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Sallie Mae Reviews

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About Sallie Mae

Sallie Mae is a private student loan company that lends to full-time, part-time and less than half-time students. It approves 95% of loans when the student signs up with a cosigner. Its loans can be used for all school-related purchases, including classes, books and housing. Sallie Mae offers the Multi-Year Advantage program, in which students can reapply for a loan easily year after year.

Pros
  • High rate of approved loans
  • $0 origination
  • Multi-Year Advantage offering
Cons
  • Unclear credit requirements
  • Hard credit check

Sallie Mae Reviews

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    Page 2 Reviews 10 - 40
    Customer Service

    Reviewed Sept. 16, 2024

    I wish I could give them a ZERO....this company is unreal....you can't get a human...and when you do...say it's recorded but apparently it's not....I had to give information four time. After asking the fourth time I hung up.

    .

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    Coverage

    Reviewed June 24, 2024

    Edwin **: Terrible experience. Super discriminatory policies and were not following or practicing FCRA guidelines (title 15 -1681). Terrible services, terrible customer support, terrible underwriting.

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    PriceLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed May 15, 2024

    I would NOT get a loan or a student loan through Sallie Mae. They are Loan Sharks! They add on interest and cost that they could not - they will freeze your account without consent. Horrible company - horrible! They added 20K in interest to my son's loan - they would not talk with us - they made decisions on our account(s) without our consent! Walk away - bad people! Worst decision I ever made.

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    Customer ServiceCoveragePriceOnline & AppStaffBillingLoan Process

    Reviewed April 29, 2024

    Please do not get a loan with Sallie Mae. They have destroyed my life and countless other lives with their predatory business practices and horrible treatment and harassment toward their borrowers. I just spoke to them today about the way they have treated my elderly grandmother and cosigner, because they have harassed her with calls that have alarmed her, insinuating that she owes something on a loan that hasn't even matured yet. after months of inducing unsurmountable stress and anxiety in me and my grandmother, they admitted they shouldn't have been calling her, Their apology was not sincere, but callous and borderline condescending. They never addressed their behavior and they immediately moved to get money from me. So their actions and the detriment to mine and my grandmothers wellbeing they caused had no consequence for them.

    To put in perspective, during all this harassment I am still in school and I lost my job. Just today I explained this and tried to defer my loan payments and they tried to tell me that I don't qualify because it lists me as "part time". It is a part time masters program, that is the program they approved for the loan, that is not an enrollment status I chose, the program itself is called a professional part time masters because it involves distance learning and is structured differently. They still called my grandmother after I sent a cease and desist email and spoke to the consumer advocacy and they said they removed her, because it appears Sallie Mae knows they can circumvent the law. I created a change.org petition to try to put a stop to this because they have circumvented legal recourse for their actions long enough and its disgusting at this point: **.

    They truly are a loan shark disguised in a shiny 'reputable' wrapping thanks to the broad scope of schools they are willing to cover. But they don't have any integrity, they will approve heinous loan terms to charge someone amounts knowing they can never feasibly pay, in my case someone with no income on government benefits (my grandmother). Their finance charges are absolutely absurd. For some context, the finance charge for one of my loans is nearly double what I borrowed (Just the finance charge). That amount was justified by cosigner they required, who is an elderly senior citizen with zero income and has been on government aid for years.

    I am assuming they can get away with this because they have a monopoly on private student loans. Since I didn't qualify for a federal loan for my program/school (this seems to be the case with a lot of overseas schools from what I have seen) you have no choice but to take a Sallie Mae loan. A lot of these schools even say on their website the only private student loan option is Sallie Mae. So you are financially entrapped to accept whatever loan terms they put in front of you. They then harass you, drive you insane through incessant phone calls, texts, etc. with no regard for the mental or physical anguish they cause you.

    They will absolutely set you up to fail - I know I'm not the first and I won't be the last, there are a ton of stories from people who cannot get out of debt with Sallie Mae because they purposely set them up with egregious terms knowing that the person will never be able to pay it off and get out from under. They basically financially entrap you. Please do not fall for their trap. Please do not put yourself in this position. They don't care if they harm vulnerable populations like the elderly. They don't care about how they treat their borrowers. Please don't do it!

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    StaffBilling

    Reviewed Sept. 2, 2022

    To make a long story short this company is not helpful to their borrowers. Basically if you already used the Graduate Repayment Program and used the forbearance then that's it. You have no more options. So unless you miss a payment they will be more than happy to assist if possible but there is no guarantee. If you are trying to avoid that and trying to get ahead of this you can forget help. I will never ever recommend them to anyone. They are unhelpful and will send you all over the place to finally have someone tell you no they can't help. Even with Covid-19 they only pause the payments for three months. They never offered any alternative repayments other than the Graduate Repayment and once you used that then you're done. Now with Recession looming over they will not help. So I will repeat. Never ever use them.

