

Within two months everything changed. My husband left me and my job decided to revert to my normal hours which would prevent me from continuing. When I realized I would have to leave school I went to the relevant person at school and told them I had to withdraw because of family reasons, I was feeling way too low to explain everything but had no idea I would be trapped with a such a huge debt. While my loans at 2% (federal) were all sent back, my loans through Sallie Mae at 14% were retained. I could not understand how I would be stuck with loans for an entire semester, when I had barely completed a quarter.

Now I owe them over $23,000 and it is mounting and I have no idea how I am going to pay. I am back in school full time, however, everytime I turn around there is a representative from Sallie Mae on the phone. I feel like the world is closing in on me and I have no recourse. I pray I do have some recourse and someone can give me advice.

The consequences have been severe to my credit, my financial standing and future, I am considering bankruptcy but not sure how that will help. I need to find out if there is a way to work on this issue, yet I feel completely trapped.

My credit is ruined, I cannot further my education which impacts my economic capabilities.

I have asked these people to either email me or send me an application for help with my payments which I never received. They explain to me that it will take 7-14 business days for it to get by mail which come, and in addition, my interest seems to magically increase and my payoff grows larger and larger.

I tried to call the customer service number to speak with a manager; I got put on hold for 15 minutes. Also, I have tried to call during the evening hours within the time frame they give you, waiting for 70 minutes for someone to pick up, which no one ever does. My husband has also tried to do this as well and gets the same thing.

This time, I tried to do it on-line. I tried to pay more to cover myself but the system kicked me out and said that it will only accept a 5-day pay-off amount, which was $14.28. Sallie Mae got my money on the 30th. Guess what? I still owe them a dollar. I know its just a dollar, but when will it end? Is it not true that this 10-day pay-off that they advertise on their phone messages and on their website a form of false advertisement?

I want my change from the $51,300 and the $14.28 that I paid. I realize now that I did my part: my wife and I refinanced our house to pay off my student loans and we paid more than what the stated pay-off amount was and ended up still owing Sallie Mae. It is Sallie Mae's turn to do its part. We are doing our best to start 2006 debt-free. This is very aggravating. I'm finding it hard to sleep and this whole thing is giving me a headache. Please do something. Thank you so much, have a nice day and a very happy new year to you all.

2. At this time we noticed from our payment history that Sallie Mae did not put ANY money towards the principle amount of the loan for approx. 18 months. They just recently started putting some money towards our principle (the last 2 months, nothing has gone to the principle again). Prior to 18 months ago, before Sallie Mae took over our loan, it was SLM, SLM applied money towards our principle every month until SLM took over!.

3. In 2000, our balance was 9000, today it is $8100 - and we've paid out about $ 5000.00-6000.00

4. We've threatened to go to a lawyer and they sent a letter telling us that they would give us $ 700.00 if we sign a release! ?? We did not sign it because we feel that Sallie Mae is doing things incorrectly and owes us settlement. *I've called several lawyers in the phone book, but only found one that does this kind of work and he said that he's so overwhelmed with cases that he doesn't have time to look at it. Anyone out there interested? I feel that this company is in properly applying payments and more students may be unaware of what is going on.

Cost us $ 10,000 in additional interest fees, our balance still isn't going down no matter how much extra we pay each month and it's caused us a lot of stress.

This has cause a hardship on my life. I am so far in dept any way and then making me pay back more which makes my payments higher is very hard on me. I am working two jobs and it is still hard keeping my head above water.

I then stated that I would send him some money, since I do not have much and he said even if I paid for my loan it will still default. It was not disclosed to me that this loan was not eligable for forebearance or deferment. This is only one of many encounters with Sallie mae and I have proof of many other encounters. I called the collection agency and disputed the bill as being legal and valid.

I have already been hospitalized for stress related to the incompetence of Sallie Mae. Mental and physical anguish and monetary damages have accrued due to Sallie Mae's inability to keep loans organized and keep their clients abreast of what is occuring. I had a witness on the phone with me who witnessed Roger's inability and refusal to help me and lack of professionalism. Due to my mental health, I have to ask people to repeat what they say sometimes to retain it and when I asked him to repeat an answer to a question he said, Oh you were not paying attention to me were you. Well, listen this time. It was unbelievable. That is a bit disturbing you know that this man would say such a thing to a handicapped woman. It is horrifying.

On December 26th or 27th, my wife noticed that our checking account was overdrafted and we were charged a $10.00 service fee for our checking accounts overdraft protection which then drew from our savings to cover the payment. On January 3rd I contacted Sallie Mae to find out why they had initiated the payment I had requested they not initiate. I was informed that the forebearance was not processed in time to stop the payment initiating from my checking account (18 days isn't enough?).

The representative I spoke with apologized for the error and forwarded me to a supervisor to see if there wasn't something they could do for me. After explaining everything again to the supervisor, the supervisor apologized for the employee error and informed me there was nothing that could be done. I asked about the $10.00 overdraft fee I was charged as a result of the error, and again the supervisor apologized and said there was nothing that could be done. I informed the supervisor that I would be moving my consolidated student loans back to the Department of Education and filing a complaint, but all she could say yet again was sorry. It seems that Sallie Mae should have at least taken responsibility for the error that they admit happened and reversed the transaction and if necessary reimbursed the $10.00 overdraft fee.

Overdraft of our account resulting in $10 service fee.

It's my business how I paid off this loan the fact I consolidated with another shows more debt than showing paid off

When I called to find out the details they told me they would send a letter in 2-3 weeks meanwhile I have to pay new amount or take a temporary forbearance. I paid them old amount in March, one month passed I didn't receive anything. What concerns me the most is how can I trust that they calculated it right this time. How can they increase my payments 30%? And how come they know how much to charge but don't know where and how the error initiated. Can they do it?

also said I think their company is a sham! I am sure next month the same thing will happen. I am getting calls all hours of the day asking me to call about my options of payment. They want to take the monies out of my checking account which I will not permit! I have also written a letter with retrun receipt requested. I am copying all the invoices they send and keeping them for my records. I live on a fixed income and trying to make ends meet every month all my bills are always paid on time and I have an excellent credit rating and for Sallie Mae to send me threatening letters and phone calls it is absolutely unfounded!

I am upset that I am getting called all hours of the day. My pressure goes up everytime I try to rectify this situation.