Sallie Mae Reviews

It is all a big scam and the students are the victim. I will be talking to an attorney later this week to see about getting something done with my credit report and help in dealing with Sallie Mae. They change the rules to suit them at any given moment. They refuse to put anything in writing. I can't even get a straight answer. I was even told that my late payment amount that I owe Sallie Mae continues to grow even if I make payments to the collection agency, because Sallie Mae still expects their original regularly scheduled monthly payments sent to them also! Our government gave them a big bailout so they could continue to screw us. Where is our rights? Where are our federal representatives and senators? Anyone interested in a class action lawsuit?

So now they show her as delinquent. She and my mother (a cosigner on one of her loans) get threatening letters and phone calls daily. I have called three times a week every week since March 1st, 2012 up to Friday March 23rd, 2012. I have spoken to at least 17 different people, and to this day, they can not get this payment posted. They are always very apologetic, and sure, they will get it done but there is still a delinquent status on her account. I am so fed up I am ready to scream! Do we have any recourse?

Of note, sometime between March 15th and March 25th, Sallie Mae put a new option on their website to "apply overpayment to principal". This must be the result of similar complaints or a pending law suit. I do not have a good interest rate, 7.5%. So every principal dollar counts! If I could move my loans back to Citi or any other lender with reasonable payment options, I would do so in a heartbeat. However, after contacting the govt. student loan support agency, I was told that I did not have any option in the matter, aside from taking out a personal loan or moving the debt to a credit card.

I travel often and my mail sits and now my payments are late. I switched back to electronic payments but they never inform me that the payment is due via email. Instead, they insist on sending paper. I just went through the process again to switch it to email notification, but now I've been penalized for late payments. Where is their accountability? It feels more like bait and switch so they can collect late fees. I really hate Sallie Mae. How can I switch to a respectable loan holder?

I contacted Sallie Mae of the error on their part and asked for them to put the money back as well as send a letter to my bank explaining their error, so my bank would refund all of the overdraft fees I received due to the unauthorized payment. I received a letter a few days later telling me that they would not put the money back nor send the letter to my bank and that they had the right to take the money out. I then cancelled my bank card so they would not take any more unauthorized payments out of my account. They tried again the first week of Feb to take another unauthorized payment out. When it would not go through, I started getting threatening and rude phone calls from Sallie Mae.

I again tried to explain to Salle Mae what had happened and told them since why they did not return the unauthorized payment that was taken in Jan that they needed to apply that payment to my Feb payment. They told me that was not how they did business, they then accused me of not making payments and that they did not receive payments that they had already received. I sent them copies of my bank statements confirming that they did receive two payments in January (one in which they were not supposed to take out and they just got into my account and took it) and again contacted my bank and did further research on it. I was again told that yes the money did come out of my account and was paid to Sallie Mae.

I told Sallie Mae of this again and asked for the fax number of the person I was speaking to, so I could fax the information to her and was told, no they didn't want it. At one point, they spoke to my mother as well, and also called her a liar and were very disrespectful and rude to her. They treated me very rudely and are a very unethical, immoral and unprofessional company. People need to be made aware of Sallie Mae's lack of business ethics and unprofessionalism.

In the fall of 2011, Sallie Mae began to garnish my social security disability benefits even though they claimed to not own my loan and was unable to make any payment arrangements. In August 2011 the company that claimed to be the holder of my Sallie Mae loan said that I'd have to file for a discharge before they could make any type of loan consolidations or payment arrangements. They sent me the paperwork which I had my physician fill out and I returned it to them. I heard nothing from anyone for months. When I finally called in November, they said too much time had passed from when I had sent the paperwork in and I needed to resubmit it. I sent the paperwork again not just to the holding company, but to Sallie Mae because they are the company listed on the garnishment from the US Treasury Dept. Sallie Mae responded by saying my physician didn't fill out or sign the papers and to have them filled out by the physician. The papers had been filled out by the physician and signed by her.

I sent a copy back to them. They sent a letter stating the same thing and that the physician ID # didn't match. When I called Sallie Mae, they gave me the run around stating they didn't own my loan and when I said they are garnishing my income they had no explanation. I sent the papers again to both companies and again the same letter was sent to me. I know the ID is fine and the papers are filled out correctly because Great Lakes Higher Education processed the same papers on my other student loan without any trouble and in fact, granted the discharge.

It is now March 2012 and Sallie Mae continues to garnish my wages and continues to send the same exact letter no matter how many times I submit the papers. I've even had the physician fill out new paperwork so that they couldn't say they had expired. They still refuse to process the papers. It is my belief that Sallie Mae and any company acting with them or for them doesn't want to process my papers correctly because a discharge would mean no money for them. Business practices like this should not be allowed. If Sallie Mae doesn't own my loan, they shouldn't be able to take money from me and they should have to return every penny they have collected. Regardless of who owns the loan the papers should be processed and not returned each time with the same letter? Sallie Mae and the companies who are involved in this fraud should be held accountable and prosecuted.

I'm not sure what more can I do. In writing, I sent a forbearance that they admit having. In writing, I explained why I can't work. In writing, I got a letter stating the account no longer had a balance. In writing, I furnished this information to 3 different departments. One of those departments got the information 3 times. How can I get them to honor the letter received, dated January 16, 2012?

Previous to this, my daughter (new grad) asked for guidance from a representative of Sallie Mae and she suggested just paying the interest! I have called weekly and sometimes bi-weekly to see where the information is. I have been told an array of excuses - from they were sent so they could only be sent to my daughter so we need your daughter's "okay", etc.

This is frustrating! I do not understand why a bank will not follow through with such a request but only send intimidating billing material. I find this to be harassing. Please set me straight. And they keep calling my parents that have also co-signed but are helpless at this point. This is very upsetting!

I tried sending a payment in without a statement and they credited to the wrong loan. In spite of repeated attempts to get some kind of monthly statement for the loans I have cosigned for, they refuse. I get one story from one person and another from someone else. They have shredded my credit in the process. The problem isn't that I'm trying to get out of what I cosigned for, it's that I can not get a bill mailed to me. All of his loans have the same account number so if I send in a payment, I don't know what loan it's going to. I am looking for an attorney and plan to take this matter up in court. I trust nothing they say or do.

Okay, so what if I'm paying my low interest loans off at a faster rate vs my high interest loan? Well let's extrapolate this information to all of Sallie Mae's customers (which I did in Excel). My assumptions: Total number of Sallie Mae Customers: 20,000,000, percentage of customers with multiple loans through Sallie Mae: 50%, percentage of those customers with loans of varying interest rates: 75%, percentage of those customers that make at least one additional payment towards their higher interest rate loans: 50%, amount of excess interest Sallie Mae earns on adjusting payments of customers who made at least one additional payment towards a higher interest rate loan: $125.00 over the life of the loans (let's assume 10 years, which mine is). Multiply all of that out for a grand total of $468,750,000.00 in additional income every 10 years by adjusting payments so that lower interest loans take priority over higher interest loans after an extra payment is made towards higher interest loans. Anyone want to write an article on this?

Moral of the story: Don't pay off the higher interest loans any faster unless you're able to pay off the entire loan at once (or someone needs to sue Sallie Mae so that they learn not to steal money from their customers).

Last year, SM told me I was not eligible for the payment plan. I was. It took several calls and requests to keep speaking to supervisors, but they finally relented. This year they claim I am still ineligible, but according to their policy, the tax return can be 3 years old, meaning the one from last year is still applicable. Again, several calls, different information on every call and they finally put me back on IBR without notifying me. I just found out today when I called to check the status. The dates were wrong and the payments were too high, so I questioned them (politely, remember, these people aren't the ones in charge), until they could provide me with an answer that made sense. And yes, it was their error.

I would encourage anyone having issues with Sallie Mae to keep calling and keep questioning when something doesn't make sense. Yes, it's time consuming, but I assume they hope that we just give up and get sick of fighting them to comply with their own ** policies. I know this may not help with the tax liens.

I also recommend using this tactic with any big corporation you are dealing with. If something doesn't add up, it's probably wrong (and 99% of the time in “their” favor). Stay polite but consistent and firm that you are entitled to a full explanation. It has worked with Verizon, Blue Cross and Sallie Mae. My next goal is to work like ** to get out from under SM and I will never have to deal with them again. Good luck!

Now, I have a collector calling, being real nasty about receiving their money. Look how the economy is today. Even if it’s a bill we have to pay, it has to come in due time, because we are only getting by (well, some of us). I am working for the government of the Virgin Islands, and they are firing people because they don't have money to pay us. I tried lowering my payments, and they told me they can't do that. What am I to do? I read an article that people are committing suicide, because of the constant threats from Sallie Mae about repayment. Please help!

I am currently making payments on both accounts, which are enrolled in Automatic debit. Now, Sallie Mae is saying one of my accounts is delinquent and that I am not enrolled in Automatic Debit. When I log on, it says both my accounts are set-up for Automatic Debit. I made a payment on the overdue account and received a confirmation. Now, Sallie Mae is saying that they were unable to take the payment out due to an invalid account number. It is the same account number the other account is having money taken out of. I called the 888 number and was told to call an 866 number. Every time I speak to someone, I get a different story.

I am fed up with their lack of customer service. I try to complain and I get nowhere and get nothing but attitude. There has to be something that can be done. I am just trying to make my payments.

This year I filed my taxes. I was supposed to get $2,019. Well, that did not happen. I got another letter from the IRS stating that all $2,019 will be going to Sallie Mae. So they got a total of $7,080. I want to know why they can keep taking my money and then turn around stating they have never received a payment. Why do they have the right to keep sending me a bill when they got their money? This is not right! Either someone is a thief and taking the money for themselves or they are trying to rip me off. What am I supposed to do, live the rest of my life while Sallie Mae takes my taxes every year for the rest of my life? It has been a year this has been going on and it continues to go on. This should have already been resolved yet I am still sitting here waiting and they keep bullying me and trying to get money from me that they already got. I am asking anyone and everyone to please help me with this. I am afraid Sallie Mae is trying to rip me off and steal my money.

That request was denied. We have been getting calls from Premier (317-322-3621) on a daily basis. That includes a hang-up when we answered the phone. The calls start at 8am and continued until 8-9 pm during week days. My husband has MS and has fallen twice trying to answer the phone at 8am. We get scared at that time of the morning thinking that one of our grandchildren is sick or hurt. Everyone we know is aware not to call us in the mornings as we have a routine to adhere to due to our disabilities. Premier is well aware of these facts.

Please, someone, make them stop. Our attorney is also our friend and at our disposal. I thought I would take the more Christian route and send a complaint out first. Thank you so very much for your attention to this matter. Our home # is **.

Now they are taking my federal income tax so I called them again about the problem. They gave me the run around between Sallie Mae, USAfunds collection and Advocate Unit of Sallie Mae. They are saying now that my payment was credited back, but it is being credited into May 2009 instead of April 2009, which means that I am still missing the April, 2009 payment.

