Sallie Mae Reviews

Once this "grace/Forbearance/Deferment" period was over my payments had jumped to $1000 a month and my total balance went from $52,000 to $72,000..(nice interest amount over a year don't you think?)

Almost had a heart attack at 25.. the walls were closing in.. quick again being a dumb lemming I had to move back home and "buckled down"... Off went my $1000 a month for a year and a half.. finally one day I figured I'd call Sallie Mae and inquire about this letter I received that said my remaining balance was 82,000..2nd almost heart attack...300+ calls multiple managers and nobody could figure this one out.. They saw my payments.. and yet the balance just rose.. Not to mention it was one snotty customer service rep after another..after another.. seemed to get progressively worse..

I remember my ignorance as a younger man sitting in the loan office and words whizzing past my head in a cloud of smoke.. because "I'm going to college.. I'm going to make something of myself!!"

Unfortunately I chose the WRONG lender... and was oblivious to the scams they were running..uh.. deep breath..Screw it.. you can have 300 a month or nothing.. they chose nothing.. payments stopped (since they didn't seem to be applying to the loan anyway).. Credit Destroyed..

Fast forward..7 years..No tax returns.. irritating but whatever..Started to get wage garnishments.. didn't like that.. went and talked to the local social security office, because that's where my money was "going" after it was taken out..Talked with them for a hour that arranged manageable payments ($400 a month) that actually apply to my loan!! amazing.. Sallie Mae got dropped from the loop and they just sent it on down the creditor line until I finally found someone not crooked..

Moral of the story.. Worst experience of my life.. If you are thinking of using sallie mae for ANYTHING... Stop.. STOP... go punch yourself in the face until that idea pops out and then you can find something else... seriously don't let your kids get screwed.. This whole fiasco put me back 4 years career wise.. Companies like this are whats destroying our youth..

In 2010 I printed out from their website after paying my daughters loan showing nothing on any line, now they have added only the loan and total payment dollars but not amount sent and have also put it on my credit report, however, under student loans there is no amount.. They are back pedaling to try to justify the amount they say I owe which was 245.00 and now with interest and late fees is 350.00.. I get at least 5 calls a day from student assistance aka Sallie Mae and have sent a letter to Dept of Education Ombudsman with no reply... all I am asking is paperwork showing how my money was applied and they cannot produce it.. I have considered taking them to small claims court but it's the government and how much luck will I have with that... I have also sent my paperwork to a consumer protection lawyer and am waiting to hear from them. I am luckier than most people on here with my small amount, however it is the principle of the matter. Thanks for listening.

Now they claim my credit which is in the high 700's is not good enough. And I would like to stress on both time I talked to dozens of associates and managers (especially after the first disappointment) and no one sees an issue but when I made that request SUDDENLY EVERY associate tells me I have to be a US citizen as if they were trained to say that. At 12 month use this excuse, at 48 months use this one, it really, really felt like they were trained that way. And I am afraid they will use another excuse in another 12 months when I try again. **

Sallie Mae should not be in the credit advice business and stop bullying these kids into placing all loans in deferment. The loans should be at least partiality immediately and only go into deferment at the request of the customer. And finally auto payments should not take weeks or months but should be done in minutes online. Sallie Mae is an example of a government program run wild and not in any way consumer based. The government needs to remove the levels of stupidity and run Sallie Mae more like a business.

Well 4 years later, after paying between $209-$207 a month to Sallie Mae, I get a bill in the mail saying that they want $645 a month from me! I got this Thanksgiving weekend 2013, mind you. Those cowards...of course their customer service office is closed during the weekend, especially during Thanksgiving. I figured it had to be a mistake so I called them Monday and of course their lines were all busy. I put my name, account information, and phone number in so that a rep could call me back. Well, 4 hours later I finally get a phone call from a customer service rep at 8 P.M. telling him that this must be some mistake. He said it's not a mistake and that I owe $645 a month because their "loan program" is over and I was only paying $209 a month towards my interest. Seriously??

I was so mad. I tried to get the guy to lower my monthly payment but he wouldn't budge. I told them that I cannot pay that a month and I will try and pay as much as I can monthly. For December 2013, I paid about $215 in loans (federal and private). They had split up my loans into private and federal which they did before. I usually just paid towards both. Well after a couple of weeks, they kept calling me non-stop on my cell phone with an automated system telling me to check my account information. I was so sick and tired of hearing from them and getting emails sent to my phone that I called on December 23, 2013. I spoke with a woman this time and she told me the only options were to starting paying the $645 a month, or enroll in school. Seriously? I thought these companies were supposed to at least work with you.

I only make $16/hour for 40 hours a week. I decided to go on forbearance and I agreed with the rep that I could still pay the federal loans monthly since it was only $75.00 a month. The private ones would cost me more than $500 a month. I agreed to the forbearance. Then beginning of January 2014 on the weekend I started getting phone calls from them again saying that my loans are past due even though my monthly payment is due on the 11th of each month and they called me on the 6th!!!!!! I was so irate. I called first Monday night and screamed at the girl on the phone that I am on forbearance. She tried to cut me off by saying "but you have a private Stafford loan" and I quickly cut her off by saying "I am on forbearance since December 23, 2013 and have been paying off my federal loans. Please stop harassing me and calling me."

I have had it with this company. They finally stopped calling after that. It is now the end of February and my forbearance is over so I will now have to pay the $645 a month. I am getting so much anxiety over it because I cannot afford that a month. I wouldn't mind paying around $300 a month but I do not make that much money. I have been struggling to find another job for the past year so I cannot afford these payments but sadly I have not found a new one yet. This company is shameful and should not be allowed to demand money from people who can't afford it. At least work with people on how much they make so that they can make their payments without going bankrupt. Someone really needs to do something about Sallie Mae. They are ruining the lives of college graduates.

Get this: I couldn't make payments after my grace period ($1,400 monthly) because 2009 was the worse year for finding jobs. They reported me to the credit bureau and destroyed my credit. I've been stuck with a 10% variable interest rate loan and they refuse to refinance because... get this: because of the late payments they flagged me for. They offer absolutely no way of flexibility and honestly, it was the worst decision I have made in my life to finance my education with Sallie Mae. My family and I live just to pay those loans... and the federal government offers no way to alleviate borrowers with Sallie Mae Private loans.

My advice: go to a smaller name school which you can pay with a part-time/full time job, get the best GPA possible and go work for a company who is willing to pay for your masters. LOANS WILL DESTROY YOUR LIFE (RULE OF THUMB: ONLY DUMMIES FINANCE THEIR EDUCATION WITH INTEREST BEARING MONEY). DON'T BE A DUMMY LIKE ME.

I complained to the consumer financial protection bureau. They called but never validated anything in writing or sent me proof of the loan. Now I find out it is considered an "asset backed security" and people were betting on me defaulting! Just like the mortgages! So without my knowledge or consent my loan was "transferred" from Sallie Mae to Sallie Mae! Wtf? My credit report from 2006 lists Sallie Mae, but there is no cosigner. Suddenly in 2012-14, my mother is a cosigner. Except she isn't! Every request for information or proof is ignored. They call and harass but cannot validate.

That's the biggest point- If they cannot validate or produce papers with your signature and dates- do not pay anything! You are giving money to their shareholders. Stop perpetuating the bs and make these idiots obsolete. Let their stock plummet! All the angry lenders and investors who see no returns on their bets, will soon look elsewhere. Sallie Mae Not!!!

I have sent hard copy checks in separate envelopes, same result. I have faxed proof but still being accused of nonpayment. What is worse is there is no offer to fix the damage Sallie Mae is doing to my credit score when they report me late. I have had it up to my eyebrows with this. My other lender, MOHELA, no problems whatsoever. I have recently applied to move my Sallie Mae loans. I think I will have to prove to potential lender that I am actually current on my SM loans and will hire an attorney if I am denied a loan with new lender because of the incompetence of Sallie Mae. I am at my wit's end. Fed up completely!!!!

I also found out they'd been harassing my dad, too, the same way, along with sending him junk mail. My dad doesn't answer numbers he doesn't know, or 800's so he won't talk to them. SM can virtually find anybody, but they're bugging my parents I'm sure about making payments? These bozos know where I am, they've bothered me here for years, harass me, leave my parents alone.

I was overjoyed when I was told by the local postmaster that I can refuse their mail.

Now all the sudden years later I'm married and my husband filed jointly, Saturday Feb 8 2014. We checked IRS site and they said his federal income taxes were applied to a financial obligation. We thought it was his child support. NOPE!!!!!! It was Sallie Mae. We have to now fight with IRS, filed a injured spouse form and have to wait 8 weeks for him to get his full return back because they were taking it. IRS and Sallie Mae are quick to take it. But are not quick to give it back. So basically if you know you have defaulted student loans, DO not file jointly. It SUCKS. We were taking this money to relocate to Florida next week and have to wait until some time spring.

Random amounts of money were applied to the five loans January 2014, none of which matched the amounts due in each account. After spending more than 30 minutes trying to get some woman in another country to understand my issue, I requested to speak with a supervisor and was told there were none in her location. I asked to speak with someone in the United States and was given some guy whom I am sure was another customer service (?) representative - probably a guy sitting right next to this woman. Needless to say, my entire lunch hour was used and I requested his telephone number in order that I could call him after work. He said he had no phone. Is this a joke?????

I took three days to calm down and again called Sallie Mae and somehow I got everything straightened out. However, this representative told me to put only the 16 digit loan number on the check and to leave off the account number as it 'confuses the machine processing payments. I did as she indicated and today looked at my account and loans. Once again, the loans are a complete mess. I sent in one check for $150 and only $131.14 was applied to the loan. My second check (each check now being sent in separate envelopes) was written for $32.25 and $18.55 was applied to the loan. The third check was for $22.16 and only $11.53 was applied to the loan.

On loan #4, I sent a check for $57.97 and $27.89 was applied to the loan. Finally, I sent in a $100.00 check for loan #5 and $18.86 was applied to the loan. I can't even bring myself to call them today. My questions include where did these random amounts that were credited to the loans come from? How come the amounts of my checks credited to the loans as specified according to their directions? And, lastly, where is the $151.41 of my money that was never applied to my daughter's loans? I plan to go to the bank and take out a loan to pay that shoddy place off.

There was no way that I would let this happen again so I made arrangements with a second party contracted to collect debts on Sallie Mae's behalf. The terms of my agreement consisted of me making nine on time payments and I would then be taken out of default and my file would be transferred to another collection agency. As of December 21, 2013 I was out of default, all information was reported to the Department of Education. I was so proud of myself, I made a mistake and took responsibility for my actions. I just knew that I would have a refund this year.

So let's move forward to the present shall we? As I said I filed with Turbo Tax and on the 23rd of January I was accepted and in the next few days approved to receive my refund by the 6th of February. On February 3rd I received a notice that said I may have an offset of my refund. I was thinking, not me, I did everything that they told me to do. I concluded that they probably sent this message to everyone but I called the offset department just to be safe. Guess what? My refund is due to be offset again this year. How and why?

So I contacted the Department of Education and told them what happened. They informed me that someone (who knows who) was suppose to contact them and let them know to take me off of the offset list. Keep in mind that I asked the collection agency if there was anything that I needed to do and they said that THEY report to the Department of Education. Who dropped the ball here? It was then stated that MY taxes would be sent to them and they'll mail me a check 30 to 60 days. I told them that it was their fault so they needed to fix it.