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    Customer ServiceStaffBillingLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed Sept. 19, 2021

    I would like to say in my opinion Do Not Trust Sallie Mae. I Do Not Have a loan with them. But I was helping pay the interest rate a month. Somehow in 2016 all students were required to pay the interest rate. But needless to say I was paying twenty five a month. Never look at my bank statements but I was looking for something and what did I see instead of twenty five there was a total of over Five Hundred taken out of my account for 5 months. I had the bank stop the payments. Now all the time I paid the interest there was no statement from Sallie Mae nor to the student either. No paperwork on raising the payment. But once the payment stop Sallie Mae has called several times and called people and Stated To These Persons That the Student Used Them As A Reference.

    What madding is The student father left over 10 years no contact and then received a message about Sallie Mae Stating the Student used him as a Reference. In Fact Sallie Mae of Professionalism is a Negative with it Practice. I would Not Recommend Sallie Mae plus look at Better Business Bureau and Attorney General Office.

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    Loan ProcessRates

    Reviewed July 10, 2021

    I give a less favorable rating because I wasn't allowed sufficient time to graduate and secure a job before the interest on the loan began to accumulate. This is a cutthroat and predatory practice in my opinion.

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    Loan Process

    Reviewed July 1, 2021

    Poor quality when borrowing... I feel harassed every time I purchase something from anyone else lately... I hate to even have a doggone student loan at all... It’s too much of a hassle to apply for other stuff.

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    Punctuality & SpeedMaintenanceStaffLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed June 30, 2021

    Early on after graduating they offered very little help for me. I was not working for some time unable to find a job that would pay enough to repay my student loans. They offered little help and compounded huge amounts of interest growing a relatively modest student loan into an insurmountable mountain of debt that I will never be able to repay. Student loan servicers have ruined many young people's lives with these unfair practices...my current servicer Navient seems somewhat better, but I still not very trustful.

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    Loan Process

    Reviewed June 29, 2021

    Ever so thankful for the opportunity to finish college. Without student loans, it would not have been possible. Getting my degree was the highlight of my life and gave me confidence in myself during a very difficult time.

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    CoveragePriceLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed June 27, 2021

    Even with state grants, loans did not fully cover 3 years of an in-state university with no room and board. Then, I had to have my parents get denied a parent plus loan (even though they were paying nothing for my education), in order for me to qualify for a different type of loan. This was so stressful, that it interfered with my school work. The 2nd type of loan I needed in order to finish my bachelor's, skyrocketed my student loan debt due to compounding interest. If I could go back in time, I would not get a 4yr degree due to the unpayable interest Sallie Mae charges.

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    Staff

    Reviewed June 26, 2021

    They really helped me in my time need. Their offers were great for my needs at the time and repayment was easy. I would definitely recommend them to any student who is in need and can’t find the funds.

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    Customer ServicePunctuality & SpeedLoan Process

    Reviewed June 25, 2021

    I have been with Sallie Mae for many years, I started to pay off my loans but went back to college and had several forbearance. Because I started out late, I also went on disability until retirement and now I am in a program thru President Obama that I don't have to repay for 25 yrs then the loan will cancel. Sallie Mae was always a good company to deal with, great customer service.

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    Customer ServicePriceRefunds & PayoutsBillingLoan ProcessRatesResolution

    Reviewed Feb. 5, 2021

    In June of 2020 I enrolled in the Reduced Rate Program at Sallie Mae because the hours I was carrying at my university did not meet the minimum required by Sallie Mae to remain in deferment, but since I have not finished my degree yet, I don't have the benefit of the pay raise that would allow me to repay the loan in full terms. I received the paperwork verifying my enrollment, and the three months of "pre-enrollment" payments of $264.59 were made to qualify. In September I was advised I would have no payment as my enrollment was finalized and payments would begin again in October in the amount of $264.59 as auto-debit against my account as is required by the program. Instead, in October 2020, I was charged $624.15, causing my account to overdraft, for which I incurred $174 in fees from my bank and countless hours of headache trying to sort through the mess.

    After 16 separate phone calls to Sallie Mae during the month of October, I was advised that I would have to re-enroll in the program due to an error on their end, and that by once again making the payments for three months, I would be correctly enrolled. This time the amount was $311.15, which was more than the agreed upon amount, but for which I agreed to have the mess resolved. I made the qualifying payments in October, November and December and called at the end of January to confirm that I was correctly enrolled and could expect to see the next payment of $311.15 on Feb 3, 2021 and was assured that it would be done correctly.