They are also saying that my account didn't default until December 2009 that same year. I find it hard to believe because between April and December is 9 months long. If they didn't default my account and sent to collection until December, 2009, then why did the payment record from the collection department showed no payments starting from April?

This is what I believe happened. Sallie Mae didn't credit my payment for April. They ignored my dispute and sent my account into default and collection. Once they realized that something was wrong, they deposited the payment into the account the following month to try and cover up the mistake. But the defaulted account and information were already sent out.

Since loans from Sallie Mae is guaranteed and the government doesn't care what they do, they will get money no matter what. No one at Sallie Mae want to admit that Sallie Mae made a mistake on my payment and take responsibility for it. They even hang up the phone when they don't want to answer me because it's easier to just hang up and still get paid. At this point, my credit is ruined, my federal income tax stolen, and no one from Sallie Mae is admitting mistake or taking responsibility.

Until this is resolved, I cannot complete my professional training, leaving me unable to pay of my student debt. Smart moves, Sallie Mae.

Please go to ** and sign the petition to reinstate bankruptcy to student loans. This is a huge problem and Sallie Mae is rolling in the dough! They take advantage of our nation's youth because our government will not let you file bankruptcy on their loans. Something needs to be done about this company before they strike again! When I was 18, I didn't think twice about it. Sallie Mae handed me $10,000, now I am 27 and owe them $30,000 and they are turning me into collection agencies and are going to sue me.

I ran into financial difficulty, and had trouble making payments. They called me from several different numbers all day long. This is a conflict of interest, because they own the collection agencies that they use. Something has to be done about these private student loans. How do they expect me to pay off the total of what I borrowed, plus 30%? I know many people are suffering, due to the unethical practices of Sallie Mae. No one needs to contact me about this. I am just writing to you, so you are aware of the deceptive practices of Sallie Mae.

I had this whole conversation in my car parked in my driveway before I walked into the house because it was just the time the phone call caught me at. After I hung up the phone, I had just enough time to do inside and put my belongings down and received a text message. The text message read "Thanks for the smiles. " It was the man I was just speaking with. I was sure of it. I texted back and asked, "Who is this?" The man replied, "Oh you dont' remember me? We were just speaking! "

He included a picture of himself, fully dressed, thank goodness! How creepy and unprofessional. I was completely uncomfortable with this company now having all my personal information, especially with this name being the person I just trusted to give my information to. My next payment, I was late, and when I tried to log in to my account online, it said my request was not authorized.

I called Sallie Mae and asked why this was and they told me I was late on a payment so my privilege for seeing my account was taken away but I can give them a credit card over the phone. I asked to speak with a supervisor. I told the supervisor about my encounter with his employee and he had nothing to say. I then explained how I am not giving my credit card information over the phone as a security measure for myself and I would appreciate if I would have my "privilege" back of being able to log on and see my accounting and pay that way.

His response was, "Well, even if you put your information on the computer, my employees still has access to it." Oh! How lovely, was he just pretty much telling me, "oh well, my employees will do what they want?" The fact you are not allowed online to pay your bill if you're past due is completely ridiculous. Do they want their money or not? They are complete morons over there at Sallie Mae!

At this rate I don't know how I'm going to be able to return to college or ever pay off this loan. Between the $238 monthly payments and the 10.75% interest rate, I'm completely stuck. Apparently, my payments will go back down to $25 once I become a full time student but I know for sure that I don't want to take out another loan with Sallie Mae. Even before I took the medical leave from school, I wasn't shown any respect from their employees. If a payment was just one day late, I would receive harassing phone calls from employees asking where the payment was. Any communication I attempt with them through email has been completely ignored. The only reply I ever received through email was when I contacted them regarding a payment they had taken out of the wrong account. I specifically made a payment using my savings account and they instead took the money from my checking, causing my account to be overdrawn and hit with a $25 fee. Their response was that, according to their records, there was no mistake and essentially "it's not our problem." I'm completely disgusted with this company and regret ever taking out this loan through them.

This is a Parents Plus Loan. And I also noticed that every time they do a distribution to the school, they add on $500.00 for that benefit! We are now with Citizens Bank (much better) but by the time she graduates, I will have paid in excess of $9,0000.00 in interest to be told that it does not go any where since when she graduates and goes into repayment the interest rate is adjusted and she starts accumulating interest Ll over again! I could have gone to a loan shark for a better deal. I have written emails to the President and have not even gotten a response! Something must be done!

I have always paid my loans monthly, two separate accounts and separate monthly payments. They put all the payments on one account making it appear I am defaulting on the loan. I have written them, talked to them, explained to them, etc. I am done.

No more talking to them. They want me to go to their website and fix it. I don't think so. They are getting payments and quite a hefty interest rate. They made the mistake and they need to fix it. It's that simple. Never would I ever suggest anyone take a loan with this company. I've even spoken to management who obviously do not care.

Also, today I took a look on my Sallie Mae loan account and noticed that they add a $25 late fee to my loan on top of interest. I have not been late on my bill in a long time and when I can remember being late, they never add a late fee to my bill. They just add the past month’s bill and the next month’s bill together including the interest rate. To add on top of everything when I defer my loans, Sallie Mae increases my interest rate from 5% to 10%.

This is almost 11% interest rate on the $7,000 student loan that I received in 2002, in which the final amount came up to $ 14,000 when I was able to start paying on it in 2009. Now, I have the loan down to little over $10,000 and they slap this new $25 late fee. I feel that this loan will never get paid off because Sallie Mae keeps adding new hidden fees. So, if possible, can someone please help? I need the loan taken out of my grandmother's name and also need a lower interest rate.

In January, they took two payments and said I had made a phone in payment which I had not done so. I have engaged in more fighting with Sallie just to get my money back. The representative said I could have my money in 24 hours, another lie. I called them again and got a completely different story. I told them I was recording the conversation they then got upset and told that is not allowed. So they can record ours phone conversations but we can’t? Sallie Mae needs to be investigated soon. If anyone hears of an investigation I would love to help.

We were not able to apply for the full, or half of the amount of my tuition. After the first two times my mother's credit was no longer able to support me as a co-signer. and I was forced to ask my father, a man whom hasn't bothered to be a part of our lives, since before I was in middle school. This is the man I'm asking to cosign and help put me through college. Surprisingly, he agrees to help and co-signs for me.

By 2007, I was attending the Art Institute in LA, and was living on my with my boyfriend, who I met at school. By the time the loan, my father co-signed for, ran out, I was 2 years into a 3 year bachelor's degree program. When I went to apply for a loan, to at least get within six months of having my bachelor's degree, I of course was turned down, and at this point, even my father's credit was not enough.

Too many loan applications in a short span of time will do that, you know. In short, I was forced to drop out of college, because we could no longer afford to put me through school. 6 months later, I have a measly part-time retail job, and Sallie Mae starts their rounds. They wanted to start with something like $900 a month, which was thrice what I was paying for my housing, by then.

I tried making smaller payments, until one day, I was laid off. I called them, and asked them for a deferment, which would cost $100, which I didn't have, at that time. So my payments became late, until my boyfriend could loan me $100 to put me on deferment for hardship. Without my degree, I've bounced around from ** retail job to ** retail job, when I'm lucky enough to find one.

The better part of the last 3 years have been spent broke and unemployed. Sallie Mae does not cares. They just began calling my father relentlessly, which I suppose I should thank them for, because my father is only interested in how my life is going, when he is making a call about Sallie Mae. His hand was forced to make a payment, when I could not, to save his own credit. Meanwhile, Sallie Mae runs my credit once every month, to make sure I cannot move up ,unless I "pay the man" with money I don't have. I am pretty much their servant for life, for wanting to go to school, and make a better life for me, than my mother could. That's awesome.

That took 4 telephone calls, a UPS stamp of my correct address and to rid myself of the wrongful tenant above on Sallie Mae correspondence. It seems as if loans have been in hibernation and after 2 years of dormancy they appear as a subsidized loan that I have no affirmation of their validity. Now, I have to go online to retrieve interest paid tax docs from Sallie Mae. Why don't they send them out? Is that another way they can milk the public out of a tax deduction?

I continued with Sallie Mae for the 2010 school year but told them again that I wanted a totally deferred interest loan given that I remained unemployed for almost two years. I started working part-time at the end of 2010 and do so until this day, however, my income has dropped from roughly 65K per year to 42K and it is difficult to make the accruing interest payments on this loan.

I left Sallie Mae for Wells Fargo this year when I learned that they had a totally deferred interest loan. Sallie Mae has tried to get me back as a customer since they now offer the same type loan. Here are my questions: Shouldn't Sallie Mae have given me some type of break in the process, given the extent of my unemployment and couldn't they have offered me a totally deferred interest loan in the beginning of this process? It has become difficult for me to meet the monthly payment on the two school year loans I took out with Sallie Mae so I wanted to work out a reduced payment plan. One loan officer there said that it would be no problem but never sent the documentation they said I would need to fill out so I could be given a $25 per month break on this payment. Why would they tell me that and not follow through.

When I called Sallie Mae back, they stated the other person was wrong to have told me that they could work with me to reduce the payment. Why do they not work together and know their own rules? What recourse do I have with them now because at my reduced income and the accrual of interest across two loans now it is crippling us financially. I can't continue much longer at this rate.

Yeah, I should have paid them the $89. Along comes 2008. I have very little income. They garnish $159 dollars in wages. You think that they are done. They got almost double the $89, count the thing as written off. Meanwhile, I don't hear from these people until 2010, when they decide to garnish my husband's wages, somewhere to the tune of $2,000.00.

Then comes my mistake. I looked up my account, and found out that I owe them about $450. We send them a money order for that amount, thinking it will settle the loan. I called them up a month later, and we still owe them $450 dollars. You would think that if the principal is $40, the thing would be paid off, you pay them $450, but no, the interest comes first, then their stupid collection fees, and then the principal, so you find out. I will not pay this company any more money. Not that I feel like I should have any reason to worry.

My credit sucks, because it went into default, which I don't think is a big deal, because I really don't agree to the whole idea of loans anymore. Sure, I may bounce from home to home in life, will never have a car, but at least I will never have another debt, because I'm sure that these greedy people have ruined my credit, and can never get another loan!

I was lied to and can't believe there is no consequences for such horrible practices at a student financing company. I cannot believe they are not monitored or regulated by the state or federal government. I'm writing complaints to both my state representatives and the Department of Education. Someone needs to get Sallie Mae to treat its customers with respect and work with them, not against them.

Please, contact me ASAP. They are pushing forward to collections on my property (truck) as of tomorrow. We have attempted many times with Sallie Mae and there's no satisfaction anywhere. To the above post, my wife and I had to argue with a rep that could not speak clear English for over 30 minutes to get transferred to someone that could assist us. We finally had to hang up and call the 800 # (and wait on hold multiple times) until we could get someone that could understand us and speak clear English.