To make a very long story short, I was on the telephone for about four hours speaking to every federal agency that I could think of. Everyone redirected me back to the Dept. of Education. So in a last ditch effort to get my taxes I called back. The person (and I use that term loosely) that I spoke to was arrogant and constantly stated that I will eventually get my money. She even asked me if it was their fault that I was in default. After I read her the riot act I found this website to release my frustrations. I feel better now and thank you for listening.

I am trying to do the best I can by making my payments on time, I even live with my parents because with a baby, daycare, and my school loan I can't afford to live elsewhere. I filed bankruptcy in October because I hard a large medical bill from when I didn't have insurance and had to take unpaid maternity leave. My cosigner has received letters from Sallie Mae since October saying my account is past due. I called and when they found out I wasn't the cosigner but the borrower they said not to worry about it, that it was an automatic mailing and they couldn't collect money from me until my bankruptcy was discharged. So I put it in my file and ignored it.

November same thing, December same thing, January same thing. I called each time and even called the day my bankruptcy was discharged to see how much my payment would be and what day it would be due. They said they could not tell me how much but that it would be due March 22 and the other March 28. Well today I got a call saying my account was 4m past due and I owed over $1000 to bring my account current. I asked them how that was even possible and got the runaround. Even after talking to a supervisor they couldn't tell me how things didn't add up.

I paid $600 in October when I wasn't obligated to under bankruptcy law and yet my account was past due? They said I only paid $395 when my bank statement says otherwise. So shady, wish they would get on the same page, put better notes in their system, and just stick with simple math. You borrowed this much, your interest will be this much, and you will pay this much. There is no reason to change the interest, account numbers, and site every year, makes it way more confusing for them apparently. Sallie Mae is such a waste, they just care about getting money, not about improving society by allowing individuals to get an education.

This doesn't make any sense on any level. I have expressed this to them on several occasions and requested they send me the statements with payments and interest since the beginning of the payment process which has yet to happen. Now the payments will double and I feel that we are paying and getting nowhere with the balance it keeps increasing. This is unjust. How could the government allow this company to remain in business. I live in MD and requested to go to the office in DE and was told I wasn't allowed to do that. I'm at the end of my rope and I will be filing a complaint with the attorney general's office and seeking an attorney.

Sallie Mae continues to use different collection agencies which resets the credit clock on this debt. The value is beyond a small claim, and there is no established industry for lawyers to get involved. I paid several attorneys to get involved, one said "divorce her", another said she would have no idea how to sue a bank, and the latest included the Fair Credit Act in the suit which got it thrown out for untimely (1 year statute). I involved every office possible, from the FTC to the Student Loan Ombudsman. NO HELP!

This must to be a rampant problem that stays quiet when a desperate student lists family as a cosigner for student loans. Sallie Mae secures more student loans, because family will not report family for fraud. They will honor the loan rather than send family to jail. This needs to be a class action against Sallie Mae. The same greed that brought them to the top should bring them down. I am reaching my sanity limit.

My credit would be perfect, and Sallie Mae is content with ruining me until I pay them $60,000 for the principal and interest on Internet acquired loans. Even if I sued my wife to get out of this, my life is still turned inside out between how to manage my kids and my job. Sallie Mae put $40,000 in a candy dish, and they act like it's my problem to deal with.

My husband is a post 911 disabled veteran, and we have struggled financially and these bloodthirsty leeches, have wanted nothing but money during our most difficult times of our lives. In 2012, they kept our tax return and we had just been told by our landlord that we needed to vacate the home, because they were selling, and we had been expecting the tax return to rent a home. Unfortunately, we ended up selling all our furniture and moving to Puerto Rico, because we couldn't rent, because our credit was affected by the Student Loans, but the worst part was that we needed that money to survive and they kept every penny of it. We were forced to live in a very rundown home with no water or electricity because we couldn't stay long with family in Puerto Rico.

We have to settle for close to nothing, because no one would rent to us due to these Student Loans. When I tried calling to settle they tell me they are charged off and sent to USA Funds, a debt collector for Sallie Mae. So, we are screwed, we can't afford to live a decent life, all because I decided to finish my last two years of college. I wish I could turn back the clock, because I owe more in Student Loans than a doctor or lawyer and all I have is a Bachelor's degree that is not even worth having, because since 2007 I have not been able to find a decent job to help pay bills. Congress needs to bail out families just like they bailed out all these banks and companies. How can a family move on if these Student loan debt collectors sit around trying to figure out how they can destroy families.

SURE ENOUGH EVERY SINGLE MONTH, THE AUTO DEBIT DOES NOT WORK AND I RECEIVE A NOTICE THAT MY LOANS ARE DELINQUENT. I then log on to their confusing website to pay one loan manually and call customer service again to be assured that NEXT TIME IT WILL WORK FOR SURE. I think I finally figured out the problem (on my own). It takes this horrible excuse for a company longer than one month to process my auto debit request. If your loans are "delinquent" then your auto debit request is rejected. So it is impossible to sign up for auto debit without logging on and manually paying this specific loan for 2 straight months BEFORE it is due but AFTER my auto debit request. THANKS SALLIE MAE! I HOPE YOU GET SUED FOR YOUR INCOMPETENCE AND PREDATORY LENDING PRACTICES!

Then I get a letter in October and same thing. Delinquent payment. I called the number again (I used the website number because I wanted to be sure it was not a 'fake' letter to get my information). Again, it was at least an hour. This time, when I asked why it didn't go through after I had changed my account number they said they never changed my account number or address. I was furious because when I told them they had told me to do so. They said there was no record. However, my money from the previous month was showing as paid now. I changed the information yet again and when I demanded to speak to a supervisor to explain this to me, I was laughed at by the representative. I hung up.

I have since received 2 more letters with the same issue. The latest payment was made January 2nd and I received a letter on January 18, 2014 saying I had not made a payment. I don't even want to call them at this point or make any more payments and just suffer the consequences. They are corrupt and charging people fees and interest on things that were paid. I am at the point I don't care. It is too stressful. I have not worked in 8 years due to health problems, but am not "permanently" disabled.

I have $214,000 in student loan debt and have made every payment on time. We have our 3 kids sharing a room in a tiny condo we rent so we can pay my student loans. It is very stressful and we see no way out. If this harassment by Sallie Mae continues, I may just stop payments. If they don't want my money I am paying them, they don't have to have it. My time is more valuable than spending hours trying to fix problems that are their problems. I should start billing them for my time.

Due to life circumstances I was unable to make the $300 payment and placed the loan in forbearance. I do not receive statements while the loan is in forbearance and won't receive one until the forbearance is over. I received one a while back and placed the loan back into forbearance. I just found out through a third party that Sallie Mae has purchased my loan and once again owns it. Sallie Mae took my loan out of forbearance and placed it in repayment. I was not notified of this and have not received a statement from them. Once again I have late payments by no fault of my own. My credit is very poor because of this and made buying a car difficult and a house impossible. It doesn't matter what I do I can't win and my loans keep ending up back at Sallie Mae who is continually damaging my credit.

After an obscene amount of time and energy on my part, the problem seems to be resolved, and I am assured that they have "corrected the matter and I should not have to deal with this issue again." But, guess what? Two months later, without fail, I am getting emails again with delinquency notices, and so the cycle of insanity begins again. Now I try very hard to be a generally calm person, but this just makes my blood boil every time. I am at a complete loss of what to do. I fulfill my end of the bargain, I PAY MY BILL!!!! What else should I do??? The incompetence of the people who run this company is astonishing. I have had negative reports on my credit because of this issue, countless lost hours, and incredible amount of necessary stress. The thing is, I feel like there is nothing I can do. Any suggestions as to how to deal with this horrible company would be more than welcome. TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE COMPANY!!!!

I called again and again and was told that the investigation team would call me when they figured out what went wrong and I would not be charged interest or penalties after the date my bank had paid them off, numerous times I was told this. One person named Lisa told me she would get to the bottom of this and get it straightened out, but to give her time and call her back in mid January. Then I would receive and emails telling me to check the website for information on the loan, which I did and it still should a balance and payment was due on January 3, 2014. I called Sallie Mae again and a representative told me not to worry this is happening a lot and they would not charge me any fees or interest after my banks closing date. Then I received a message on my phone from my bank and she said to call her or stop down. I am not going to believe this one. I stopped in the next day and my bank received a check back from Sallie Mae for 37 thousand and something for a refund of overpayment. Who in their right mind would overpay a loan by 37 thousand?

We were not sure where to go from there, she said she wouldn't cash it and just leave it in my file. I called every week to try to get this figured out, being put on hold for 20 min to 45 min and sometimes getting cut off, but no one I talked to knew what was going on but assured me I would not be charged ant penalties or interest after my banks closing date in October. Then after January 3rd went by and I was getting phone calls and notices that payment was overdue I suggested to a Sallie Mae Representative that I needed to get a three way conversation going with my bank and straighten this out. We did this Last Thursday and talked with a person name Trisha and her supervisor named Hunter. We figured out that the delinquent loans were with Sallie Mae Inc. and the other seven loans with Sallie Mae Department of Education. And my Bank had sent the pay off amounts to the Sallie Mae Department of Education. So they cashed them all, computed interest from when my son had took the loans out, added that to the principle amounts and took out their share and sent the remaining balance back to my bank with very little explanation. So once we figured this out we sent the refund check amount in a cashiers check from my bank and I paid the 2300 dollars worth of interest that had accumulated in another check to Sallie Mae Inc. and explained to Trisha and Hunter that it would be there Monday, 1/13/14.

Trisha and Hunter both informed my bank and I that I would not be charged interest or penalties after the closing date, for this mishap. Friday I called again to check to make sure we did everything correctly and I first spoke to and oriental lady that I could understand very well and I tried to explain things to her. I gave up and asked if I could speak to her supervisor and she connected me with a guy named Keith. I discussed things with him and he asked If I was the one that called previously and I said yes. He then went on to inform me about the loans that they said we were delinquent on which were the ones thru Sallie Mae Inc. and I had called a number for Sallie Mae Department of Education. A little confused, but I was talking to a manager that I could understand so I continued. He explained to me that he thought that they could not waive the interest from October to January and it amounted to $840.43.

When I told him I had been told I would not be charged interest by several people along the way, he said that Hunter was a new person to the company and that he and all the rest of the Sallie Mae Representatives had been misinformed and that I would have to pay this interest within 10 days. Today I took another day off from work and sat down with my bank and called Sallie Mae, again to try to straighten things out. Trisha and Hunter were unavailable so we ended up talking with Kieth again. He said Upper management made a decision not to wave the interest charge from October to January and that we could not speak with them but he could give them my number and they would call me if they felt they had to. I then paid Sallie Mae Inc. the $840.43 over the phone to put and end to this madness.

Angry doesn't describe what you feel like when you have been scammed. My bank has paid off Sallie Mae Loans before and this has never been an issue. Apparently Sallie Mae Department of Education used to communicate with Sallie Mae Inc.until some manager from Sallie Mae Department of Education decided to send refund checks back to the source and collect interest for as long as it took for the client to straighten things out. Unfortunately I am a single parent/recent widower just trying to put my two sons thru engineering colleges so they can support themselves in the future and it has been one nightmare after another. I will never do business with Sallie Mae Again!!! !

When I called SM, I asked them to please reconsider and to let me apply for economic hardship. I would find a way to pay something. The rep on the other end of the phone kept putting me on hold. He said that I would be granted another forbearance for another year, but that this would be the absolute last time. I asked him about deferment. He said, because my loans were consolidated, I relinquished the right to deferment for economic hardship. That sounds a little sketchy to me, but okay - a forbearance would be better than nothing.