    Today, Feb 5, 2021 the amount finally debited from my account, and instead it was $473.88. I once again called Sallie Mae, and after being sent to three different departments was assured someone would call me either Monday or Tuesday to sort it out, but if I hadn't heard from anyone by Wednesday to call again. I am at my wit's end. My husband and I are both teachers. I have very little free time to make these calls over and over. Sallie Mae does not value me as a customer, and I am certain I will have to call on Wednesday to be bumped from department to department again while they "research" and do nothing. It's a stress because you also never know if the person you get is going to be even be polite. That's hit or miss. Feeling helpless!

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    Customer ServicePriceRates

    Reviewed Jan. 8, 2021

    There is no courtesy from this predator. They have arbitrary 'policy' in place, which change depending on who you talk to. They don't send email correspondence to inform you that a forbearance is ending. They charge exorbitant interest (>9.9%).

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    Customer ServicePunctuality & SpeedStaffBillingEase of UseLoan ProcessTransparency

    Reviewed Jan. 7, 2021

    I hate to see so many people like myself have fallen victim to this loan company as I have. From the beginning, I have had negative experiences trying to do anything over the phone with an agent. I am transferred several times, placed on hold, and told different things about my loan depending who I speak to. Additionally, I was lucky enough to get a new job during the pandemic, but if I was one of many others whom I know were laid off, struggling to find work etc. you'd have an awful time making these payments because they do not lift a single finger to assist. However, they still manage to push every advance to get you to sign another loan with them. I was just alerted on my dash in a "Coronavirus update" that anyone who is behind payment by more than 15 days will no longer be able to use credit or debit payments starting Feb. 1, '21. On top of everything this just seems damning to hell.

    The user interface itself is difficult to use and confusing. You are encouraged and inclined to use auto debit, but when I made my first payment, the auto debit did not takeout my payment on the due date, and my account reflected a payment was due still, so I went ahead to make a manual payment to avoid late fees. Nope, the auto debit took out the payment 3 days later and overdrew my account. I called again this month to be sure that I was not going to be penalized if the auto debit is late to take my money, and he assured me everything would be fine but I still get very nervous.

    There is 0 reflection on the site that tells you when auto debit will take, which I tried expressing to the agent. He just persisted with "the auto debit will withdraw soon ma'am". Very nerve wracking knowing these companies can come for your credit over anything. If I knew four years ago what I knew now, I wouldn't have ever committed to this. Greed and lack of compassion for thorough customer care rules this company. PLEASE don't sign a loan with Sallie Mae.

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    Customer ServiceLoan ProcessTransparency

    Reviewed Jan. 1, 2021

    Consumers LOVE to blame companies for their bad decisions and Sallie Mae is a perfect example. I have worked with them paying student loans for 9 years and it's been an ideal relationship. I am responsible for my loans so I READ AND UNDERSTOOD terms before signing. It's really that simple. Sallie Mae doesn't hide anything, people don't bother to read any details then complain and blame. Sallie Mae has been 100% efficient, easy to reach by phone, extremely clear, simple and transparent loan details online. Don't let the dimwitted consumers convince you otherwise, Sallie Mae is same as all lenders.

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    StaffLoan Process

    Reviewed Dec. 28, 2020

    I am happy that the Sallie Mae student loan is open for non US Citizens and also allows access for students doing online learning. This comes in handy for me as I fit both classifications and going through my online degree would be far fetched if I didn't have the option of Sallie Mae.

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    Customer ServicePriceBillingLoan ProcessRatesSales Tactics

    Reviewed Dec. 27, 2020

    Masquerading as a quasi-government institution they solicit your loans when you need them most -- as you and your kids realize their college education is going to cost more than they expected! They have exorbitant rates, no loan forgiveness or rate reduction paths for hardship, and generally use aggressive tactics to force uncomfortable payments. They claim to "work with you" on modifications or relief, but in reality, they do nothing. This behavior is very similar to the mortgage market during the 2008-2010 great recession.

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    Staff

    Reviewed Dec. 26, 2020

    Sallie Mae was very helpful during my time of need and they were very helpful at all times on all my needs and helped with all I wanted and thanks to them I finished all my schooling.

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    Loan Process

    Reviewed Dec. 25, 2020

    Never co-signed for a student loan before so can’t really compare. Guess it’s okay. Not been hounded. But my son pays on time every month so shouldn’t have any problems.

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    BillingLoan Process

    Reviewed Dec. 24, 2020

    Sallie Mae has been good. They send plenty of reminders when your bill is coming due or something has changed with your account. I am a co signer and I like being kept in the loop. I would apply with Sallie Mae for school loans in the future.