I have been forced to live with my parents since I left college. I have been paying interest because I can't afford my monthly loan payments. My repayment amount has quadrupled as a result of "interest". It's now $60,000. Before I obtained this job, I was giving Sallie Mae all of my unemployment and temp assistance. Every time I turn around, I am taking from me and my child to give to Sallie Mae. I can't even buy a home for my daughter and me or a reliable car due to Sallie Mae raping my credit score.

I currently have a number of federal student loans that are being serviced by Sallie Mae. I recently spoke to an agent to discuss options to reduce my monthly payments. At no point in time did the agent offer the federal income based repayment plan and it only came into the conversation after I mentioned it specifically. All of my loans are eligible to receive consideration under this program.

The Sallie Mae representatives gave me information that conflicted with information provided by the U.S. Department of Education, and they failed to be transparent about other details of the program (i.e. formula for calculating monthly payments, which is available from the U.S. Dept of Ed). For example the agent explained that there was no such forgiveness of payments in the Sallie Mae version of the income based payment option, which is a huge feature of the feature of the federal program that offers forgiveness after 25 years of making all qualifying payments.

Either Sallie Mae is failing to inform its representatives of the full details of the programs it offers, or it is signing people up to income based repayment options that are not associated with the federal program and thereby failing to offer the federally backed option to student borrowers. I think this should be investigated as all borrowers are entitled to enjoy the benefits of programs designed by the federal government. Private loan servicers should in no way be allowed to interfere with federal programs and withhold valuable information. I will contact the Department of Education directly in order to mediate because the failure of Sallie Mae to be transparent worries me that they will not honor the terms of the specific program. I believe practices like this should be investigated.

The frustration of wading through their automated system is getting unbearable especially when I can't even use the automated system to make a payment via telephone without the system rejecting my zip code. (I have a 4 digit zip and they require an American zip). I just wish that customer service was a priority and by that I mean human customer service which does not rely upon a computer script but that actually listens to the human customer.

Basically, 3 months passed, and Sallie Mae contacted me about being over 90 days delinquent on paying my student loan. I was livid, because I have great credit. It was completely irresponsible of them to never send me a notice or letter with payment options. One would assume that if you always got a statement in in the mail when the loan was with Citibank, that practice would continue when it is "bought" by another bank. I asked the person from Sallie Mae to send a payment book.

What did I get in the mail? Nothing! I just called to see when my payment is due. It's due in less than a week, yet I've received nothing in the mail. I'm totally disgusted.

I have also found on the IRS website under Instructions for Forms 1099-A and 1099-C - Main Contents- Multiple Debtors: For debts incurred before 1995 and for debts of less than $10,000 incurred after 1994, you must file Form 1099-C only for the primary (or first-named) debtor. In addition, through my research I discovered that the student loans were forgiven due to the Chapter 7 case # 04-08579 filed by the school on October 1, 2004.

This has caused an ongoing IRS dispute since 2008 resulting to a Tax Court hearing January 30, 2012. I have incurred court fees, mailing fees, fax fees, and countless time to research and compile information to prove my case. This resulted in uncovering the fraudulent reporting of Sallie Mae’s 1099C to reduce their tax liabilities as well as possible violations for collecting on a debt that was already settled or forgiven due to a Chapter 7 filed by the school.

I have done so much research, and to hear and read these horrible stories about how people get so far to paying it off, or think they pay it off and Sallie Mae grips their talons even harder and slaps them with a phony fee of some sort. This company is a life-ruiner, and I will not pay them. After the stuff they have said to me on the phone, I believe throwing my money into the wind is more beneficial than paying them. Take a loss of $40,000 Sallie Mae, you aren't getting a dime. I wish someone would file a class action lawsuit on these people for harassment.

When I talked to the man from the Collections agency, he reduced my payment but it was still beyond my means. I asked about a payment plan and he said there wasn't one available. If I didn't resolve the issue, they would present a lawsuit against me. Then he miraculously gave me a payment plan where I would pay down $2,300 and $200 a month. I can barely afford the $200, let alone manage to collect $2,300. My parents couldn't help. Their credit is shot. My mom was laid off from her job and having trouble collecting unemployment. My dad and sister were the only ones working up until recently when my mom was called back to work. They gave me until the 27th to have the money and set up an auto payment plan which I'm not very crazy about. I barely get any money as is and I owe for Federal Loans and for loans from Discover Student Loans. It is unrealistic for me to be able to pay back any of these at this point in my life.

The customer service was awful. I was treated like I was stupid. The man had no compassion whatsoever, and he ridiculed me for ignoring my responsibility to pay. I guess they'll just have to file a lawsuit against me. I really don't have the money, neither do my parents, and there is no one I can borrow from. They wouldn't gain much because I barely have any money, and I have no assets. I'm filled with concern over the whole thing. I am scared to call them back because they were rather hostile. I wish I had never taken a loan out with Sallie Mae. I'm learning that they are a crooked organization that mistreats people and lacks compassion.

I’ve called over and over to have the due date changed as I couldn’t pay in the beginning of the month due to my rent being due, but they flatly refuse so that they can continue to collect their late fees. I have recently lost my job and am expecting my very last paycheck in a few weeks. Last year I had $10,000 worth of unexpected expenses in my family and I had a baby. When I was initially behind 6 months ago, I called and tried to work something out with them, and they said that they could give me forbearance if I paid the two months I was already behind. If I had a way to do that, I wouldn’t have been behind in the first place! They told me to find someone to borrow money from. As time went on I tried to make a payment here and there, but I can't catch up.

Now I have my last paycheck looming and they say I owe $1500. I called again and tried to work something out. They told me because of how many days the loan was late, they couldn't help me with the loan. It is always a new excuse with them. Then they transferred me to collections and they told me even though my income is now negative, I qualify for no programs. They told me to pay for 3 months and then 3 months from now call for a forbearance. That would make the balance owed just as high, and during forbearance they charge outrageous interest. So at the end of it, you end up owing them more and are in more of a mess. Then they told me to make half a payment now to buy me some time, but in 3 weeks I'll be in the same boat.

I am tired of being preyed on by this company. I want to pay my loan if they would just work with me, but they refuse to work with you and bully you. The last time I made a payment with them, they asked if the number I was calling from was my phone. I said no, but they continuously call the number anyway. Please, is there anyone who can help me? My credit is continuously taking hits because of these people. I make payments but the loan never goes down. I can’t have a car or a house because of Sallie Mae.

By doing some research on the internet, I found another Sallie Mae number (not listed on their website!) and was able to explain to someone my issue. 2 weeks later, an update was finally made to my account. However, even though I only owed $3700 and had paid over a year and a half of interest, and after the $4200 refund went thru, Sallie Mae said I still owed them $300! After calling the main customer support line, I was told by a "manager" that I didn’t understand simple math, or how credit works and must pay them!

Again, I reached out to the number not listed on their website, and someone easily saw that when the refund payment had been entered, they only entered 2/3rds of it! The customer service is laughable at best, and for a "manager" to try and make me feel stupid when I was just trying to explain my situation—unreal. Do not get a school loan thru them.

Whenever I contact Sallie Mae, they tell these payments are "partial late fees" from late fees applied from earlier billing periods. They provide no other explanation. I do not understand this, as I already paid late fees! They generally refuse to provide straight answers, and put more effort into obfuscation than transparency.

Whenever I have spoken to them, they assure me that the small "partial late fee" is the last late fee I will pay. So I make a payment. After it posts, another late fee pops up, again without explanation or a bill, and I receive the same convoluted and misleading answers from "customer" service.

Has anyway else had this experience? I refuse to make any more payments random late fees when my account has not had a late payment in over half a year (except of course my required monthly payments). So far, over a 3 month period, these random fees have totaled about $40. Not much, but over the life of the loan a big amount if it does not stop soon.

I called Sallie Mae because they advertise that their plans are "customizable to meet the needs of their customers and can be lowered or adjusted on income." I was told that there was nothing that could be done for me. I explained to the customer rep that I can only afford the $568 that I had planned on paying for the next two years, that I want to be on time with my payments but would be impossible to do since they doubled by payments out of nowhere. This company provides no assistance or customer service. I feel that they want you to go into default so that they can charge late fees and ruin your credit. Here, I am telling them that I want to responsibly pay my debts off but am asking for lower payments (which they would profit from more in the long run besides!) or a longer loan period and the only answer I got was, "There is nothing we can do for you. You'll just have to be late with your payments."

I called back one week later and was told that my application had been denied because I had not filed taxes the previous year. I explained that I had not filed taxed due to insufficient income, and that I had been instructed by Sallie Mae to write a letter explaining this and include it with the application, which I had done. Then I was told that my application had been denied since I had not included proof of my income. I explained that I had been unemployed for several months at the time of completing the application, and that I had made that clear on my application. I have been told that my options are to start completely over with the application, or to call back in two weeks.

The consequence is that my Income Based Repayment period is not starting due to stalling by Sallie Mae. My loans are coming due, and I am facing the threat of collection action each time since my forbearance period is now over. Furthermore, none of these events are communicated to me by Sallie Mae. I find out what they are doing with my application only when I make calls. I am needing to make calls every one to two weeks, and each call lasts at least thirty minutes. Each time I call, I am told information that conflicts with what I have been told in the past.

I spoke with Randall this time, who advised me he would waive the late fee, and to make my payment online on December 28. I did so on December 28, as I was told (again), and I find that the Sallie Mae website won't process it for two days, which means another late fee. This is just one example of many times I have been misinformed by Sallie Mae representatives, where I have to pay the price. I believe their business tactics are crooked, to say the least, and their staff is poorly trained and clueless. I cannot wait until this loan is paid off, and I will continue to tell everyone I know, "do not get a ;pan via Sallie Mae!" I have to pay another late fee, due to their misinformation.

I told this "supervisor" that they would be receiving a check, but he insisted that I provide them with my bank account number or the bank account number of the family member who was helping me. I told the supervisor that this was not an option. After he continued to persist, I told him that I wanted to speak to someone else or that I would hang up the phone. He said that I wasn't going to speak to anyone else, so I hung up on him.

This was simply another case of a bad person being employed by a bad company. Sallie Mae has no sympathy for it's customers just like this employee had no sympathy or respect for me. I wish something would be done about Sallie Mae, because it is an evil, evil business full of evil, evil people.

This action done by Sallie Mae renews the loans and prolongs the statue of limitations and keeps these negative accounts on my credit report for over ten years. Now, when the statue of limitations says it can be there no longer than seven years. These loans from ten years ago still are affecting my credit and showing a later date of delinquency. As a result, they are still on my credit report even after ten years when the statue of limitations says they can report no more than seven. I have disputed this with credit bureaus with no help.

I made a partial payment in October, November, and now, yesterday. They called me 2-4 times a week; one time being nice - next being rude. The straw was this evening when Kimberly called me and informed me that they were not accepting my $50 payment due to it was not the $700 I was in arrears (they applied it to my accounts). She informed me that I was going into default and they've been threatening this for two months and my credit score would go down. Why is it that Sallie Mae will not work with me and yet the Federal loans are all in IBR and are within my means to pay?