When I told him about the medical condition of my son and that I would send whatever documentation was needed to prove it, he said, "That will not be necessary. I am pre approving your forbearance now. It will not go into effect until your current forbearance is exhausted and you are within 30 days of your payment date." That sounded sketchy also, but the rep seemed so nice, helpful, and knowledgeable! After I was approved, I asked the rep about the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. We spoke about amounts that could be forgiven. He said he would send me an application, which I received on Jan. 8th. When I received the application, it was titled Information about your requested forbearance. When I opened the letter, I saw only the teacher loan forgiveness application. Another sketchy feeling came over me. I took the survey at the end of my conversation with this rep because I was so overjoyed to get this forbearance. I had another year to straighten out the hospital bills that I had not counted on. It seemed too good to be true.

This afternoon I called SM just as the rep instructed. Today is the day after my last forbearance. I spoke to another rep. I told her I had been pre approved for another and last forbearance just a few days ago - I just had to call to activate it. This rep informed me that no such forbearance was approved by anyone. She said that the only note she saw read, Once the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application is filled out and approved, the forbearance will be approved. This was NEVER even mentioned by the prior rep. Teacher Loan forgiveness was brought up by me after the prior rep approved my forbearance. The rep told me tonight that I had other payment options. I can pay no more than $100 a month - and that is stretching it.

I was so outraged that I had been lied to by the prior rep. that when the current rep told me about another repayment option, and that she was sorry I was misinformed I broke down over the phone. The prior SM rep did not misinform me: He LIED to me. He misrepresented himself. He even tried to talk me into a SM credit card! Luckily, I knew better.

I do not want to default on this loan. I want to pay it back. I will pay what I can over the year, but I was counting on this forbearance (actually hoping for a deferment). I was already mapping out payments for the medical bills and SM after that first rep told me I was approved. I will be applying for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program, which I hope will be approved, but I must put my son's mental, emotional, and physical health first. I am a single parent and it has been difficult - in other words, there is no other income.

Why would this rep falsify promise of forbearance??? To get a good grade on the survey I took at the end of the conversation? Isn't what he did against the law? Aren't the conversations recorded? He told me I was pre-approved - that I needed to call back to activate the forbearance. He told me I did not qualify for economic hardship and I could not receive deferment. I would have to pay the interest on the forbearance. What did this rep gain by falsifying a pre-approved forbearance???

Just for the record, I did not give my real name for this online post. I want to keep my name private because my child is mentioned here. But everything else here is true, as God as my witness. If I can sue SM the cost of my student loan debt for what this rep did, then please put me on that train. I did send this exact letter to a Sallie Me advocate to see what they can do, but if they work for SM, it seems like I would be making a pact with the devil himself: Sallie Mae advocating for me after their rep falsified a forbearance request (????) Yeah- okay. I am required to give at least one star to SM, but if I had my choice here on this website, I would put NO STAR.

I sent in 2 pay stubs and CLEARLY noted on the cover page that I am paid 9 months out of the year, not 12 (teacher). 8 days later, I had not received approval. I e-mailed customer service and got a notification that I would receive approval within 7-14 more days. I waited, still no approval. I emailed again, they said 24-48 hours. Guess what? NO APPROVAL. This is over the course of the next 2 months. I called - first time, they apologized and said they'd do it in 24 hours. Not done. I called again, they apologized, they said they would call me back after they spoke to the processing dept. They never called back. 3rd call was to a supervisor who said he'd call me back by the end of the week. NO CALL.

My next payment was due - they debited roughly 7x my normal payment. I called to find out why, they said my application was approved. They calculated my income as what I made in those 2 pay stubs over the course of 12 months, not 9 months. Here we go again... I had to reapply for IBR and the same b.s. process happened. This time, I immediately asked for a manager, and in a frustrated tone (choice words) explained what was going on, didn't take no for an answer, demanded to constantly speak to someone higher than whoever got on the phone. I finally got someone who sounded legitimate, they gave me the phone number and e-mail contact of a woman named Charolotte and told me to call her extension directly. I did so. Charolette called me back immediately, explained the processing dept. had overlooked my pay stubs notation that I get paid over 9 months, not 12 months.

I told her that I explained that to everyone but nobody understood. She told me to upload my recent tax return. She got it done ON THE SPOT with me on the phone. The only bright side of this post. Here I am a year later... This year, I put my tax return in. I got the same b.s. delayed responses from Sallie Mae stating 2 weeks, 24 hours, 24 hours blah blah blah. I am literally on hold right now with a 'managing supervisor' who claims to be on the phone with the processing department to get this done again... If she doesn't come through I'll be asking for her supervisors direct number. To be continued.... P.S. this year's IBR renewal has taken over a month at this point. Don't let them give you excuses. Tell them you want your written approval prior to the next payment cycle.

This vicious cycle continues until your credit score is low. My first signs of issues with Sallie Mae was when they sent me a letter in the mail telling me they took me to court without me knowing and winning. Let's talk about the credit agency names the first one is NCO financial if your military at first you think it's the military helping nope just a trick to get you to pay, they don't tell you what the APR is which can possible be sky rocket high loan shark tactics.

After graduating I found a job teaching, as according to plan. However, the amount I made was not enough to pay the full amount each month and allow for my other expenses. I called SM, whose call center appears to be in the Philippines, and asked for a lower payment. The amount was still too high and I suggested an amount that I could afford until such a time as I was in a better financial position. The person at the call center said they could not accept anything but the full payment and suggested I get a deferment. Things still have not improved concerning my financial situation and I have left the teaching field after five years.

The other day, I received two statements saying that my new payments would be 73.49 a month per loan. However, this morning in my email I received a statement saying that my payment due was over $600.00. After a "wonderful" conversation, with a person who had a tenuous grasp of the English language, I was informed that the statements only pertained to two of my loans and that the total of all four of my loans was the $600.00 figure. Again, I told her that I would be willing to pay the 73.00 for each loan, totaling $292.00 per month. I also told her she better not suggest that I get, yet another, deferment or I would chew her head off (said in the nicest way possible). She was adamant that I pay the entire amount.

What kind of business would turn down a person that was sincerely trying to pay them back? Sure, it's not the full amount, but it's something! I'm about to tell them to take a flying leap (sure, that's what I want to say..) and default entirely on the loan. I know this is not the right thing to do and I don't feel good about doing it, but they're leaving me no choice. STAY AWAY FROM SALLIE MAE!!!

This is wrong on several levels: 1) I am supposed to pay 12 months at each given payment amount. This year's new amount should have started on 1/18, as it did last year, not two months earlier in November. 2) Even if November were the correct start date, they have the end date listed as 9/18. But each IBR re-application is supposed to go for 12 months, not 11. 3) To further complicate matters, Sallie Mae did not even adhere to the documentation stating 11/18 as this year's start date - instead they debited the new amount from my account on 10/18, thus making my payments at the new higher amount start a full 3 months earlier than they were supposed to, and unfairly taking money that I am not supposed to be paying yet. I have contacted Sallie Mae 5 times and not gotten anywhere with them. I have also contacted the Federal Ombudsman's office and asked for intervention.

It's clear that the rep after the call did not process the request properly and thus I'm back to square one with possibility of default. Of course the supervisor replied, "Oh no problem, we'll just process another phone forbearance request." At this point, I'm irate and request that nothing should move forward until you acknowledge the mistake and rectify it immediately so that I am not penalized once more. She refused and that got nasty and told me that somebody else (i.e., previous rep) erred in processing the claim and that I should accept that and move forward with her (supervisor) offer or I will be processed for default. I declined her offer and am documenting this now on this forum to see if anybody else has experienced such ineptness from this organization and have suggestion what to do next. I am not that naive to Sallie Mae's business practices but this mishandling tops a new level of ineptness till the point where I actually believe they do this intentionally...

My first bill arrived and was approximately $70. I paid $1,000 and waited for the next bill. After a few months without receiving a bill I called and worked my way through the automated service. Inconveniently, I was disconnected on quite a few occasions. I did finally get my next bill about a year later. I called Sallie Mae to ask for a monthly bill. However, I was informed that it is against Sallie Mae's policy to send a bill if you are ahead of payment schedule. Even if you request one.

I have not dealt with any other loan company that has this policy. It is very inconvenient for someone like me who wants to pay the loans off early. And in my opinion should not be legal. Especially, when you consider all the extra fees this company will charge you. In fact over the period of one year between the time I paid the first $1,000 and got the next bill my principal balance had only decreased about $120. Approximately $10 a month for a principal that was over $10,000. At that rate, how is that bill ever going to get paid off? Over the year that I waited for the next bill I saved enough to pay off the entire loan. However, to borrow $7,800 for two years it cost me over $3,000.

My wife has had a similar situation on private loans from Sallie Mae for approximately $13,000. I have not calculated the exact numbers. Partially, because is extremely aggravating to know that a company is getting away with this type of robbery. I started making her payments over 2 years ago. And again, following the principal found out that it was only decreasing by approximately $12 a month after all the fees and interest were paid. For this loan I did the same thing and saved the balance to pay it off. Only this time I made minimum monthly payments until I had saved enough to cover the entire balance. This way I could watch the monthly changes until I was ready to pay in full.

Upon calling Sallie Mae and working through the automation service I finally reached a representative. Typical these days, but still inconvenient. The balance on the loan was still over $12,500 after paying $155 a month for about 3 years. I asked the representative for an exact balance so that I could make a payment by phone to pay the entire balance. She told me that I had to guess the exact amount since I was not the recipient of the loan. She told me this even though I was on the account and I had made all the payments for 2+ years. I also got the run around with her telling me that it would be $14 cheaper to pay online. I had just read to her that the last bill stated that the balance on the account was $12,488.49. She knew my intention was to pay the balance off but according to her Sallie Mae policy prevented her from telling me the exact balance on that day. That is quite obviously just another way to give the customer the run around.

So, I had my wife call. She got a different representative who told her that the exact balance was $12,514.12 but the check would have to be for $12,521.02 because of the time to process. He then gave my wife the $14 run around if she paid the bill online. So, we tried to pay the bill online. Three time the website failed to process the payment. We called back and got a third representative. This one told us that the current balance was $12,540. Almost $20 more and of course we got the whole save $14 if you pay online routine. She asked why the guy that we talked to less than 10 minutes earlier gave us a different number. Hem... Haw... Hem... Haw... The third representative told us that the second representative must have calculated with the 3 day fee.

Well yeah! We were trying to pay the bill the same day. Of course wanted to pay the lower amount. He recalculated and the new number he gave us was $12,519.40. I'm not sure why we got 3 different numbers and it worries me after dealing with this company for the last few years. I will watch online to make sure everything goes through. To the very end though, anyone reading this should be aware that this company will attempt to get every penny they can out of you. And, they will use means that are deceptive.

Unfortunately, my wife's federal loans have now been transferred to Sallie Mae. It has been 3 months and I haven't gotten a bill. I am about 8 months ahead of schedule on those payments and true to form Sallie Mae has a policy that says they will not send a bill if the payer is ahead of the payment schedule. I know this because I called and asked for a monthly bill. This, quite obviously is just a way for this company to try and get people to pay more money. This policy seems like it should be illegal. As well, the hidden insurance fees on the private loan seem like they should be illegal too. I just hope that they cannot apply these same type of fees on the federal loans. Anyway, student loans are no fun. However, they are a necessary evil. If I had to do this again I would avoid Sallie Mae if at all possible. From everything I've read, this company is criminal. Hopefully, something can be done about it.