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    Customer ServiceSales & MarketingPriceOnline & AppStaffBillingLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed Dec. 12, 2020

    I continue to be amazed why Sallie Mae's executives are not in jail. They are perpetrating the ultimate scam and worse, they are doing this to young adults. Their rates are insanely high leading to guess what, struggles to make payments. It's near impossible to discharge the debt while every other creditor doesn't get the same favor. Their customer service is a joke. Their website won't even let you get a statement and their hours of operation is typical government. And in the end, a degree isn't just what is was worth in the past. Please consider carefully before getting loans with Sallie Mae. It's NOT worth the pain!

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    PriceStaffLoan Process

    Reviewed Nov. 30, 2020

    I had to take some extra graduate courses and took out a loan with Sallie Mae. I did not know that because it was a private loan, I could not consolidate the loan. During the pandemic, Sallie Mae continued to charge me 10% ($100 a month) while other student loan companies waived it. I tried to ask them to help me with the issue given financial hardship during the pandemic and they said they couldn't help. Avoid using them at all costs!

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    StaffBillingLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed Nov. 18, 2020

    Never never ever! You should never take out a loan through Sallie Mae. It has been a completer nightmare. I co-signed for my daughter and it has been a nightmare since day one. With COVID and other REAL LIFE issues I am not sure how they sleep at night as a company. They are ruthless in their practices and just don't care at all. It locked families into interest driven loans from HELL. It will also destroy your credit if you miss a payment or misunderstand the deferment process. Just terrible.

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    Loan Process

    Reviewed Nov. 12, 2020

    This company is liking dealing with loan sharks. They are one of my life's worst experiences. I co-signed a student loan for my granddaughter and it became a massive fight each and every month dealing with them. Even after I paid off the loan it did NOT stop.

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    MaintenanceStaffLoan Process

    Reviewed Nov. 9, 2020

    Sallie Mae will not release me off co-signer of loan. I told them I no longer work. I am a co-signer. They do not care. They said it’s only student can be released with disability. I am the co-signer. I thought it would apply to me as well. Stay away from this company. They do not try to help you. It’s obvious that I do not work over 3 years now. Do not use this company. Use Nelnet. If you become disable they will honor your disability and dismiss the loan which they have for me. I do not recommend getting a loan from this company. Only use Nelnet. They work with you if you ever in a position like me.

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    StaffLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed Nov. 4, 2020

    I really hate Sallie Mae. I’m never borrowing from y’all again and I’m going to convince all my family and friends never to either. Student's loans are a toxic plague in our country and they prey on innocent people and chain them up for life. You Guys aren’t helping people. You’re enslaving them. My parents were young and co-signed for my loan and now that interest piles up faster than I can pay. It’s hurting the both of us. I will never go back into debt once I am free from y’all. And I will fight until my dying breath to put student loan lenders out of business in America. My parents are now debt free and helping my husband and I be debt free. I will never go back to fake money after this. I hope you guys go out of business.

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    Customer ServiceLoan ProcessRatesHonesty & Transparency

    Reviewed Oct. 30, 2020

    Sallie Mae is the worst company to deal with when it comes to student loans. Honestly, every time I see their email about my statement I know they are going to ruin my day again. It gives me the most terrible headache. The interest is sky-high. Customer service is like speaking to a robot, perhaps, robots may have something in the heart area, Sallie Mae's SCR's have nothing, heartless people. They won't even bother to listen to you. Just saying what they are reading on their computer screens, and that's all. If I knew better about this company, I would've searched more and thoroughly to find a better, more human-like company to borrow loans. Praying for the day, when I won't see their emails in my inbox ever again. Please think twice before you go to this awful company.

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    Punctuality & SpeedBillingLoan ProcessRates

    Reviewed Sept. 22, 2020

    My son applied for loans through Sallie Mae, all of which I cosigned for. He ended up taking out 4 loans (one each year). He chose the option to pay the interest while in school, in order to only owe the principle when he was finished with college. Each of his loans was on a variable rate (anywhere from 10 - 12.75) and the interest was calculated on each loan separately!! I took on the payment for him, and for his final year, it was up to 400 dollars a month just in interest!! It gradually climbed from 80 dollars to 400.

    After he graduated and his loans came due, the payment was almost $800 a month for a 50,000 total loan amount (and that's after I had paid all of the interest while he was in school). The worst part of it all: THEY DON'T EVEN CONSOLIDATE THE LOANS YOU HAVE WITH THEM. They are all separate payments. This company is the biggest disgrace I have ever seen. The way in which they take advantage of students who are attempting to get an education is sickening. You should be ashamed of yourself, Sallie Mae.

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    Sallie Mae Company Information

    Company Name:
    Sallie Mae
    Year Founded:
    1972
    City:
    Newark
    State/Province:
    DE
    Country:
    United States
    Website:
    www.salliemae.com