I have asked Sallie Mae repeatedly to lower my payments or to work with me. I have also now told them that being able to pay my house payment is more important than making the full $300 payment to them. I received harassing phone calls, threatening lawsuits, threatening to send to collections/credit bureau, refusing to take payments and yet taking them anyhow via their online site.

Sallie Mae's action caused my credit score to drop significantly which in turn raised the cost of borrowing money for an auto loan I am considering as well as my credit cards. I have contacted the Dept. of Education since they paid off the loans in 2009 and expect the late pay to be removed but I would suggest everyone that has had a bad experience with Sallie Mae tell 10 of their friends and family members about their experience. Sallie Mae, in my mind, is evil at the core. I am considering a law suit against Sallie Mae if that is what it takes to clear the late pay. I see no reason to suffer seven years of adverse credit responses because of their incompetence.

No one could tell me where the payment went. It took until November of 2011 to find out through our bank who traced the checks to find out that the money went to Great Lakes to pay another loan which my daughter had which was not due until she had finished a course of study at an on-line school. That money was not due and I had not co-signed for it. The account number for the co-signed loan was on both checks.

I entered into college in August of 2005. My parents are a less than attractive candidates for co-signing or paying for my tuition, I had to find alternatives. I was eighteen, of course my credit was nonexistent. Anyways, I was led to Sallie Mae, who sounded as though they would take anyone. I had to obtain a co-signer for my first few loans and build personal credit on my own. The school I attended was rather pricey but the reputation was well worth the struggle. Besides, it was portrayed by every source that college would land me the better job and life I always wanted for myself and those around me. So I took out the loans.

Now, graduated, I find that I must repay these loans six months after graduation, which I find unfair due to both the unemployment rate as well as our country's current economic status, but I digress. So May, I graduated and I landed a mediocre job in July. After settling down in the position and figuring out my income I decided to call Sallie Mae and find out what my payments would be come December. I spoke to a nice lady who informed of their payment structure. She explained that each loan I took out, totaling 6 (when I built my credit up, I started to take out loans per semester) would have a separate interest rate and those rates and loans would have their individual monthly payment and all those individual payments would be added for a total monthly payment.

Now, I have a problem with this, but it gets much better. The total in mid-August was $865/month. It is now December. I called last month to put my loans into forbearance, because I am now at a part-time position and knew in August that $865 in addition to my federal loans was not manageable. They proceeded to tell me my loans are now $1,200/month (roughly). However, after putting them into forbearance, they informed me that my next payment is in three months, due to economic hardship. I paid $150 to put them into forbearance (which did not go towards my loans, it was more of a penalty to put them in that state) and my returning payment in March would be $2,000!

I know I am the one who chose Sallie Mae, however I am just a middle-class student who had no way of going to school on anyone's dollar. Sure, I regret the fact that I did not choose community college then proceed to a university but still I stand by my decision of trying to better myself despite my family's less fortunate state. My parents do well to hold a roof over my head and even live comfortably, but despite that lifestyle, I wanted to be able to provide for my family like they did for me. Having nice Christmases despite any troubles that may arise (which there was always something with a car, house anything that became costly to my parents around the holidays) they still tried and gave us a nice holiday, but I wanted to try and strive for less struggle. I wanted to be able to provide even for my parents, not a new home or car, but maybe a vacation or new appliances as a thank you. Now I am thanking them with the probable lifestyle of having me as an expense in their home (which they are very understanding and can provide) for the next umpteen years.

Sallie Mae has ruined any future I can have as a result of my degree, yet the only thing they can't take from me is the degree. With the unemployment and state of our economy my chance at any job is harsh, not enough experience, too much experience and the chance of living, just living would require $40,000 a year. Yeah, unfortunately for me, I also had to work during college to commute there.

I guess my point is more or less, don't use them and if you're a parent, please do whatever you can to steer your children in the right direction where they can live after college. I am not saying pay for them, because I know it's hard, but research your options and their options before making a decision. I hear a lot of good things about Nelnet. My parents did all they could for me but being the oldest, they were desperate and I appreciate all they did to find me a way. I just am very disappointed that Sallie Mae took advantage and will continue to do so to me, my family and future students.

I contacted my school, they informed me I was in the database, that it was Sallie Mae, that they would give the sealed forms to send them months later and my bill is still in repayment instead of in-school deferment. They constantly call me saying I owe all hours of day starting every hour on the hour. I want it to end and I want another loan company to take my loans.

Help! No one in customer service will help get this loan in an in-school deferment. It's as if they want me to pay my loan and go to school. I haven't even graduated. Sorry for typos, etc. I am tired!

For two years, I have paid $432/month without missing a single payment. For my law schools loans, I am making another payment of $348/month. Needless to say, it is very difficult to make payments of nearly $800/month. In October, I sent in my 1040 and Nelnet loans information to reapply for the income based repayment for 2011-2012. On October 14th, I received email confirmation that my form had been received and would be processed. This never happened and on November 24th, I began to receive phone calls that I was delinquent on my payments. This evening at 10:15 pm Eastern, I received a phone call informing me I was delinquent in my payments and they want $103 today. I had to inform them that I am still waiting for my income based repayment plan to update my monthly dues. She obviously had no clue of this. She offered me a solution of 1% interest only payments which would be $435 on my private loans. Then I would have to pay my government loans, which could be in the range of $250-$350/month plus the $348 I am paying to Nelnet.

How does anyone expect to afford these payments unless they live rent/mortgage free? The woman's response to my situation was "nobody forced you to take out these loans for education. At some point you need to hold your own responsibility." She proceeded to tell me she doesn't have a college education and speaks very well. I suppose this is considered successful in today's society, debt free and can speak well. If I could go back 8 years I would obviously do things differently.

During that process, my paperwork was lost and my discharge was never completed. They do have all the calls documented. I just spoke with a supervisor, Roger ***, at the same number to try to get this problem fixed and he said there was nothing I could do to expedite the process and get my credit cleared. He did not even apologize that it was their fault all this happened and now I can't get a loan to fix my home. I understand that I now have to fill out the paperwork again but they should at least remove me from default status so I can get my home loan. An apology for causing me all this grief would be nice too. They've really messed things up. My home is in need of repairs and now I can't get a loan because of this.

Each time my payment would post, nothing would happen. So I began emailing them through there website. I have shot them several emails for the past four months and have yet to even get a response. Well, my payment finally went up $30, even though I requested a different amount. It was at least something to push toward my loan. Well, two payments have gone through and nothing has been applied towards my principal loan balance. I have now contacted them by phone eight times and have been disconnected each time.

My last call prior to filing this complaint was today at 4:50 PM. I was told by a representative named Amanda that she would read through the notes on my account which required putting me on hold. After waiting ten minutes, I re-dialed the number and discovered that the office had closed for the evening. Is this their idea of good customer service?

I am tired of receiving harassing phone calls for no reason. I own a business that requires focus and these calls are extremely disruptive. Any suggestions?

I couldn't decide if my call had been dropped, or if I was still waiting. Anyway, I finally got a live person. Her first language was clearly not English. She told me the new amount would show up on my next bill, but she also said something about it having to be approved. I asked her, "So does this have to go through an approval process, or will it just show up on my next bill? " Her answer: "yes". I told her I had just asked two separate questions. Again, she said "yes". So I asked again, and she started reading a canned response, about the best was to contact me. I called her on it and said she was just reading queues and not answering my questions. Silence.

I asked to be transferred to someone who could better help me (a.k.a., knew English). I got another person, her supervisor, different nationality, but still, English was second language. At first, I thought she knew what I was asking, but then I asked her about this "approval" to pay more. Shouldn't they jump at this? She just kept repeating that she couldn't tell me the exact amount today over the phone. But "I am telling you the exact amount!" I wanted to scream. Alright, whatever. I dropped it.

So then I asked if the extra I am paying will go to principal, and not interest. I didn't get a straight answer. I think she understands less than I do about loans. She said I have to pay interest first. I told her that if the money goes to principal, my interest will decrease, therefore, I don't want to pay more than I have to. She said I would pay it off sooner. Oh really? Is that what happens when you increase your monthly payments? She didn't get it. I just gave up at that point. We will see what happens on my next bill. I want this applied to my principal! I was on the phone for about 20 minutes. With Chase, this would have taken me 2 minutes. I miss them. Sallie Mae sucks.

Well, life gets busy and time rolls around to when I would have paid Citibank when I realize, we have never gotten any additional correspondence from Sallie Mae like where to send a payment, due date, etc. I called them up, and sure enough, my account was now 5 days delinquent. It turned out that they sent the statement to an email address that I no longer use.

I was told it was no big deal, since it had just transferred to them, and they allow 90 days for such incidence before reporting them. I was also told that I could go online to make a payment or mail it to them, and then I could also set up auto payments with them online. I chose to make an online payment. It processed, but then when I tried to set up auto pay, it told me my account was still delinquent. I thought, "Ok, I need to give it a couple hours."

Again, life is busy, and I forgot about it until two days later. I went back to set it up, and it was still showing as delinquent. I check my bank account, and the money was withdrawn the day before. So I called Sallie Mae again. I was told, "it can take up to a week after a payment is processed to post to the account." I can understand that if I mailed a check to them. But I processed it online. It really takes a week to link them up from an online payment? So frustrated and it's only been 2 months since I first heard of them.

I have since completed my M.S. degree and was told that I lost my grace period. My first payment was due 2 weeks after I completed my program. This is beyond ridiculous. Every time I call Sallie Mae, I am told something completely different than what the first person told me. I called in October to apply for an economic hardship. However, I was told this service did not apply to private loans. I then asked about forbearance because I had one loan that was past due according to their records, two in deferment, and one in a grace period. The first person told me that I could apply for forbearance. He then gave me contradictory information about applying for forbearance. So, I asked to talk to a supervisor. I had to talk to two supervisors who told me that I didn’t qualify for forbearance. I have over $40K in SM loans, I work part-time, and I am a single mother. I then called back, spoke to someone else, and qualified for forbearance.

When I called back a few weeks later after receiving a bill for over $800 for past due loans, I was told that all my loans were past due. I called another time, and was told completely different than what I just reported. Why can’t SM get their act straight? I cannot afford to pay back my loans right now, let alone pay for SMs monetary mistakes. As I read everyone else posts, I can see that I am not the only who has issues. I also never received notice that I could not consolidate my SM loans with my federal. Something needs to be done about this. It is apparent SM has major issues with service, professionalism, and everything else. I also stated, "I guess I have to make a choice between feeding my family and paying back my loans?” The representative said pretty much. What kind is customer service is that? I also would not put 1 star, but had to!