Sallie Mae said I needed to make a payment over the phone in order to avoid my payment being considered "late". They said the payment would be applied "instantly" over the phone, whereas if I made it online it would take 2-3 business days to clear. As my monthly payment is actually split between 3 different loan payment groups, I confirmed that the total amount I was about to give them over the phone would be correctly applied as normal to the 3 payment groups. They said, of course. The payment still took 2-3 business days to clear, so it was still not considered to be an "on-time payment". Additionally, the full amount I paid over the phone was applied to only one loan payment group, overpaying that set of loans and causing the other two sets to still be in delinquent status. I had to pay those two manually. More importantly, I am also stuck with one additional "on-time payment" I need to make at the end of the life of my loan, in order to qualify for the 25-year forgiveness benefit of Income Based Repayment.

Recently when I reapplied for Income Based Repayment (as I must do every year, to re-calculate what my following year's payments will be based on my earnings), I received correspondence stating that my application had been approved, and detailing the new monthly payment amount, as well as when my first payment would be under the new amount (November 18th, 2013). Instead, Sallie Mae debited my account for the new, higher amount one month early (October 18th). The first time I called customer service (10/18) they said there was nothing they could do to stop the in-progress payment, and that I had to wait for the payment to fully clear before they could issue a refund. I called back a few days later (10/22) after the payment was cleared - the service rep said it was indeed a mistake on their end, and the new payment amount should not have gone into effect until November 18th as stated. After waiting on hold for about 20 minutes, the service rep said that his supervisor had approved a refund for the difference in payments, and that I would receive the refund in "7-10 days". He asked how I would like to be paid back, and I said via credit to the account the money was debited from (my checking).

Two weeks later (11/5) I called back, having not received the refund in the specified time. During that call, I was told that the refund had not been approved until November 1st, and that I would receive the refund in 7-10 days from THAT date. On 11/15 I still had not received the refund and called once again. This time the rep told me that it was not 7-10 days, it was 7-14 days. He also stated specifically that these were "business days" (the other reps did not say this, though I had assumed as much and taken that into account when quoting them on dates). When I asked why the other reps quoted me 7-10 days, he could not give me an answer, he just kept repeating that it was 7-14. I also asked him to email me written correspondence confirming that the refund was approved, on what date, etc. and he refused to do so.

I called once again on 11/22, 15 business days after the refund was supposedly approved. This rep said that Sallie Mae was still working on it. I told him that at this point I did not believe I was getting the refund, as I had received no written confirmation of such, and every service rep was giving me a different story. This rep responded by saying that he was "CERTAIN" that my refund would be returned to my bank account no later than the following afternoon (Saturday, 11/23). I asked him how he expected me to believe this when Sallie Mae had failed to meet every other quoted date - his response was that he would "bet his job on it". I then asked to take the customer satisfaction survey offered at the end of all calls, and he instead hung up on me. Today is Monday, 11/25/13 and I have still not received the refund. I have received no official detailing my refund, and every customer service rep has either lied or been unable to help. It is unbelievable to me that Sallie Mae has the legal right to overcharge my account without any recourse.

First, I waited almost week and the funds had not posted to my SM account but it was surely gone from my checking account. I called and the rep tried convincing me that there was a system issue on Nov 14, 2013 (the date I requested my phone payment) that for whatever reason prevented ALL payments from processing and that I should fax a copy of my bank statement to prove that the funds had cleared... Absolutely Not! I explained that the burden is now theirs and not mine and that I would rather not be inconvenienced any more by their internal issues. After a long, intense discussion the rep put me on hold and apparently spoke with a supervisor. She then told me that I did not need to send my bank statement and that the issue will be handled by her manager. The very next day, Nov 21, 2013, the funds posted to my account, but not the way I requested.

Instead of the funds being applied solely to my unsubsidized loan, they were split between both. I called customer support about the issue only to be told that the reps are not able to apply the funds as I specified because I have a 'Smart Option' Loan (or something like that)... Needless to say, the rep could not explain to me what that meant and because I have to work to afford these loan payments I dropped that issue (for time's sake) to return to the bigger problem. She stated that my request would have to be forwarded to a different dept to be handled and should be resolved and reapplied correctly within the next 5-14 business days.

This many errors with one payment is messed up on so many levels. It seems like they are purposely trying to lessen the payments I put towards my interest-bearing account and it has become a drain on not only my financial resources but also my time. I am paying interest on loan amounts I have already paid and the time that I spend monitoring and correcting their mistakes is annoying at best. These practices are nothing short of robbery... I'm being charged interest on balances that should not exist and there is absolutely no recourse for it. Something told me to process a normal monthly payment online and luckily I did because I'm sure their process for penalties on my part is much less error prone.

Finally, she realizes that I'm right and goes about the process of fixing it which of course is like another 10 minutes on the phone. I called back today to make sure that this is being processed and again had to explain myself all over again. I then asked once again if my bank info is correct and she said she couldn't find that out for me and transferred me... and of course, I had to hold for 10 minutes. I hung up, I can't take it anymore. I will call later to get that info. They are the worst, worst, worst.

So besides them not contacting me back after writing emails, and on the phone asking for supervisors my biggest issue is the small sentience explaining how much interest will be charged on each payment is the most important thing to know. The rest for the language will give you false feelings because it is not like a home/car or any other loan. Pay early, often and keep record because the principle won't go down unless you do and if your principle amount does not go down you pay more interest.

I don't have the time or energy to get into specifics…It would take forever. My advice would be to harass them like they harass us. Call them often to make sure that your plan is set up correctly especially if you make any changes. They WILL not do it right the first place. You have to keep on them. Obviously this shouldn't be the case but it is. How they get away with this gross misconduct is beyond me. Like others said I am convinced they do so in order to keep us indebted to them. They are beyond shady and I have told them so on many occasions.

Now I have a $103 overdraft in my account and the bank is threatening to shut it down for good unless I can come up with the replacement by Friday. I don't know what I am going to do. It seems the more I try to work with this horrible company, Sallie Mae, the more it turns into a nightmare and bullying monster full of greed and insensitive to compassion and understanding. It is like dealing with the corporate executives of Wall Street, who are blinded by their greed and don't care about the sufferings they inflict on their fellow citizens. I am getting really stressed out in the paralyzing rush to save my bank account from extinction and from my credit being ruined again by Sallie Mae's insensitive "mistake" and I don't see any alternative than to go talk to a friend of mine who is a banker. Since Sallie Mae misleads everyone by pretending to care about their customers while leaving them hanging, this company should be put out of business.

They do not go by the original guidelines and change the rules as they go. Save Your Paper work! Anything they send you for every payment arrangement and what they confirmed was okay to do. Save those Sallie Mae Letters of confirmations! As I understood it, the IBR program suppose to calculate your monthly income based on how much you make annually and then an outcome of the minimum monthly payment is calculated. I make 0 dollars a month and unemployed. I have the education, but dang it, no experience = NO JOB! I'm in the hole with Sallie Mae. What do I do? GO online and sign up for an IBR and was qualified for 1 year of $0/month based on my income.

All of a sudden, in 8 months, I get a later saying that my payment is due for $X amount of money. WTF? I thought it was 12 months before I have to reapply again for the IBR Program. I can't find my paperwork stating it was 12 months. I scramble and then I quickly apply for IBR again with enough time to get a quick evaluation since resubmitting the same income tax paperwork from the 2011 were submitted... Again. I mean, they already have the info and nothing has changed. Tax Season deadline is 4/15 annually.

So I submitted my application just in time to be considered and I received a letter saying that my payment is now due on such and such a date. But dang, my IBR should have expired so quickly and my registration should have gone thru. I then get a letter saying that there is a slight delay on my application for IBR. So with enough due time I apply for the Financial Hardship Deferment. Documents submitted. I then get a letter saying that my IBR application has been accepted, that my monthly payment is $0/month for 9 months. Okay, so I thought the rule of thumb here is for 12 months. Now they have that in writing and I am saving it.

When IBR first was introduced, it was a 12-month program, but Sallie Mae has been able to make it into a 4-month, 6-month, or 9-month program so they have a chance to catch you off guard and make you pay what you can't pay, even though you have the same tax records in 2013 as in 2012, it would only be logical for them not to have you reapply for IBR in the same year. WTF!>?

Now I am late with a payment and they say that if the IBR was approved after your date due of $0/month, I am still responsible for that payment due of $360 that month regardless of income ($360 not bad, I just don't have it). I still have to pay it even though I am a $0/month qualifier and they are trying to make me rob bank so I pay them and maintain my credit. Stay Away from Sallie Mae.

So NOW not only do I OWE Sallie Mae but now my schooling was WORTHLESS!!!! So I go through a lawyer whom I knew. We tried to attack them for over a year. WORTHLESS!!!! They would NOT disclose any financial records about where or HOW my payments have been applied, interest records, capitalized interest, king compound interest, adjustment interest, account maintenance fees, etc. These are just a NUMBER of different fees and charges that I have been charged for over the years. I have paid so far to them almost $40,000!!!! I still owe 28,000!!!! HOW THE HELL IS THIS LEGAL!!! I can’t do it anymore. Between regular inflation rates, pay cuts at work, property taxes, mortgage, etc. I’m falling behind on everything. Already received foreclosure letters and talking to Sallie Mae on the phone is useless. They don’t care. Where and how can I sign up for any class action lawsuit against them. Please email me and let me know.

I had them set me up for auto-pay for a monthly payment I could afford that would cover all the currently due loans. I asked REPEATEDLY if I would need to worry about ANY other loans coming into repayment before the grace period ended in 2014. I was told except for my private loan, no I would have no other loans to worry about. And as far as the private loan's concerned, I'd get a repayment notice well in advance of the due date so I could make arrangements for the private loan. Great, right?

So my first payment comes out in October fine and dandy. A week later I get two separate billing statements with due dates different from my auto debit date. I call Sallie Mae to ask what the statements are for. The recording says my auto debit payment is 40 bucks more than what I agree to pay AND that the payment is due 2 weeks later than the date I agreed to! I get to the operator and she says, "Oh, that payment is for your DEPT OF EDUCATION LOANS, because some of them ARE IN REPAYMENT. And by the way, your payment for those loans is PAST DUE." WHAT THE FLYING **?!?!?

What was the freaking point of calling and making payment arrangements in advance if you're not being forthright about my loan activity Sallie Mae? Plus I'd signed up for electronic letter notification and got the statements in the mail. What if I'd moved or not gotten regular mail? That's why I asked for PAPERLESS STATEMENTS. Did you not want me to know I had another bill this month, Sallie Mae? That would make it so much easier to slap me with late charges, after all.

Anyway, I asked for everything besides what I'm paying to be put in forbearance until all the rest of the loans are due. I agree to the script, hopefully that settles it. But wait, there's still the private loan.... which is due in two days, by the way. Where the ** was my advance repayment notice for that? Had I not called I wouldn't have even known it was due. Of course if I want a forbearance on that it'll be 50 bucks, like it's so easy to come up with 50 bucks in 2 days.

I freakin' HATE this company. I want to do the right thing and pay back what I borrowed in good standing. This company's dead set on tripping me up with omitted information so I can get into default. Just make the debt noose around my neck a little tighter why don't you? I'm trying to do the right thing here and they're giving me half-assessed information. I'm the one who has to pay for that negligence. All I asked was to make sure what I arrange will cover everything. Some of you have had a far worse experience than mine already. This agency seems to have made headway for a lot of mistreated consumers: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/. I recommend going there and filing a complaint. It can't hurt. One more slip up like this and I'll be filing a complaint there myself.