This year, I am trying to get a loan and Sallie Mae has reported me as being late for $75 and it is not allowing me or my co-signor to get another loan even though we rectified this confusion a long ago. They would call my co-signor and threaten legal action and say she was going to lose her house, etc. all for $75.00. Today, a gentleman called her telling her she did not qualify to be a co-signor. She has well over $500,000 in assets plus stocks, bonds, savings, etc. and when she tried to explain this to the man, he kept cutting her off saying, "I don't care about that" and he ended up hanging up on her.

Recently, Sallie Mae has been making harassing phone calls stating our payment is late, even though I have proof from my bank that the payment was made. I associate Sallie Mae with the U.S. Government (inferring trust), but have recently learned that Sallie Mae was privatized in 2004. Clearly, they are operating unchecked, destroying hundreds of people’s credit, making harassing phone calls and threats, and simply and illegally taking money. I am shocked and alarmed to find literally hundreds of complaints with Consumer Affairs about Sallie Mae with very similar situations to mine (see attached). Please take action to stop this abuse by Sallie Mae. You are our last hope.

The background for this issue follows: Louis ** secured a career training loan from Sallie Mae in January 2005 in the amount of $15,000.00. Edward ** (brother of Louis **) co-signed for the loan. At some point, Louis ** quit making payments to pay-off the loan and could not be contacted (his location is still not known). Thus, Sallie Mae pursued payment from Edward **. A $2,000.00, payment was made to Sallie Mae in the fall of 2009. Sallie Mae applied the payment to the wrong account, even though the correct account was noted on the check.

Sallie Mae refuses to correct their mistake and apply the loan to the correct account. We are asking your assistance in getting the $2,000.00 back or getting the payment applied to the correct account. We are also asking that Sallie Mae reimburse or adjust the correct loan account for any interest or late fees applied to the account as a result of this mistake. Details associated with this issue are below.

A phone call was received around July 16, 2009 stating that payment by Louis ** against loan ** was late. No additional information could be obtained on the account (e.g., account history, other loans secured by Louis **). Sallie Mae cites privacy act as rationale. A payment of $838.70 was immediately made to bring account to date. Sallie Mae verbally indicated the balance was around $3,000.00. We were unable to contact Louis **, although we tried using all available means (phone numbers on record, mail to address on record, etc.).

In November 2009, we were told that a new account had to be set up for Edward ** attached to the loan that was co-signed (account number **) to allow the co-signer to obtain information and to make payment. That account number was given as **. Dennis ** (brother-in-law of Edward and Louis **) then paid an additional $2,000.00 on Edward **’s behalf, citing the given account number on the check. However, Sallie Mae applied the payment to other loan accounts that Louis ** had evidently taken out, but that were not co-signed by Edward **. Since the $2,838.70 in payments was close to the $3,000.00 originally indicated as being outstanding, and because we did not know if Louis ** had made additional payments, we assumed that the loan was paid-off in full or nearly paid-off. No statements indicating the status of the account (amount billed, balance owed, etc.) are provided to the co-signer by Sallie Mae, even in this circumstance where loan default is an issue.

From November 2009 through December 2010, no communication was received from Sallie Mae. And Sallie Mae was unable to provide copies of any such communication. In January 2011, a payment demand notification dated January 21, 2011 was received in late January, threatening court action and garnishment of wages. No other communication was received from Sallie Mae notifying Edward ** that there was an issue with the account. In February 2011, Sallie Mae was contacted immediately after receiving the letter to arrange for payment. We spoke with Ian ** from Sallie Mae’s collection agency. Back payments totaling $401.23 were immediately made on February 1, 2011 to bring the account current. Ian ** would not provide any explanation as to how the $401.23 in back payments were calculated, or how the principal balance of $2,561.58 was derived. But he did state he would remove late charges associated with the payment.

An account history was ordered from Sallie Mae on February 1, 2011. The account history indicates that the $2,000.00 payment made in November 2009 to pay down the balance of account ** was not applied. This resulted not only in an inflated balance owed, but also resulted in accrued late payments and interest that should not have been applied. In addition, a $100.00 late payment was charged regardless that Ian ** indicated that this would be removed. In March 2011, Valerie **, spouse of Edward **, spoke with Christopher (identifying number **) of Sallie Mae’s collection agency to resolve the issue.

Christopher indicated the following: (1) Citing company policy, Sallie Mae will not reconcile the account as the payment is older than 6 months; (2) Sallie Mae will not provide copies of any communication reportedly sent to us; and (3) while the records indicated that Ian ** had agreed to remove the late payment charges, he would have to call us separately on this issue.

They are contacting my son 20 times a day when he is in his last year of school and working three jobs. When they cannot harass him, they call me and harass me at work. Each time, you speak with someone different and are given different amounts that you are owed. You send a payment and they don't apply it correctly. They asked for an amount to stop the calls but do not stop the calls. They are loan sharks and do not care how they get their money or by what means. Who is going to stop this? We are willing to pay back what is owed, but I simply do not trust sending any money to these people.

From what I understood, the lady's name is Wynita. Well, Wynita was told not to call my fiance's work by my fiance; therefore she is not allowed to call there anymore, although she tried threatening this. She yelled at me the entire time without reason. I tried to calmly explain to her, in a pleasant tone, that he works 6 days a week and when he has time to deal with her phone calls I will make sure he does so.

I doubt she heard that because she yelled the entire time. There needs to be a number to call or email to send complaints about certain reps to. Harassing people that are not involved in their scheme is terrible. Luckily, I laugh at idiots, it didn't have an impact on my day what-so-ever. Thank you Sallie Mae, I will bash you to everyone I know just because your customer service is so disgusting and I will do it with a huge smile on my face.

I can hardly make repayments and now I am considering dropping out of school altogether, simply because, I don't know what else to do and it just seems like there is no one to turn to and no one to help.

In 8/2010, I received a letter from Sallie Mae stating that my loan had defaulted. I did not receive any correspondence from them until this notice and it was already too late. I immediately called Sallie Mae and discovered that they had in their computer system that I graduated from my master's program in 6/2009, but I did not graduate until 9/2009. The customer service rep I spoke with said that if I can submit proof of my actual graduation date, then Sallie Mae would repurchase the loan and clear the default from my record. I promptly had my school submit proof of my graduation date to Sallie Mae. After verifying the documentation was received by Sallie Mae, the rep told me my loan needed to be reviewed prior to repurchase. This took many months and ultimately ended in a denial with no legitimate reason. They still have not updated the computer showing my actual graduation date.

Additionally, they said they never received my request for the economic hardship deferment, which I have a copy of. I believe that my loan was in deferment, then suddenly it defaulted due to Sallie Mae's error with my graduation date. During the many months of debating and submitting appeals to Sallie Mae and the guarantor, the defaulted loan has gone to collections and my life is essentially in ruins because of it.

From the start of my loan repayment term a year and a half ago, I have been an outstanding customer with no late payments. Payments for both private student loans were auto debited from my checking account on the first of each month for over a year with no issues. On August 11, 2011, I received an email correspondence indicating that I had a new student loan document waiting for me to review. After reviewing the memo sent from Sallie Mae, I immediately contacted the customer service department to inquire about my loan accounts. The following is a summary of what occurred.

I contacted Sallie Mae customer service on August 11, 2011 due to the fact that I received a notification from them indicating that a forbearance that I requested had been approved. I knew this must be a mistake since I had never contacted Sallie Mae in the entire year and a half that I had been repaying my student loans. When I contacted the customer service representative, he indicated that they received a call from me (the week before) with a request for forbearance on my loans. I proceeded to explain to him that it could not have possibly been me who contacted them since I clearly had not and asked that he research a little further to find out what had happened.

After several minutes of waiting on hold and several questions from me to assist him in his troubleshooting abilities, we finally discovered that one of my student loans had a co-signer on it which happens to be my aunt. After several more questions from me on how or why my aunt would call in to Sallie Mae concerning my account, it was discovered that my mother was actually the one who initially called Sallie Mae and requested the forbearance on her private loan. Further research into my account revealed that since my mother and my aunt had once shared the same California address, the representative who worked with my mother confused her student loan with mine. I was shocked as to how something like this could happen. The only similarity between our loans are the address of my co-signer, not the name, social security number or date of birth. This brought up another question.

When I called the customer service center to inquire on my loan, I was required to put in an account number or my social security number and date of birth. How was my mother's loan ever confused with mine when we have completely different addresses, social security numbers and date of births? This is a very serious privacy and security error on Sallie Mae's part. There should have been increased security questions and protocol to prevent this type of mistake. This mistake by Sallie Mae caused my student loans to be taken off of automatic payment deductions through my bank and my website loan management to be shut off. When I asked the representative if I could have my loans reinstated through auto deduction, the representative indicated that they would take care of it immediately and my account would be back to normal. The representative told me to go ahead and send in payments for both loans through the mail this month and that the next month, my bank account should be auto debited for the remaining monthly payments.

On September 5th, I checked my bank account to see if my September payment was deducted. It had not been taken out. I proceeded to call customer service again to find out what happened. After looking at my account, the representative indicated that my loan was now on hold due to the fact that I had filed bankruptcy. Shocked, I proceeded to explain to her that she must have the wrong account because I had not filed bankruptcy nor had I requested the original forbearance that caused this entire mix-up to begin with. One thing that I would like to point out is that during this entire time, I never received any correspondence from Sallie Mae indicating changes to my student loans.

At this point, I was beginning to think that something was very wrong with Sallie Mae's customer service department. After one hour on the phone, two representatives and a manager later, it was discovered that my aunt in California, who was a co-signer on the loan, had filed for bankruptcy during the month of August which I was unaware of. The manager proceeded to explain to me that due to the fact that my aunt was a co-signer on my first private loan, this affected my entire account. When I asked how my aunt's financial incompetence could affect my loan's good standings, the manager indicated that it did not matter that I was an outstanding customer or that I personally had not filed bankruptcy nor that I was willing to keep my loan payments going to remain in good standing. My account was inaccessible.

Frustrated by the entire situation, I asked the manager to give me a payoff quote for the first student loan that my aunt had been a co-signer on. I also inquired that if I was to pay off that one student loan that was attached to my aunt, would my remaining loan be put back to good standing? The manager indicated that yes, my remaining loan would be put back to good standing and I would also be able to re-enroll for the auto debit program. Wanting nothing to do with my aunt's poor financial management, I decided to pay off the entire loan amount that was connected to her. On October 14th, my payment was deposited into Sallie Mae's bank account. I waited one week after the funds were deducted to contact the customer service department again and inquire if my account had been cleared. I also wanted to see if my website privileges had been re-instated.

After looking at my account, the customer service manager told me that everything looked in order on her end and asked me to try to access the Sallie Mae's website during the weekend to see if I had the ability to. After trying several times unsuccessfully, I contacted customer service again to find out why I was not able to log on to the website. Upon researching my account, the representative indicated that I would now have to wait 30 days after my payment was posted for the account to close and release the history associated with the loan. With so many options to choose from when deciding on student loan funding, I am amazed that such a large loan servicing company has proven to be so incompetent.