How does this come to an end? Do we get a loan from another institution and pay this greedy company off? Or will they still harass us and say we are still behind? Someone needs to be held accountable for this mess. Is there a government official that we should contact?? We have made every payment and have faxed documentation to SM to prove it. We need help...

So, I was told to submit the IBR form (income-based repayment) so that I pay nothing. The problem? They keep telling me that they never received it. Yeah right. My other loans got the info and I don't have to reapply for another year. Sallie Mae is required to send you the forms, which they do, but they don't provide a return address to send it to! When I go online and request the address, it takes them over a week to respond but it really doesn't matter because they still "never receive it". I will be sending the form in for the third time and I will be sending it certified mail. If they give me any hassle about it this time and tell me they never received it, I am going to look into legal action.

Original Review: Oct. 11, 2013

Been paying this for my son since 2009. Website was down for maintenance in July. I called to make a telephone payment. Total amount gets debited from my account. In a week, the online statement says 20% less than what I paid. I quickly pay extra online and call Sallie Mae to get the situation straightened out. Since July 19th, I have made 7 phone calls lasting one hour each. Each time I get a name and Employee ID number. Each time I get either 10-14 days for the money to be returned and applied on the account, or 1-3 business days.

Each time I get a different person on the phone and it has to be "investigated" by a special department - or - a Supervisor has to be spoken to and make the change. Here it is October and nothing has been done. I make online manual payments because I don't like automatic withdrawals. So glad I chose to do this as I read other people’s nightmares about money being seized from their account. Four years of flawless payments and then boom. You Lawyers out there need to file a class action suit against Sallie Mae for the complete disregard of SNAFU's hat they create and don't fix!!! My son has two other loans that he is paying that I didn't co-sign. I feel bad for him.

I can prove the payments were made and Sallie Mae has my money, but I can't MAKE them apply it to my loans. So I just keep getting threatening calls, emails and letters from them stating I will be sent to collections for payments I already made! Does ANYONE know of ANYTHING I can do?? I'm completely at my wit's end!!

Why is it that no other business can get away with these business tactics, but Sallie Mae has no accountability to anyone? This is the most despicable company and the government allows them to engage in these practices. I will not give one more red cent, but will gladly hand over my worthless diploma to them!

A month went by and suddenly she has had two payments pulled from her checking account from Sallie Mae. When she called today, they told her she had FOUR LOANS!! This is not the case. We cannot get the same information from any person there and they refuse to let us speak to a manager... They told us to go online to see our four loans and when we tried, it told us our account is suspended and we no longer have viewing capabilities... We can't even see what the four loans are to argue that they aren't ours!!

What is going on and who do we get a hold of to help us here... She did everything to pay on these loans and do what she is supposed to and nothing is right on their end! We are totally helpless!! If anyone can advise where we go from here, it would be greatly appreciated. We are in a panic!! Sallie Mae is an absolute nightmare that we cannot wake up from.

I was put on hold for another THIRTY minutes (I am not exaggerating. I worked in Philly at the time and took the train all the way back to the NJ shore, 1.5 hours away). I got on the phone when I got on the train and was still on the phone when I got home. This issue was never resolved. I was going back to grad school at this time, so my loan went into deferment anyway and I forgot about Sallie Mae. Until now.

I am still in school and received a bill stating that I have a payment due TWO DAYS AGO! The envelope was postmarked SIX days ago. I'm sorry Sallie Mae, but you guys are **. How am I supposed to pay a bill on time when you don't send it on time? Why am I paying my loan when the status is deferred?? If you want to enjoy the rest of your life, DO NOT TAKE A LOAN OUT FROM THEM!!!!!!!! The first thing I'm doing when I graduate is consolidating my loans for the sole reason of getting the hell away from these jerks.

The final option is you get behind on payments and THEN they will try to work out a payment with you. When I asked them how they can help me now, ahead of it being a problem, they just repeat options one and two I mentioned above. This is the worst company to ever deal with. I have been paying my loans on time for 10 years with the exception of forbearance right after college and during a time I was laid off. There is only a plus side to them postponing full payments so why not just work with your lendees? I can't believe they rather their clients default and get behind than be fiscally responsible and work with them on payment options during difficult times.

I finally got so fed up I contacted an ombudsman and he is even having a hard time getting SM to send him my original loan paperwork. I have everything from day one. I am a hoarder when it comes to my loans. But what I do not understand is why the Dept of Ed not going after them to get their money back??? Something fishy is going on. My next step is getting a lawyer due to the fact my paper work shows something different and I have call logs with SM and Dept of Ed and what was discussed. I will start working soon and if I have to take one class a semester for as long as I live because I am not paying that until it is fixed. This has been going on for two years and I cannot take it anymore. Is there anything I can do? This is fraud.

This is very simple - amount+interest due. I have paid my dues for earning my college degree and Sallie Mae is not going to jerk me around anymore. Sadly, even when I do get a direct answer from them, the damage done to my credit from their claim that my loans are delinquent and remain unpaid can't be fixed so easily.

In July '13, my husband and I made an $8k lump sum payment toward her loan to reduce her principal, also assuming that this would significantly lower her monthly payment (you know what they say about assuming...). When it didn't lower her payment, she called in Aug. '13 and explained that she couldn't afford the full payment (and she's one of those rare college grads who found a job in her field right away - it just doesn't pay a lot). She asked if her payment amount could be reduced, particularly since that $8k payment had been made the prior month. She was told no. Practically in tears, she asked to speak to a supervisor. She told her story again. The supervisor told her what they could do is credit that $8k toward future payments, so her monthly payment due would show $0 until that lump sum was exhausted. She could still make monthly payments in amounts she could afford, which she fully planned to do, since she is very responsible about her credit score. She was told it would take about two weeks for this amendment to go through, and that when it did, she'd receive a letter, in addition to having it reflected on the SM website. That was the first week of Aug '13.

With her Sept. '13 due date approaching, and still no amendment after three weeks, she called again. The rep told her that oh yes, he saw that request in the system, didn't know why it hadn't gone through yet, he's going to expedite it. Check the website in two business days, and the change should be reflected. Three business days later, still no change. She called yet again. This rep appeared to go the extra mile and actually go to a supervisor and have her do the expediting magic as our daughter sat on hold. She was then told that the supervisor put it through, give it two business days, and it should be reflected on the website. Can you guess where this is going? I bet you can. Again, we gave them an extra day, and sure enough, after three business days, still no change.

On Sept 13, my husband called, as the co-signer. He asked immediately to speak with a supervisor, relayed the entire situation to her, and was told it would be adjusted in - you guessed it - two business days. My husband told them that if this weren't resolved at that point, we would be taking a loan from another institution for the sole purpose of paying the SM loan in full, and we would be gratified to have them lose out on all that interest, after they've put us through this runaround. As of today, Sept. 25, there is still no amendment. My husband did receive a voice mail from SM, but when trying to return the call, has been unable to get through to a human being.

Earlier this week, we submitted a loan application to a local credit union. Getting rid of this Sallie Mae nightmare will be cause for celebration. I have NEVER experienced this level of terrible, unresponsive, dare I say, dishonest customer "service." They have caused a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress for our daughter as she has simply tried to do the right thing and pay her student loan as she embarks on adulthood. Shame on Sallie Mae for making that so difficult for her.

The foreigner on the phone had an attitude and told me it would take over two weeks for them to adjust the application of my payment. Seriously, this is just a few mouse clicks. It doesn't take two weeks. But I guarantee I won't be credited that additional interest that is accruing on the balance that should have been lower if the payment had been applied correctly. I suspect they monitor borrowers attempting to get loans paid off and impede them in any way they can. Beware.

Further, the customer service phone line seems to be just as confused as to the information on the site as I am. For instance, when I tried to apply a payment to a specific loan, it was split between two loans, pushing both to become delinquent. We both spent fifteen minutes talking through the issue until we came to the conclusion that that was the case. I presently urge all graduates (and any readers) to avoid dealing with Sallie Mae if at all possible. This company purposefully engages in shady tactics to add penalties to borrowers. My advice is to use any other loan agency because I cannot fathom a greater degree of inadequacy in a company.

I am now delinquent because I didn't want to pay someone else's loan and I really feel my hands are tied. I am a single mom and can't afford this nonsense. The same happened to my mother. She actually paid her loan off, then got delinquency notices and ended up paying $16,000 in loans again. Something needs to be done about the shady business dealings of Sallie Mae.

My bank told me there would be $35.00 fee for them to stop payment and that the fact that Sallie Mae would mention this option without also mentioning a fee is "ridiculous", so I had to call Sallie Mae back AGAIN (which is a nightmare in and of itself) and they told me they wouldn't refund any sort of fee but if my account overdrafts they "might" refund me the money. So I had to run to the bank and deposit a check from another account which will hopefully clear before they auto-debit the account. You would think they would make it easy for people to actually pay their student loans but they almost go out of their way to make it as difficult and/or frustrating as possible. No wonder nearly everybody hates them or just doesn't pay. This corrupt and inept institution needs to just be shut down. I still can't believe they have the nerve to accept a bail out and still be so worthless.

My payments were increased this month when I was assured they wouldn't increase, and when I called to confront them they said, "Oh sorry, she was a new employee and told you false information. You can report her if you'd like, but you still have to pay the extra $250 this month." Once, I asked for a forbearance for my loans, and they said I would be charged $150 for each loan and could only forbear them 2 months max. I feel as though Sallie Mae tries whatever tricks they can to get the most money out of you as fast as they can. I would have never went to college if I knew I would of had to deal with this.

I recently became laid off and have yet to find anything or even begin to get back up. I'd messed with deferments in the past; however, I don't care to be dealing with these clowns the rest of my life so I do what I can when I am able. A month or two ago, I'd gotten automated calls from the robot Heather, telling me I needed to either call them or get on their site, two weeks straight at 8AM on Monday morning. Nothing like an automated bill collector calling first thing. I knew I was late paying, but I'd sent a payment off that weekend before the first call came, so I did nothing. The same call came the next Monday at the same time. I wasn't going to have a third week of it, I figured my payment should be there, but I tried getting on their website. I care to have as little to do with these jabronis as possible, I rarely get on their site, so I had long since lost my log-in info. I was sent a link to reset my password only to have it fail both times, causing my account to lock up.

I've dealt with their nothing short of a circus act customer service before and I was reluctant to have to call them again. After about a 10-minute wait, I was transferred to a foreign gentleman I could hardly understand. I asked him why I was being harassed when my payment should've been there by now? Numerous times I was put on hold and I'm not sure how many times he told me how much I owed. This fool said nothing when I told him my account locked up because their password failed and told me my payment had yet to be received. The conversation either ended due to disconnection, or he hung up on me.

Twelve hours after the fiasco with customer support, I found out I'd be getting an overdraft if I didn't get money in that day. The bank teller told me that check had cleared by the time I wasted probably a half hour listening mostly to what I needed to pay. All you'll found out by calling their customer service or take their calls is that you're either late paying, or what you owe. You'll know less after you call than you did before. They'll harass you to death, too, either with junk mail (which is usually sent back to them, sometimes even unopened) or worthless calls. I even had them, along with a collection agency, threatening me on the job. How they found out where I worked I'll never know. I wouldn't recommend anyone to these bozos, let alone kids looking to continue their education. Sallie Mae is one jumbled up, confused mess that'll make you sorry you ever got mixed up with them.

Now here we are today. I have contacted Sallie Mae every two weeks for the last 2 months and they are yet to CORRECT their mistake. I get the same answer. "This has been escalated with the finance department and they will update your account within a week." My account is currently 75 days past due and I am sure this is affecting my credit. I have never missed one payment and am being penalized because employees can't do their job correctly. I have wasted countless hours stressing and working to get this situation resolved. Someone please help!