As a good standing customer, my first inquiry should have been sent to a higher priority department to handle and should have been resolved immediately. Instead, it was up to me to debate with the customer service representatives and self-investigate what happened on my account. I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and several loan consumer advocacy groups in the hopes that others will not have to undergo the same frustrations I have had endure.

Not one time did they applied the payment correctly. They would just move my next payment due date further into the future. Every month I would have to call and argue with someone who kept telling me that it wouldn't make any difference in the amount I paid at the end or when my loan got paid off. After years of this ridiculous hassle, I gave up. I continued to send in extra payments with notes, but became so stressed out fighting that I stopped calling. I just want the thing paid off.

Please investigate and see if other consumers who are trying to apply extra payments toward principal are having the same experience. I believe this may be a pattern of unscrupulous behavior on Sallie Mae's part.

You make the new payments and 3 months later, you start getting calls again. I find out later, each time, that they have messed up, which you knew anyway. But they say they can't fix it or perhaps they can if you send more money! But it keeps happening and they notify the credit bureau, even though you're sending money and it's their screw-ups.

Well, I've had enough. I just filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office and we’ll see what happens. If it's okay with this site, I would like to recommend that all of us file a complaint with the PA Attorney General. On their website, one of the possible actions they may take is “where there are a number of complaints against the same business, the Bureau of Consumer Protection may file a lawsuit in state or federal court seeking relief on behalf of consumers”. Maybe if everyone files a complaint, they will also see the pattern that Sallie Mae uses and force them to stop, fix their "mistakes", or file a lawsuit if necessary.

I had only $800 left on the smallest loan when the loan was sold to Sallie Mae. I called to let them know of my intention to pay it off and that was what I was going to do before it was sold. They said that everything would stay the same. Yeah right! I have been with Sallie Mae for 2 months and have had nothing but problems and been lied to. They informed me tonight that the policy is that they apply extra payments at 83% to big loans and 17% to small loans and there is nothing I can do about it, that I just have to deal with it. So basically they want to drag out the payments on my loans so they can maximize the most return for their pockets not worrying about what is best for the consumer. I am beyond frustrated with this organization and truly find it disgusting that Sallie Mae is able to take advantage of hardworking Americans.

A police report was filed, fraud kit sent into the loaning institution, and extensive written evidence and documentation as well. Their investigator, unbelievably, determined this is a "he said/she said" case and dismissed the allegations and my father continues to be harassed for payment.

Sallie Mae was included and I got a letter from them stating the deferment was in place but a few weeks later, they began harassing me and threatening default status again. I was told no record of deferment was ever given and that I was not eligible for my "private" loan. So I was told by the Sallie Mae rep to try to make payments monthly in an amount I could afford to forestall default. I did in March 2011 one month after I finished school.

I made $50.00 a month payments on the private student loan against the $91.00 and change monthly charge. I received numerous threatening letters even though I was paying something. I did not have a phone for them to harass me on. I have gotten a full time job in September 2011 and started to pay $100.00 monthly against the $91.00 and change actual monthly payment and I'm still getting threatening letters demanding payment in full or I will be in default.

My original loan balance was $3373.00 and I am told they want $8223.36 immediately. Can they keep threatening me? I angered them with my other student loans carried by them I consolidated all my loans with Direct Loans or it would have been much worse. I was signed in the class action suit against Sallie Mae but never heard anything about it.

Sallie Mae has horrible customer service. Representatives and supervisors refuse to take ownership of consumer's problems. They recommend written correspondence and then don't acknowledge receipt of documents. I have a feeling that my case will take a very long time to resolve (probably in the courtroom) and will likely cost me lots of time, money, and resources. If you can help it, stay away from Sallie Mae!

My son, an unemployed PhD.D has nine loans: private, Federal and Dept of Educ. He needs a forbearance or deferment for all but one which I co-signed and make the payments on monthly.

We try to communicate frequently with Sallie Mae in order to eliminate confusion about what the latest bill is and address the numerous letters that come to our home. It was during the summer that I talked to Sallie Mae, getting a detailed status of each loan and making arrangements either for payment, forbearance or deferment. This was a mere two to three months ago. Today, I compared the preceding balances to those quoted today.

The federal loan interests are not as bad. The others are no different than dealing with loan sharks. It is criminal and I am angry and disgusted. Even making regular payments, there is no way an indebted student can ever catch up aside from winning the lottery. This is usury at its worst, next to those check cashing businesses, which also exploit people.

No matter what I say, nothing seems to matter. Who is going to listen and do something with all these complaints? No one is willing to invest and find out what is happening. This leads me to believe, does anyone care and where is our government in all this? It's time for someone to wake up and take care of this monster that is going after people in a cruel way and lying about amount due.

I told them that I was in the middle of bankruptcy as well and they weren't to contact me during it, and yet they continue to do so. I understand that my loans are exempt from bankruptcy but still, they must refrain from contacting me during this period. It is my understanding that the government officials' families do not have to pay student loans so I guess I have my answer as to why they are not doing anything about this. It doesn't directly affect any of them. We can bail out large companies that commit fraudulent acts, but we cannot help people with student loan bail out. Why?

I have been paying on this loan for at least 4 years, and it seems that they will not work with anyone to solve a problem. This is the worst lending company of all time and something needs to be done to protect those who make efforts to pay and get harassed continuously.

A week later, no refund. I filed a dispute with my bank, who in turn refunded my money and contacted Sallie Mae, who in turn refunded the bank their money. I am now receiving statements from Sallie Mae that I owe them $159.00. They said the payoff was for all the loan amount except the $159.00. Yeah, right. Who would give a partial payoff amount? The payment I made on 8/8/11 wasn't predated, it was made on the day I sent it so they wouldn't have known on 8/2/11 that I was going to make a payment. So reasonably, why would they give a payoff quote for everything but the amount I "overpaid" them 6 days after they received the payoff? I have spoken with them and requested this to be resolved and they keep sending me notices that I owe them. That's harassment and fraudulent. They are trying to scam more money from me and I want to file a complaint about this. Thank you.

I happen to be the VP and Chief Loan Officer of a Bank and I know that this is against the law as well as consumer protection acts. I am in need of some legal assistance to get to the bottom of this matter and truly feel that a class action law suit is warranted against this unlawfully, unethical company and there deceptive lending practices.

As far as I know, they did, yet they continued to charge me a late charge for their error. I wrote them several times, called them only to be left on hold or connected to an operator who could not speak intelligible English, and I even emailed them numerous times, all to no avail. In the meantime, I have continued to pay $248.56 every month on time without fail. In fact, I have never missed a month nor have I ever paid late. However, the check I sent for October 2011's payment of $248.56 was cashed by Sallie Mae for $74.24. Again, I called, waited on hold, and was finally connected to an operator who refused to address the issue about which I called. Instead, she tried to say that I had not paid my payment in June of 2009. If that were the case, why were they just now claiming that? I could not get her to look at Sallie Mae's egregious and repetitive error of cashing my checks for the wrong amount. Now they want to say that they missed a check, which I have proof of paying, and refuse to address their latest error.

I was laid off in May of this year and called Citibank. I did the paperwork and setup the deferment. That went smoothly. I went back to work and notified Citibank on 9/2/2011. My loan statement cycles on the 27th of the month. So, I was informed by Citibank on 9/2 that my next regular payment would be due 10/20/2011 instead of 9/20. It was because the billing had already cycled for Sept. Then, the problems started when Sallie Mae got involved. Sallie Mae took my loans (3 on 9/7 and 4 on 9/8) based on the letters I received. In the loan letters they sent, they immediately increased the interest rate on 4 of my loans by 1%. I called Citibank. Per Citibank, Sallie Mae had agreed. And they are supposed to honor the interest rate discounts their customers had prior to Sallie Mae purchasing the loans. As of today (10/4), they have not fixed this.

To top it off, they said I was late and had a payment due on 9/20. Citibank had specifically informed me that due to the statement cycling date, the next bill wouldn't be due until 10/20. If Citibank had said I needed to make a payment on 9/20, then I would have done so. However, I am confident that it would have changed nothing.

Sallie Mae said they mailed a bill on 9/23. This is a total fraud. The bill they sent was dated 9/23 but wasn't postmarked until 9/27. I have saved the envelope as proof of this. The statement date on the bill they sent is 9/23. So, these idiots generated the first bill (3 days) after 9/20 and mailed it 1 week (7 days) after 9/20. Even in an ideal world, if I got the bill and mailed a check back to them by Friday (9/30), it would still be impossible to avoid a late fee. It is my opinion that Sallie Mae did this deliberately in an attempt to charge late fees to increase their profits. This is the very reason that Citibank said my payment after returning to work was going to be due 10/20. Doing business like this doesn't give anyone a chance in hell to be able to pay their loans on time. I am appalled at the audacity of these people. Unless the borrower (me) screws up, I expect the lender to honor the terms of the loan I had with Citibank.

At this point, they have done something, but I don't know what yet (as I don't have a copy of whatever new bill this is). Now say I have a payment due on 10/20, but it is higher than the dollar amount it should be. Thankfully, I do not use online billing/payment etc. for my student loans. This has helped create the paper-trail. And since Sallie Mae has so royally messed up my loans, I have no intention of ever letting them handle anything electronically. There is definitely something to be said about having paper copies as proof of what has transpired as opposed to verbal or electronic methods.

I have spent hours on the phone trying to talk to people in India that have no idea what an interest rate is or how they are even calculated. I have been disconnected over and over again, honestly more times than I have been able to reach a person in India. I tried again today (10/4) to call them. I got disconnected twice after going through their stupid phone tree, which says it knows who you are by your phone number. It asks you to put in your SS# and then puts you back into a different phone tree which. Since it already knows who I am and it confirmed, it shouldn't (but it does) ask for your zip code! I couldn't waste anymore time with these people as I had to get back to work. And I had spent 20 minutes trying to get through between the phone tree and the hold times.

Given the level of service I had received with Citibank, if something like this had happened with them, I would have confidence it would be resolved. I have zero confidence in these crooks. And it appears we have no recourse as borrowers. I expect Sallie Mae to honor the terms of the loan I had with Citibank. If every loan servicing company has the right to change the terms when they buy the loan and we have no choice who services the loan, how are we (the borrowers) supposed to have a chance in hell of coping with this? Is there a way besides paying off and refinancing the loans at a higher interest rate to ditch these crooks? Based on all the comments on Sallie Mae, I expect to descend further into the depths of hell with these crooks.

This time, I wrote down all the confirmation codes and tracked my account. The plan automatically deducts scheduled payments from my bank account for three months.

Every day since July 27, 2011, I have received 7-10 phone calls a day from Sallie Mae, beginning at 5:30 am PST.

When I answer, a representative tells me that I owe $X on my account, they would usually quote a price around $945. I then provide them with my reference numbers stating that I am on the three month payment plan. After this, they realize that I am in fact on the plan and my account is up to date. They say, " I do not know why we are calling you." This has happened at least ten times.