I received a letter from them that my new principal was almost $68,000. They increased my loan by almost 28,000 dollars. When I called them to find out why, they simply had no answer or did not know why. They had payment plans but it was for more years or I could pay interest only. Then in a couple of years, my payments would go up. After 20 years of paying on this, I will have paid close to $200,000 on a $40,000 loan. I have no problem paying back the debt I owe but this seems almost ridiculous. Now we struggle to make all our payments each month and we are put right back in the situation again. Forget about calling them! You will be put on hold forever and cannot talk to anyone live. Also they said they would send me paperwork to argue the increase and to do different payment plans but have not received anything yet!

Sallie Mae refuses to acknowledge the fact that I barely get by with the meager SSI/SSDI income I get; I have had to get a lawyer (through Legal Aid because I can't afford one otherwise) and this agency has made ridiculous requests demanding that I pay what I can't afford. My lawyer has tried to reason with them several times, but they refuse to defer the private student loans, although they have deferred/consolidated the other half. Until I get a job, there is no way I can pay the ridiculous amount they demand; I have a letter drafted by my attorney, which clearly instructs them to stop harassing me by phone (and to which they agreed). As of today, I have 4 voicemails on my phone as proof that they have violated this agreement. In addition, they keep texting me and calling me when I am working at my non-paid volunteer job, which causes me to lose focus in my concentration.

Sallie Mae continues to send harassing/demanding letters in the mail as well, including the "We demand that you pay X amount" letter, in spite of the fact that I have called them on my own numerous times and tried to explain my situation to anyone who will let me tell them. What am I supposed to do, starve so they can have money I can barely afford? I can barely pay my bills as it is and towards the end of the month, there is no food in the house and no money to get anything. Several people I have tried to reach out to have made things worse by playing the "blame the victim" game with me. My mom, the cosigner, doesn't have a job either and they have been ordered not to harass her either. They don't listen to this as well.

I remember that one time my legal aid lawyer was on the phone with them and doing a little "arguing back and forth." I distinctly remember her ordering them not to call me again and getting their agreement that they would not do so. As I stated above, they have violated that agreement several times and send in ridiculous requests for money I don't have.

Sallie Mae has been my worst nightmare. They never try to work with you when you tell them (until you are blue in the face) that you can only pay what you can afford, and demand in very aggressive voices that you pay what THEY want you to pay when the reality is you don't have the amount they demand for. Then they make threats to "seize your assets if you don't pay" and I don't even have a car. I don't have anything of value that they can seize. My lawyer said they can't even take my meager SSI/SSDI, but a debt relief lawyer I just spoke with today said they might be able to, which places more stress on me because a great majority of the funds go to food for the month and the rent I pay for this apartment by the Housing Authority (the latter also raising the amount of rent every time my SSI/SSDI goes up). In the latter's case, when the manager told me last time that I have to pay more rent, she laughed. Why is taking all my money so I can barely survive so funny?

I don't know what to do about Sallie Mae. It's like talking to the wall and their customer service is terrible. It seems like all they care about is money I don't have and threatening me. They don't care about the fact that I can't find a job, no matter how hard I have tried since graduation and they don't care about the amount of stress they place on the student. If I had to do it all over again, I would start college with loans from another company that actually works with its clients. Sallie Mae blackens your credit standing for things that are not in your control and accuses you of "refusing to pay the bill" with money that isn't even in your bank account.

If you can't afford a large payment every month, you can't afford it. You can't squeeze someone for something they don't have. Should they live homeless on the streets so they can afford to pay Sallie Mae back? There is something drastically wrong with what this agency is doing to people - ruining their lives simply because they were stupid enough to get student aid from Sallie Mae. This place should be shut down. I know they are under investigation now.

I was going to purchase a home but denied because of Sallie Mae - I thought that the Sallie Mae Loan was taken care of. Today I found out that Sallie Mae took back the loan from Integrity, and when I called Integrity they told me that they did not know why Sallie Mae took the loan back because I was paying well on my loan - I still to this day have not received a phone call or letter from Sallie Mae. In addition, when I try to call Sallie Mae, I am being transferred all over and, then back to the start of the phone call.

When my loan had been transferred to Integrity Solution Service I had paid my loan down to $41,367.00 but, now due to penalties and interest that Sallie Mae has added I now owe $49,000.00. This seems illegal to me. NOT one time was I made aware that Sallie Mae took my loan back - no letter, no phone call. I feel this was an attempt on Sallie Mae's side to inflate my loan and once the loan became large enough due to penalties and interest then, they would contact me for payment - I am sure when I call them on Monday and if I am able to speak to someone they will insist that they have tried to contact me even though they know good and well they didn't.

Their robot calls me 5-6 times a day beginning at 7:00 am and do not stop until 10:00 at night. I have asked that they not call during my work hours but I have been told that as long as I am behind in my full payments, the robot calling will not stop. I could go on, but many of you have already stated many of the issues I have dealt with. It is extremely stressful.

Upon talking to a representative telling her that I didn't know that the student loan was purchased by Sallie Mae and my daughter is still making payments to Citibank. Who by the way had sent me 3 or 4 checks with no explanation. I asked the representative to give me to her supervisor because I could hardly understand what she was saying. She hung up on me. After some time I was able to reach another representative, and after giving my account number, mailing address, social security number, etc. 2 times I could finally explain the problem that I was having. I had requested that they send me a normal bill without all of the late charges because they did not notify me - I am the primary person responsible for the loan, instead they sent a payment book including a higher balance and late charges attached.

I tried without success to reach a representative to straighten this out. Two or three weeks went by. As of August 14th I received a DEMAND FOR FULL PAYMENT INCLUDING INTEREST AND LATE FEES. I called them back, I reached the same person, I could not understand her. I asked for her supervisor. The supervisor would not acknowledge my problem but kept asking what my address was, phone number, etc. I told him that I gave that information several times before and had given it to the representative just before I spoke to him. He refused to acknowledge me or let me explain my problem. I told him that I am going to see a Lawyer then.

My daughter also called them on the same day with the intention of paying them in full because she was stressed out as I was about the whole thing. They hung up on her and when she called back 4:30 Pacific Standard Time, and went through the menu they were closed. We were not given the opportunity to straighten this out and my credit which right now is excellent is going to be trashed. I believe that the people at Sallie Mae do not give a crap about the people and are not qualified to do their jobs.

Last year I was finally able to reach an agreement with one of their representatives and was put on a rate reduction plan with just days to spare before the loan defaulted. The payment was much more than I anticipated (my income-based Federal Loan payment which is based off of my income is 1/10th of their reduced expected monthly payment) and was more than I comfortable with but I had just gotten a new job with a slightly greater income so I accepted. I wanted to do the right thing, get my accounts current and start the painstaking process of cleaning up my ruined credit. (… and put an end to the non-stop phone calls) I made it through the year long program with no issues - payments were always withdrawn on time and in full, my account was current with a solid year worth of payments. Towards the end of the initial program I received information about the possibility to extend my stay in rate reduction due to good payment history. PERFECT! Honestly, it was the ONLY way I could “afford” to keep in good standing so a month before my current plan ended I called to speak with a representative to set up another payment plan.

Getting through to a live human is agonizing but, nonetheless I set aside an afternoon I was off work, prepped my new budget and expenses and prepared to wait. I must say that setting up the extension on the rate reduction plan was pretty easy. This time I was prepared with all my figures, we crunched numbers and the rep put me on hold to run all the information, on hold for 20 minutes, but I was prepared and had set aside plenty of time for this. She came back with my new payment, an increase from last years of course, and as I explained how difficult it was to commit to such a number out of one pay check (I get paid twice a month, and the payment was around half of one of my paychecks already) she offered up a solution of splitting my loan payments to correspond to my pay periods so I’m not getting hammered out of one check. GREAT! That I can commit to, that seems reasonable - as reasonable as you’re going to get from a private lender.

I picked 2 dates that worked with my pay periods, agreed to auto debit from my checking account and the representative said she was sending a request to move my due dates to reflect the agreed upon payments dates - so my payments would never be late, my account would always be current. The first scheduled payment on the new plan was a month and a half away - plenty of time for changes to take place I was told.

Fast forward to August 12th, 2013 - the date of my first scheduled auto payment on my new plan - and I’m not seeing any activity in my checking account. That’s ok, I’ll panic tomorrow if it still hasn’t posted. Tomorrow comes and I’m panicked because I’m not seeing a payment posted to my Sallie Mae online account, I’m not seeing any money debited from my checking, and I know that my account has to be in good standing to stay in this program. My boss can tell I’m upset so she excuses me to make a call while I’m on the clock - because their “email” option is a complete joke. After being on hold for 45 minutes and transferred 3 times I finally get someone that can help me. She assures me that my payment is visible on their end, that it could take 48 more hours to post to my bank account, and that my account is in good standing. 2 days later I see the payment amount is taken from my checking, with confirmation number - WHEW - that was scary!

Fast forward to today, Monday August 18th, 2013. I receive an email stating I have a new document to view online - I assume it’s a “thank you for your payment” type thing so I log into my account and to my complete horror in big orange writing is a notice that reads - “YOUR ACCOUNT IS 11 DAYS DELINQUENT - MAKE A PAYMENT IMMEDIATELY TO AVOID LATE FEES AND MAINTAIN THE RATE REDUCTION, ANY DELINQUENCY MAY RESULT IN REMOVAL OF PROGRAM”… Wait, WHAT?!? How is my account delinquent, I just made a payment, like we agreed and set up over a month ago - this CANNOT be happening! And once again, I’m at work when I get the news, so I try the “email” option and I hear nothing after a couple hours (in fact it’s almost 10pm EST now and I sent that request at 11am EST and have heard NOTHING still...) I decide I have to call on my lunch break and try to get some information, I'm upset.

So I call the number listed in my delinquency notice, and I’m on hold - for 30 minutes - finally a live person! That can’t help me, so I’m transferred once, twice, three times - back to the rep that helped me set up the plan in July. It’s been 45 minutes of my hour lunch at this point but I’m optimistic she can resolve this. WRONG!! She explains that my due dates never got changed so my account appears delinquent and the "reason" my due dates never got changed because of some new processing software/program that started in July - the same month I set this all up. OK, I understand server updates but why was I not informed of this, or at least made aware of the potential for something like this to happen?

A major change isn’t just implemented overnight, I should have been notified in some way and now I’m upset - why wasn’t I made aware of the possibility of something like this?? And now, what can be done to fix this? The resolution - I can either change my payment dates to reflect the current due dates (which do not correspond with my fixed pay days, which was the reason for all this in the first place) OR she can send the due date change request AGAIN... And that it SHOULD go through this time, but they are backlogged like 20,000 people, but it should go through. That’s reassuring.

So, let me get this straight - YOU have a major system flaw that was not at all prepared or accounted for - yet alone disclosed to your customers, and I’M the one that’s suffering? She then proceeds to tell me not worry that my account is sitting delinquent, just ignore it and check back in September. At this point I’m fuming, then she adds - “don’t worry about your credit, we don’t report until the account is 45 days delinquent and it SHOULD be cleared up before that – oh and those late fees you’re seeing accumulate already, you won’t be charged for those”.

When I inquire about receiving that in writing for my records and frankly my protection, I’m told that’s not possible. Sure, ok, I’ll just take your word for it, just like I did back in July when I was told everything was all set up - look where that got me. She finishes with “oh, and I’ll make sure you’re taken off the phone list too”. TIME OUT - you’re going to CALL me about my delinquent account that’s YOUR FAULT?!? That’s IT, now I’m PISSED. This isn’t good enough, I need some type of resolution NOW - “what can you do to remedy this?“ I ask. “Nothing - YOU can change your payment dates OR I can re-submit the request but you will have to wait.” That’s not a resolution in my opinion and when I say this to the representative she responds with “well, I can’t wave a magic wand” – OK NOW I’M DONE, I WANT A SUPERVISOR – NOW! Put on hold and transferred again, this time to a female that sounds like a teenager – and it almost seems like I’m on speaker phone because I’m hearing a lot of background noise, in particular giggling, which I’m fairly certain no customer of Sallie Mae would be doing while engaged in conversation with their delightful representatives.

I again verify my identity, explain my frustrations and am met with a scripted response - “I understand, I’m sorry you’re so upset, how would you like to proceed..?” I need this delinquency removed immediately, I don’t care that “it won’t affect my credit, I won’t be responsible for the late charges” because no one can OFFER THAT IN WRITING, nor can anyone change my due dates - not without it going through this whole process that apparently 20,000 of your other customers are stuck in too. She keeps repeating her “angry customer script” and I realize I’m getting nowhere, it’s now been an hour and twenty minutes I’ve wasted on the phone, not getting paid, for nothing.

This is absolutely unacceptable. First, the only way to “contact” anyone is by phone – which is an all day affair. Emails are lost in space, unanswered, and I’m willing to bet not even read. The majority of their “customer service representatives” are mouthy, rude, and unwilling to offer any resolution. Not once were my major concerns addressed, I was only given “take my word for it”. That’s crap and bad business, I don’t care who you are. And I don’t buy for one freaking second that not one single person can manually override a payment due date in the computer, I just didn’t have an afternoon to dedicate holding and being transferred a million more times to get there. Now I’m sitting here looking at documents that were sent to me today which state that my account is past due and that I need to make a payment or risk removal from the rate reduction plan. Am I just supposed to ignore that too? Just wait it out until September and hope the previously agreed upon plan takes effect? And feel comfortable with their representative’s “word” that my account is safe, that this delinquency will not negatively impact my credit and the late-fees I’m seeing accumulate will be magically wiped away - as if by some magic - wait, that can’t be correct.

I am trying to repay this debt; I made arrangements well in advance to avoid something like this and what for? So I can spend hours on the phone while I’m at my job - the job I NEED to PAY them back - to sit on hold, be transferred, treated rudely and still have ZERO resolution. Waiting it out is not an option - and frankly I DON’T TRUST “THEIR WORD”. I'm not doing this again in September arguing late charges and seeing hits to my credit - the credit I’ve worked so hard to start rebuilding. I will not be pushed around and I will not accept “waiting” as a resolution - this is THEIR ERROR. The fact that the company did not account for this possibility is not my problem. The fact that it wasn’t disclosed as a possibility to their consumers in advance or once it was confirmed there could be some issues is not my problem. My account has been paid to those agreed terms and should not be sitting in delinquent status. It is appalling that their response is - don’t worry about it, ignore it, wait it out even though the notices and the late fees keep mounting.

This is affecting customers that are all too familiar with delinquency and late fees - the ones that rely on these programs to dig themselves out of a huge hole, with hopes of restoring their credit. Ignoring their delinquency notices 2 years ago got me here, paired with the company’s unwillingness to be reasonable. I’m sorry I can’t just ignore the bright orange message, feeling confident this company will take care of me. I deserve better than that but unfortunately I cannot expect it. Their track record in the resolutions department is nonexistent, this company isn’t one to admit fault or offer up a solution until the bitter end. Somehow it’s always the customer’s headache. I don’t want to hear the excuses, I refuse to believe there is no override and I do not accept the offered resolution of waiting it out when the documents and alerts they are sending me clearly state otherwise.

ACT NOW, AVOID REPERCUSSIONS - not something I can turn a blind eye to. I will not be bullied or made a fool of and I will not accept no as an answer. My account needs reflect good standing, with due dates updated, payments to execute as planned, and all signs of delinquency removed. I think that’s reasonable considering I was given ZERO information about a server update and its potential to negatively affect my repayment plan. No accountability, no customer service, and I know I'm one of many, too freaking many, with a serious complaint and grudge against this disgusting company.

Then you go to the website and nothing happens, no notifications or anything telling you were to go or why they emailed you with this urgent document you needed to see. So once you get frustrated enough with the spam every day and going to the slow nightmare of a website, you will probably do what I did, just reroute those emails to spam. Which worked for the day to day, however, automatic debit does not work on the website, for some reason I do not even know why they offer it.

I have signed up for automatic debit from my account the first time a logged on the website then resigned up for auto debit every month after that because it never worked. Finally on the 4th time I called into customer support to have them walk me through it, and once we were done doing exactly what I had done before to set up automatic debit they promised "yes all your loans are automatic debit". So I hung up and thought the nightmare was over. Well it’s been 3 months and every month at least one of the auto debit loans does not debit my account so I get more spam from them and a phone call of a recording saying please Sallie Mae at "1-800-TalkToARobotForAnHourEvenThoughWeCalledYou".

I call then finally get to a customer service representative and ask why did you call, and they say, “I don't know sir, what do you want?” As if it is weird, and completely foreign to them that they are sending out automated calls telling people to call them for urgent account information. Anyways to add salt into the wound, to make a minimum payment it goes through immediately; however if you pay extra it takes 7-14 days at which at any point they can decide to debit your account.

After probably 5 phone calls to numerous reps., the check was finally posted to the correct acct. The following month, I mailed in another check, with the correct acct. number on the check as well as an 8 x 10 piece of paper stating which acct. to post it to. Again, the check was posted to the wrong acct. I again contacted Sallie Mae to inquire what happened again. I was told that I must have had the wrong acct. number on the check, that the envelopes are not opened by an actual person, blah, blah, blah and that they would fix it. I mailed a 3rd payment in. The check was cashed on July 15th by Sallie Mae but did not show up on any of the transactions. Again, I called, spoke to 2 more reps who advised me that I had to send in a copy of the bank statement to verify the info. I told them to get me a supervisor who could help me. Spoke to a supervisor, AGAIN, she advised me that I did NOT have to send in a bank statement and that she would take care of it.

A week goes by, still no activity. I spoke to another rep today. She asked me the same questions that the other 15 reps asked me. I told her that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. After spending 10 more minutes on hold, I got yet another supervisor who told me that I'd have to send in a bank statement because they have no record of my check!!! I told her to pull up the phone call from the supervisor that I spoke to last week who told me that I did NOT have to send in a bank statement because she could see on her screen that the check was indeed in their system. She told me that I was given the wrong information by that supervisor!!!

Okay, I am so done with this. Now I have the supervisors telling me that the other supervisors are wrong!!! Definitely doesn't give me a good feeling. I asked this supervisor what happened to my check??? It was cashed, it was in their system and it does not appear on my son's acct. She told me that "50 dollars was a common payment and that it could possibly be attached to the wrong persons acct., or that it could have ended up in the "bucket" where checks go, that have the wrong acct. numbers on them!!!” Imagine that???? I have my phone number on the check, the acct. number on the check and the darn check was cashed????? What the heck is up with this company???? I am now calling the Better Business Bureau to report this company. Had I know that this is how they operate, I would not have touched them with a 10ft. pole. Run, don't walk away from this company.

Upon further research, I discover another issue. Thankfully I am extremely organized and keep track of everything. Now I see that they debited my bank account $600 (which I did authorize) and credited the Sallie Mae account...great. However, the next day, decide to take the credit back (for whatever reason) but not return money to my bank account. I have spoken to 5 different reps and all of them start with..."How would you like to make your payment of $39.98, your account is past due 708 days." When I mention the issue of the $600 dollars, they say I am wrong and that they have credited the account accurately. No one wants to research or claim the research will take 7 days but will not listen to what I am trying to tell them.

There is clearly a system glitch!!!!! Speak to your IT people for goodness sake, unless they are just blatantly trying to steal money from people. How could the system be soooooo unreliable? I know I am probably not the only person in this world with this issue. Please review your accounts in detail. This is unfair and cannot go on. I know there are some people out there that would never question their bill and innocently pay whatever is charged. This is extremely upsetting and discouraging and has to be corrected.

I call every month and get the same answer and when I check on the Sallie Mae website the interest rate has not changed, nor will Sallie Mae speak to me directly but they will take the $303.09 from my account each month. I have contacted my representative for Ohio and he said to write a complaint. The private student loans need to be allowed in bankruptcy. With the high interest rate, the economy down, no jobs, Congress needs to pass the bill to allow these private loans to be bankrupt so students like myself are able to move on. Yes I do have federal loans which are not in default because they able me to pay according to my income - which is $0.

Something needs to be done with these private loans. I will never recover in my life trying to pay these ridiculously high private loans. I also am not anywhere with Sallie Mae or Central Credit Services on the "promised" interest rate yet they keep taking the money out of my account. Please help!

Each time I send an email, they tell me it will be applied according to policy - they will eventually apply it as requested, but in the meantime, I am paying interest on the balances that have not been lowered. Then when it comes normal payment time - they do not apply the normal payment to the account that I made an additional payment on, as well as they do not even pay the interest so it keeps accruing. PS - the account that I am trying to pay down first did not have any of the 126$ payment applied to it after being spread across the board.

Lately, I've gotten calls for two consecutive weeks telling me to get on their site. I care to have as little to do with them as possible, so I never go there. I had to reset my password, but I couldn't log in after I did, causing my account to become disabled online. I called the number, talked to a rep, but was constantly put on hold before eventually being disconnected. I'd recently made a payment last week, but they'd yet to receive it the same day. Less than 12 hours later, it'd both gone through and been received.

They have poor customer service, their employees are hard to understand speaking, and they have a very unorganized Mickey Mouse operation. I deeply regret ever getting mixed up with Sallie Mae, to the point where I almost regret attending college. If you can make consistent payments, you won't have to deal with them much; however, they'll harass you at every corner if you struggle making ends meet.

I do have email accounts and NEVER received notice by mail or email until a month AFTER my complaint was resolved. Make sure in your complaint to the Ombudsman, you request a complete accounting of all payments transferred appropriately to Sallie Mae, credit of all interest and penalties associated with their negligence in accepting the payments without forwarding to Sallie Mae, as well as evidence they have corrected your credit history profile to reflect that the payments were not late. It took about 90 days to go back and forth, but the Ombudsman was wonderful in lighting a fire under someone's backside to fix the mess they created.

So I got my bank payment records together and sent to Sallie Mae and DOE letting them know that indeed I had made payments and here's the proof. IT MEANT NOTHING!! I tried talking to anyone there that had an ear. They all had deaf ears. I now wonder if there was some kind of kickback or bonus structure that these representatives are receiving. If they see where they were wrong, then they would have to give the money back. There's something wrong there and I can feel it. I used the Dept. of Ed Ombudsmen's office - after a year of giving him the same information and he confirmed that I had been making all of my payments - DOE and Sallie Mae continued I was in breach of my contract.

I have contacted both Senators, and the eloquent letters that Sallie and DOE sent back would make it look like I never paid them a dime. Never mentioned that they had misapplied many of my payments, but it was my fault that I didn't maintain my contract. I am not stopping. THERE HAS GOT TO BE SOMEONE OUT HERE IN AMERICA that cares about the scam of scam. I have one caution and please pass this on to everyone you know that needs Student Loans for their kids for fall of 2013 - cancel them. Since the interest rate has doubled because of the poor performance with Congress and the folks assuming that the rate would be retroactive - DON'T TRUST THEM.