Each time I ask to not be called anymore, but they insist it is a computer glitch. Today, September 22, 2011, I spoke with Charles, a representative from Sallie Mae and we went through the same routine mentioned above. After determining that my account is in fact in good standing, I demand to not receive anymore phone calls nicely and firmly. While I am speaking, Charles cuts me off and says, "You're being very nice. You just keep being nice. Bye now. " He then hung up.

Is there anyway to stop these calls and this treatment?

So can someone please tell me why they are being allowed to maliciously destroy mine and my son’s credit for no reason? They turned him over to a company called Student Assist for collection of a student loan he allegedly defaulted on, when in fact my son and I both are still in school. How stupid is Sallie Mae organization and its employees?

In addition, false documentation was provided to us via mail indicating my son and I ironically took a medical leave. When I presented the alleged documents to Wilberforce University, my son’s school, and University of Phoenix, my school, it’s not even their documents. And neither school ever sent such information, indicating it is confidential and they can only advise Sallie Mae that the student is on a leave or has taken a break.

When we question Sallie Mae where my son is concerned, they say the documents are not false and where I am concerned, they indicate I have no loan with them. So why the ** are you sending me bills, dummies?! And where my son is concerned, he has not taken a break other than summer break because the school Wilberforce University does not offer summer classes. Idiots! I believe there are enough complaints to warrant a class action law suit and we are seeking an attorney who is up for the task!

I will personally do all the leg work, find complainants that will testify and bring evidence to the table. In addition, provide documentation of fraud, which not only is a federal offense on so many levels but mail fraud as well. People, let’s band together and fight this fight. They can only lose and I’m willing to see Sallie Mae’s failure to the end with pleasure!

This is absurd! Why in the world would I be interested in paying another co-signor’s loans? They had us fax all our bank statements showing proof of payment (we used banking online to send payments), and they still have not reapplied our payments to the applicable loans we co-signed for. I want to sue them in order to force them to apply the monies we already paid. Is this possible? If not, what avenue can we take to get this resolved?

I've tried to pay more, pay early, etc. The website changes so often that it's impossible to stay ahead of their diversion tactics. Early on, I went in and set up my account to pay more each date so that it would directly reduce the principal. But they changed my payment without my express written consent and reduced it to the minimum due, more than 6 different times. And low and behold, the place on the website to go and change it myself was gone. Talking to them on the phone is a nightmare. No one speaks English as a native language. The three times I've called and asked to speak with a representative or call a station that is located in the United States, I've been blown off after hours of trying to get in touch.

I really wish someone (Newsweek, The Times) would do an in-depth look at their business and deceptive practices.

We believed that the loan had been paid in full and six years later are presented with a loan that is about to go into default.

It is outrageous. I don't have a problem with paying the loan, but I have a huge problem with being asked to pay an additional $1600 when I never received anything which lets me know that the loan is still in existence and accumulating interest.

When I do this, however, either previously undocumented interest arises precluding me from paying off a principal entirely, or they apply it to my next month's bill, despite my specific instructions to the contrary--thereby, continuing to collect interest on the loan. I haven't calculated it yet, but this has probably cost me a few hundred dollars in interest over the course of my student loans. If one were to multiply this by the number of individuals currently holding Sallie Mae loans, the money would be quite significant.

Not having an online method of paying principals, applying payment surplus to future payments rather than principals, and the inconsistent and unreliable outcome of mailing payments collectively add up to unfair and intentionally deceptive business practices.

So, I checked my credit report and I saw Sallie Mae defaulting my loans. I called them and they told me that there is a default on a loan totaling $25,803.84! I don't have no loan in this amount. The customer service rep is trying to say that this is sitting on my account. Where did it come from? They are lying and over-charging people and there's nothing we can do about it. Who do I call? How do I get this rectified? Then, they have the nerve to put it on my credit report! I need help and I don't know where to turn.

My payment would not have been late if I was allowed to make the payment on my first phone call. I have tried to make payments over the phone with a person, but they are always applied to the wrong account. And then, I have to again go through the process of calling a lot of times just to be able to get the situation resolved. In regards to this last instance, my father and I called together. We were assured that I was authorized on his account, so that I will not have issues making payments again (as I have had for the past 10 years). Today, I called because I can't log on to make the payments and they tell me I'm not authorized.

A few months ago, your employees told me everything was taken care of. Now, I have to figure out a way to get a hold of my father, so that we can call together and try to fix this situation again. In the mean time, I'm not sure when I will be allowed to make my payment. And I will probably be charged a late fee because once again, I was told everything was taken care of, and it is not. I want to get this resolved, so that I can make payments and not have to make a dozen or more phone calls. I would like to speak to an employee that knows what they are doing, so I don't run into the same situation in a few months. Unfortunately, it seems that training and having capable employees is your companies last priority.

Great Lakes was a terrific company to work with! My husband and I lost our home, went bankrupt, moved and have barely been surviving since 2007. Great Lakes offered a deferment of up to 1 year - not once but twice!

Sallie Mae started harassing me! I was able to finally get a payment of around $112/mo for 1 year, but when the time came for us to try and apply for a low income housing loan, I found that all deferments allowed (and paid for) through Sallie Mae showed up on my credit report as not being paid! Fortunately, we were still able to qualify for our loan.

Now, my payments are over $225/mo. Apparently, the gentleman I spoke with and lowered my payments to a reasonable level failed to let me know that this was for a limited time only. I mean, charging this sky high interest rate of 13% -15% or more.

I was out of work for over three months and the wolves have been at our door. I recently made a $25 payment over the internet to them and will continue to pay as I can. I spoke to a woman at Sallie Mae and when I told her I simply could not make the $225/mo payments, that I know I owe the money, I was told already that there was no more forbearance left for me. She told me that she could get my payments lowered and then she informed me that I could get them lowered by $40/mo! What? How is a payment of $190/mo much better than $235/mo? She might as well told me that they were now a million dollars a month! I then told her that I no longer wanted to be contacted by phone regarding my account and that I only wanted to be contacted via mail - to which she said she would note my account.

Now, I do not answer the phone when it shows Sallie Mae is calling. It is always a recording. And these calls start around 8am go to 9pm and I receive anywhere from 8 to 10 calls a day on my home phone. I get more calls since I asked to be contacted by mail only then I did prior.

I have done credit and collections in the past and to think that they are allowed to get away with this type of harassment is deplorable! I know I owe the money, I am just asking for some help in getting it paid back to them.

I am now 24 and unemployed because of the lousy economy, desperately searching for a job. There is no possible way I would be able to pay that. Even when I did have a job at age 24, who would be able to make that kind of loan payment? The worst part is that Sallie Mae would only allow me to take a private loan out for my funding, which has resulted in a $1,300 a month interest only capitalization (that's how much interest is being charged on top of my loan a month). I feel like I have been scammed and backed into a corner with no way out. I don't want to default on my loan but I really have no other options.

I have called Sallie Mae countless times and most of them seemed not to care. They only told me that I "had to pay" and there was nothing that they could do. I feel that Sallie Mae has these types of loans to scam young college goers into paying them back for the rest of their lives without a second thought. Once I am forced to default, they will have ruined my life before it even begins. I wish I had never gone to school, which is a horrible thing to think. But dealing with this has been so stressful. Sallie Mae is a horrible company for putting young desperate students through something like this that hindered them for the rest of their lives.

I once had a lady tell me that I should consider getting another job to take care of my responsibilities. I was so angry, I work full-time as it is. A few years into payments, I decided to go back to school. I will never borrow from them again. My classes started and Sallie Mae was notified that I started classes. By law, my loans will be deferred. However, I may make payments if I choose to. Well, they continued to withdraw from an account that I did not authorize. They withdrew a full payment on a card that I made a payment on previously and did not have scheduled payments on. How can they do that? How can they withdraw from a card I didn't authorize them to? This place is a loan shark. I feel like I have them breathing down my neck all of the time. It's awful. They are my biggest mistake.

They keep calling and insisting that we "electronically" signed for a loan. I told them that we did not get a loan from them. I have asked for proof of this but they have none. They are calling several times a day even though I have told them to stop. They say that they will not stop calling and will keep harassing me. I'm sending these complaints to every congressman, representative, etc. that I know so they can see what SM is doing. I have a mark on my credit report because of this matter.

When my student loans from Sallie Mae were scheduled to be repaid, I of course needed forbearances and pricey deferments. All of which were paid. Then there was no more money to give them. Sallie Mae then started calling my home phone and cell phone hourly for weeks on end! They were not willing to accept anything but a $1,400.00 per month payment no matter what my financial status. I can't tell how many different abusive people I spoke with regarding my situation. It was like talking to a wall. They couldn't comprehend that I couldn't afford those monthly payments or any monthly payments while being unemployed. They told me to borrow money from someone! How would I be able to borrow $65k from anyone with marred credit from Sallie Mae?

Since all of my past dealings with Sallie Mae and being employed part-time since September 2008, I have religiously paid them $150.00 per month. I have had the loans sent to collection agencies and receive threatening letters from them, but also continue receiving confusing correspondence from Sallie Mae saying I'm 60 days past due, 30 days past due, defaulting, etc. There is no order in their mailings and have even been sent forbearance forms per my request that I never even requested! They have even been mailed financial statements showing how much I make and where my money is going. Sallie Mae continues to be relentless. They won't even answer my written correspondence requesting where my $150.00 is being applied!

As of four days ago, I have received a court summons. Now Sallie Mae is suing me for the balance of my loans! Threatening to garnish my wages and likely will for the rest of my life. At age 48, this is the last thing I want to have happen, but have been told it's the process.

I can't understand the nonsensical business practices of this agency. Does it make common sense to jeopardize someone's employment in order to get a loan paid? My employer won't approve of this garnishment and then where will Sallie Mae be without any payments. My credit has been marred so bad that I can't even get a better job. How does this make any sense? I thought they wanted more money? It sounds like they just like employing people who enjoy making life unbearable/miserable for others.

I beg anyone thinking of going back to college; Don't have any lending done through Sallie Mae! You will be screwed for life!

I was not notified that the loan forbearance was denied until nearly three months later when the late fees had stacked up to nearly $1,000.00 and they requested that I pay the amount in full immediately. I paid the amount of the loans but not the amount of the late fees. I requested that the late fees be removed because Sallie Mae had not notified me of the denial of the forbearance application, but I was denied yet again.

It was time to make a point and show Sallie Mae Services that if they truly wanted to go head to head with me that I wasn't going to roll over and play dead. First, I sent an inquiry to Sallie Mae asking if I were allowed to send them multiple checks over to pay off the late fees on my loan while also mentioning that I did not feel the late fees were fair due to their lack of correspondence. I received a "yes" answer, which gave me permission to make my payment using multiple checks. I went to my bank and upgraded my bank account to one that allows me to receive and write unlimited checks at no cost to myself.