I am very sincere. Just have them wait out one semester until it is all squared away. If the rate is the same at the end of July, then cancel it or go to community college and pay a course at a time because at the end of 4 years, you will regret it. All of these bloggers are not lying when they are writing about their horrible experiences. One more suggestion - have everyone you know call their Congressional office and start reporting/writing our problems. I don't have any extra money to pay for an attorney. Heck I am making $800 payments every month and not a dime to spare. Easy to get the loans - a nightmare when you are trying to pay them off. I have left out a lot of stuff because it's too much, just too much. But I am a fighter.

All of the loans got very confusing, so we worked with Sallie Mae to combine ALL loans into one payment. We questioned, on several occasions, if ALL of the loans were combined. We were assured that they were. We made all payments on this new combined loan on time. We continue to make payments to this one loan on time.

Months later, we found out from Sallie Mae that we have not been making payments to a loan that, to our surprise, did not get combined with the other loans. We were not making payments on that anymore because we were told they were all combined. Our record on Experian shows exactly that. There is the proof that we thought this loan was combined. When we were told that we could fill out a forbearance on this loan so that the payments could be delayed to give us time to adjust and make payments, we were told they would send us the paperwork. We received no paperwork, nor did we receive any other notice or phone call. Roxanne confirmed this with Tracey.

The next we heard from PHEAA was that the loan was in default, with a balance of $41,491, which was due immediately. If we could not repay immediately, we had approximately 75 days; then, a $9,000 fine would be added to our loan. They contacted us on around 15 days into the 75 days.

We called Sallie Mae back and ended up talking to a specialist to ask what had happened and what this was all about. After reviewing our record, she said that Sallie Mae actually did not try to contact us. Nowhere was it written that they tried to contact us to let us know that our account was in trouble, which is very strange since they would call at all hours of the day or night, seven days a week, if a payment was late only within a week. Very strange!

Now, after reviewing their records again, they said that they did mail out notices that our loan was delinquent. I do not believe they sent them out; we never received them. The first we heard was in early 2013. They informed us of the loan status that we believed we no longer had due to the combined rate reduction. We talked on the phone about a forbearance that they would mail to us. We never received it.

In the meantime, believing that it would come any day, we sent a payment in to show our good faith. We spoke with Tracy, Tara, and Roxanne to try to get them to purchase back the loan, which they must do if mistakes were made on their part. The first mistake they made was telling us that all loans were combined, which it is obvious now that they were not. They said that they did try to contact us through the mail. I do not believe them since we did not receive what they claimed they sent. We have received different stories and "facts" from everyone we spoke to there. I believe once they find the mistakes they made, they would go back and cover up their tracks.

I firmly believe that this is a practice of Sallie Mae. They are using these unethical (if not illegal) practices to gain more money. As I said, we were, and still are, making payments on the combined loans. I have never defaulted on any loan in my entire history. They first give you so many different loans that it's hard to keep them straight, while hounding you to death on the phone; they then say they are combining all loans into one, but make a mistake and leave one out. Then they do not contact you until it is in default. They sell the account and never have to deal with you again. I feel they should be investigated for their shoddy and unethical practices.

2) Remove and restore my credit rating by removing all negative reports against me.

I will never stop digging deeper and pulling more government agencies into this until it is resolved. On the combined rate reduction loan, which comes out of our bank account automatically in the sum of $376.11, they claim we are only paying $366.11. Who is getting the additional $10.00 per month that is coming out of our account each month? Are they also, in the coming months or years, say that this, too, is in default because we did not pay the correct amount, or is someone pocketing the other $10.00?

This entire experience with Sallie Mae has been a nightmare, a living hell. We have nothing left to do. We have never defaulted on a loan; we feel that if we borrow something, we need to pay it back. There have been mistakes made here on Sallie Mae's part, and we would like it made right.

I kept an eye on my account and noticed the amount that I owed increasing. I called again to find out what happened. Again, I was told there was a mix up. This time, I was told interest is daily. At this time, I'm realizing they can't train their staff or their staff is told purposely to lie to the customer. At this time, I also checked how my first check was used. I saw that only 2/3 went to my principal while another third went to interest. When I reviewed this information, I went over my terms and it says that if my principal balances are paid off, then interest would stop occurring. This is the only reason I can think of why my full check didn't go to my principal balance - so they could keep collecting on the interest.

I asked this question too and was not given an answer. I sent in another check to finish off the balance and called to ask them why it hasn't been processed. They told me there's no way to find out why and I reassured them that I sent it verified mail so I know they have it. I asked about the daily interest and they told me they would keep charging me until the check was processed. I don't know if this is legal. If I send a check and the facility gets it on Monday, but waits until Friday to process it, then I shouldn't be held responsible for the interest occurring from Tuesday to Friday, but this is what they told me would happen.

If anyone decides to use this company, I strongly advise against it. I would suggest getting loans from a place that you have looked into and also a place where you can talk to someone face to face. I also suggest you bring someone with you that understands contracts. I was 19 when I signed on four loans and it was for school. I should have just gone through my bank, but I was fooled by the idea of not having to pay anything until I completed my courses and how low the monthly payments would be. After reading more into it, I found out my payments would jump way high if they weren't paid off in 3 years. I was not told this. Be very careful if you decide to do business with this company.

I've argued for three hours total about this issue as my budget is set up so they get one lump sum at the end of the month. I have had to bite the bullet and move my payment due date up 4 days. They lower my payment every three to six months as I start getting ahead of the interest. They want to keep you from paying anything on the principal.

If I can say anything to future students it’s this: borrow from local banks or work with your school’s financial aid team to get grants and scholarships. Do not use any assistance from Sallie Mae. Also ask your school's FA team if there is a local private lender that you can borrow through. I had one with my school and it was interest free; and I had it paid off in a year. Do not use Sallie Mae at all.

Okay, so let me pay you monthly using my credit card. It works with every other company I have ever dealt with that is not Canadian. "Sure! However, you cannot set up an auto payment and you will have to call us every month to make the payment (ever tried calling Sallie?). Oh, yes and just one more thing... that will cost you an extra US$15 to pay by credit card... Oh and I see you have loans with both Sallie Mae departments, so really you will have to call both offices and pay the US$15 processing charge to each in order to pay with your credit card." REALLY? You want me to make two phone calls and pay an extra US$30 in fees so that I can pay my loan? Now, I am seeing red.

When I asked to whom I could talk with about this terrible and unfair business practice, I was told the only way to make a complaint would be to compose a formal letter and mail it to the Sallie Mae address with Attn: Regional Manager in the address. I could not even get a name of a human with whom to correspond. The consequences are that I refuse to pay extra fees just for the privilege of paying back my student loans. I will also refuse to pay any and all interest added to the loan as consequence of my refusal to pay the extra. It is Sallie Mae's problem that their system is antiquated, not mine.

On May 28, 2013, I again contacted Sallie Mae again at 6:15 pm because my refund had still not been applied to my account. I was told it would be in my account on Monday, the 27th. I waited until Tuesday because Monday was Memorial Day. The person I spoke with informed me that the previous person I spoke with had lied to me and that it would take 7-10 business days for the refund to be placed into my account. I, of course, became furious and frustrated with the situation, and demanded action. The supervisor informed me that they would put a priority on my refund and I would have it in 24-48 hours. At this time, I also double checked to make sure I had been removed from the auto debit, which they confirmed. I also specifically asked if this was effective immediately and was informed that yes, it was.

I checked my bank account the next day and found that I had been charged an overdraft fee yet again. That is $90 in overdraft fees! So, I once again contacted Sallie Mae on May 29, 2013 at 3:45 pm. I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor and demanded an explanation for the continued lies. She informed me that it should have been explained to me that my removal from auto debit wouldn't take effect until next month. Since I had them on the phone, I inquired about my refund and was told that it was approved and on the way.

On May 31, 2013 at 6:34 pm I again called Sallie Mae; I had waited the 48 hours and still had not received my refund. The Supervisor I spoke with informed me that once posted, it would take 24 hours to get into my account - yet another lie. I argued with this woman and informed her that this was getting out of control. I keep being put off, and am sick of it.

This company has lied to me numerous times. I find this unacceptable. I live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford any one messing with my finances. I have been given excuses and apologies, but I require money to live on.

My Advice: To anyone even thinking about receiving a PRIVATE LOAN from Sallie Mae, BEWARE! DO NOT DO IT. They will steal from you and unlike most company's who rush to correct their wrongs made to customers, Sallie Mae is so immoral they don't give darn about a customer. We Come a dime a dozen to them and they couldn't care less if we're cheated out of our money!

I certainly understand debt collection, but they go overboard with being rude, attempted intimidation, and repeated calls. I would love to see school counselors and financial aid offices STOP referring kids to Sallie Mae for loans. ALL other alternatives should be exhausted before using Sallie Mae. By using Sallie Mae, kids are facing years of abuse from this company. It's a very taxing and frustrating experience for a young person trying to start their lives after college.

They claimed I was late every month since the one slip up. Finally, a day came when I got a call from the people they passed the loan on to. This young woman on the other end sounded about my age at the time (23) and was very nasty with me. She claimed I had been late for months. I found her funny trying to be intimidating so about 15 minutes into the call I started having fun with her. Basically, I finally got out of her that since I was late, there was a past due fee I had to pay that I was constantly behind on!

Finally, after getting them off my co-signer and my back, one day out of the blue, I get an email notification that my loan due date had been pushed back. I had no issues for about a year and a half with them so I figured this was a good sign. So I show up as usual, a week in advance of my brand new due date, only to find that it only applied to one of the loans! I am past due on the other so I sent extra money. We will see if they let the dogs loose again. My advice, if you are seeking a job in Medicine, Law, or other Sciences, please, by all means, go to school! Anything else, learn WordPress and coding and sit behind a PC and learn how to run freelance or work for yourself because there are no other jobs or avenues that will keep you sane. What a waste of time my higher education has been!!!

Here is some additional information - since I graduated - I have paid well over 35G in loans back to Sallie Mae. Throughout the process, I would have to phone in monthly as they would misapply payments to the different loan bulks, which would then incur late fees. I would have to call monthly go through the process of getting a senior person on the phone and would have the payments applied correctly. Following that, they would refund the late fees. I recently finished up a residency and was in deferment. I did not register in the spring to take a semester off from the graduate program. My loans came out of deferment and although I am registering for summer and fall, I've decided to once again begin to pay them down. 1 payment in and Sallie Mae was up to their old tricks!

I paid $200 over the due amount (around $800) and they misapplied to a bulk of loans that isn't due till June or July. The account incurred 50 dollars in late fees due to their mistake. I tried to reach them via phone but their automated system now makes it impossible to reach a human being (typically a senior rep) that can deal with these issues. I had to email them and demand that someone call me back to correct the issue. A senior rep called me back in 48 hours (on a Saturday) which is the only nice thing I can say - and fixed the issue. My $50 will be refunded (which is typical if you catch this mistake). However, the senior rep who handled the issue transferred me to a closed department for my refund. So that will have to wait until Monday.

There are only 2 ways you can reach a person at Sallie Mae now. One is to email and demand an urgent call back. Two is to have your banking institution contact them directly via a special phone number that only they have. Complain to your congressman if you are having similar issues.

Had I known what I know today, I would have never financed my education through Sallie Mae! I have complained to the Better Business Bureau twice in the past 10 years and received over a hundred dollars in a recent class action lawsuit.