I have ordered over 14,000 checks and I am postdating them for the beginning of next year. Each check is written out for one penny. You may be asking yourself why I would want to write out so many checks for a cent a piece in order to pay off my late fees. The answer is simple. All business have to pay a check processing fee for each check that they receive and the cost of those fees is always more than one penny. Once I have written penny checks for the bulk sum of my late fees, I will ship them to Sallie Mae with a thank you letter for their email correspondence stating that I greatly appreciate them allowing me to pay my late fees with multiple checks, and may continue to do so with the rest of my loan payments. If it were to cost Sallie Mae one penny per check to cash each of my checks for a penny a piece, they would be breaking even and not actually receiving any money from my payment. However, it is highly unlikely that they will only be paying one cent per check and in turn will actually be incurring a loss by cashing my payment.

Sallie Mae has already granted me written consent allowing me to make my payment with multiple checks, and if more and more people would follow my lead, I believe they would have no option but to clear the debts of those who have gone to the trouble of paying their debts in this manner back to zero or otherwise suffer huge losses in processing fees that far surpasses the amount of the payments being made.

Sallie Mae has forced me to fight back and its unfortunate for them. I'm more intelligent than they had given me credit for. I will include in my shipment of the multiple checks, a letter stating that by not accepting my payment, I will be left to assume that they have decided to clear my debts back to zero instead of incurred the cost of processing fees of one cent per check. I requested to receive my "thank you" letter nonetheless stating that my debts have been paid in full.

The final step in my actions against Sallie Mae is to spread the word of the method I'm intending to use to make a point. Sallie Mae can knock us down, but they shouldn't expect us to not get back up and start pushing back.

I want to explain how I could owe Sallie Mae when I never received a loan from them or finished school.

We recently lost our home in the tornados that hit our state. I told Sallie Mae the situation. That we couldn't do anything to our home for 3 months, that we are living in an apartment, our expenses have sky-rocketed, and income has gone down due to loss of time at work. They did give me ONE month forbearance at no cost, and told me they would mail out forms for me to apply for a hardship deferment. I never received the forms, and they won't fax or email the forms. Long story short, they have reported me and my co-signer to the Credit Bureau. I feel horrible, but I can't do anything. The payment is over $400 a month....that is more than daycare! I need advice. I am trying to find some way to consolidate or refinance. I have to get out of this trap. They are ruining me. I will gladly pay my payment on time if they will just give me a reasonable amount.

I paid $390.00 on March 1, they gave me the transaction number 110228, March 16,2011 and was given transaction number 110315, April 22,2011 with transaction number 110421 and May 17,2011 with transaction number 110516. I paid as agreed then today I received a bill for $556.14.Their integrity financial partners mission statement states that 'trust is integrity operating principles, support the management team, established history of performance excellence'.

They said if I pay those four payments of $390, Sallie Mae would stop their horrible 1% daily interest on my unpaid balance. What a lie!

Now I have a torn ACL and meniscus in my knee. I don’t have insurance, so I don’t have money anyway to get my leg fixed. And they want money? My husband is trying to pay all of the bills, but we just don’t have the extra money they want each month. I can’t even get insurance. If I had known what the monthly payments would have been, I would have never gone back to school. This is the craziest thing I have ever seen. Don’t get loans from Sallie Mae cause they are cold hearted. We as people did not know the economy was going to fall and now we pay.

I have incurred late charges before due to billing but this company is ridiculous. I would suggest that you tell everyone you know not to use Sallie Mae. Pass it on! Do not use this company for anything!

As of yesterday just a month later, I have started recieving calls again from Sallie Mae asking for another 150 to defurment my loan. I work part time currently and am pursuing to attain a full time position. Sallie Mae is a company that is out to ruin people.

I am sick and tired of their customer service reps who are rude and I honestly think that they take your money that they like to lable as the fee and keep it in their pockets.

I would really appreciate any help of advice I can get from anyone here who is experienced with Sallie Mae's practice and know of a legal way of resolving this issue.

They said NO that I would have to pay the increased amount due to the timing of the end of my loan. According to Sallie Mae, I agreed to pay off my loan within the next nine months; I never heard of Sallie mae until I received this letter. I did not agree to anything with them. My loan balance due is $486.43. We are quibbling over $33.21 and 1 month. So instead of paying off my loan in the nine months they say I agreed to, I will pay it in nine months with a partial payment of the $33.00 on the tenth month. But Sallie Mae says NO, I must pay the increase so that I will pay off my loan early.

Sallie Mae's left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They take my payment every month and divide it between all my sons loans, and tell me I never sent a payment. I think that illegally, they are using my money to pay loans that do not have my name on them. I have tried over and over to get them to fix the problem, because it is on their end. The phone calls keep coming, email, even with a cease and desist order.

Anyways, what kind of company does not have corporate office or manager I could talk to?

I was told that I have to pay $150.00 for 3 months forbearance, because they are private loan company. I am a international student and I am trying to keep up with my payments and good credit history. Sallie Mae doesn't cooperate with me. I have another private student loan, which accepted my forbearance without any fees for 6 mos. If I knew that sallie mae are screwing people like that, I would never apply for this loan.

I have cosigners and I don't want to let them down, but sallie mae makes it impossible. All I asked is to give me a break for a couple of months! I lost my job and now I have to suffer because of this ignorant company.

Is it even legal not to have corporate manager to help customers? How come there is only one number we can call and that number is in INDIA or Philipines (I don't know) with people with phony names? I never even once spoke to a person without accent! Now I don't know who I can contact about my loan forbearance. There is only one number and corporate office is not available to help us. If anyone have any advise on how I can get to Sallie Mae corporate office, please let me know

When I called the recovery department, they said that I have to pay in full before I can make payment arrangements. Is there anything I can do.

During these hard times, Sallie Mae continuously called excessive times daily (sometimes 10+ calls before Noon.) demanding payment IN FULL. My grandmother co-sgned on loans, and they threatened to take her house and any assets she may have, if she did not pay them IN FULL. I argued with Sallie Mae for YEARS attempting to reach an agreeable payment schedule. Never at any point did I flat out tell Sallie Mae I could not or would not pay them. I just could never afford what they were asking: ($700+/monthly). That was more than I was paying for rent. I re-enrolled in school and will graduate in the Winter of 2011. I set up a payment plan with Sallie Mae that adds up to approximately $350/monthly. While enrolled and taking classes, Sallie Mae ignored my deferment status (which they suggested), and reported negative payment statuses to Consumer Crediting agencies, continually lowering my credit score.

A few weeks ago, my parents, with whom I no longer reside, told me that Sallie Mae left a message on their answering machine saying that I need to contact them soon, or my account will be out of their hands. I immediately contacted them, gave them my updated address, and made a payment to them over the phone. I told the representative that I did not want my parents contacted because I no longer reside there. I also requested that information be sent about the amount overdue, and about how to get my loan put into forbearance and she said that she would send the information to me. However, I have not received anything from Sallie Mae yet.

Yesterday, I got a call from my parents, and they said that they there was a message from Sallie Mae, and they had left the same message as before. I was appalled because I had just made a payment, and it had not even been a full two weeks since my payment was withdrawn from my bank account. Today, I contacted them, and I first addressed the issue about them calling my parents about my loan and leaving messages regarding the state of my account. The representative asked if they co-signed my loan, and I responded in the negative. She then seemed to brush off that complaint, and said that she needed to forward me to my "account manager".

I was then forwarded to my "account manager", who seemed rather friendly and respectful. I then asked him why my parents were left a message when I just spoke with someone about my loan account a few weeks ago and had made a payment. He then asked me if I was asking about my loan, or the one I co-signed, and I told him I was concerned about my loan. He said that he was the account manager of my fiance's loan, and forwarded me onto someone else.

The next person I spoke with was very rude. She told me that my account was way overdue, and that I had to start making payments of about $367 for the next four months to make my account current. When I told her that I cannot afford to make those payments right now, but that I could pay small now and then kick it up when I'm done with my car payments (which end in September), she said that I had to pay that money by the end of the month. When I asked about the payment I made a few weeks ago, she said that that payment does not show on my account, and that it was credited to my fiance's account.

First, I find it appalling that I made a payment to my fiance's account without my knowledge, as I thought we were discussing my own account. Second, I'm appalled that they keep hounding my parents, even after I told them that I no longer reside with them. I am also troubled that they left a message regarding the status of my loan, even when I told them that I don't live with them. Lastly, I find it offensive at how they treat you over the phone, and that even when you are trying to make an effort to get back on your feet and catch up on payments, they use their scare tactics to try to make you pay more than you're able to.

Dealing with them has caused me a lot of grief and stress, and I was left feeling powerless with regard to my financial situation. They just seem to lack a level of understanding and compassion for those who are really struggling to make ends meet. I'm baffled with their conduct, and am nervous about having to deal with them for many, many years while I try to pay back these loans.

A couple of days later they called him at work and said he had to make another payment he argued with them that he had made his payments and was current after almost an hour the supervisor got on the line and said "Oh we just wanted to say that we called to tell you we rejected your Grandfather offer and yours!!! IS this legal? I told my dad to not deposit the money in his account until he had it in writing what they agreed upon. Can anyone help or give us some advice?

Educational Credit Management Corporation in St. Paul MN, GC Services in Houston TX, Columbus in Ohio, and ACS Affiliated Comp Services in Long Beach CA also have many complaints reported against these companies mentioned above. Please regulate these companies or shut them down for not following FDCPA laws. They are embezzlers, tax fraud, scammers, con artists, federal felons and also grand Larcens to the max. Please don't let them get away!

I was furious! I then called back to try and put in a complaint and finish my application and got a gentleman on the line. He was nice. However, I could clearly tell he kept talking to someone else in his office. He would mute his line for 10 seconds, at a time, and when he would un-mute it. I could hear them laughing. I cannot be certain, of course, but I have a feeling he was laughing about me with the previous representative who hung up on me. He ran me around in circles with the application and kept asking me the same questions over and over and over. I was so fed up with it I told him I would do it later. Based on this experience though, I will never do business with Sallie Mae, ever.

My family had received monthly bills from Sallie Mae when I started my classes. They only received only 4 bills until they got a phone call saying we were 3 months pass due. Only my dad and I was signed in loans.

To anyone who is planning on using Sallie Mae, don't. They are a joke at reminding you to pay your loans and will ask every member of your family (they did it to my grand parents) for money like loan sharks.

NPC made a nice profit off of my loan that made up for the promised waiving of my fees and 1/2 the interest, because my new balance with Sallie Mae was now over $6,000 which was more than the initial amount at NPC, and 9 monthly payments! I was shocked that this could even happen. I mean, I never bought a car, got down to the last few payments and had the bank call me and say, "Hey, we just wanted to let you know that we sold your car loan and now your new balance is $25,000 when you were down to 2 more monthly payments of 299.00 or something." This is outrageous.

They never sent a statement. I wasn't making online payments and had no way to follow my payments, no receipts were ever given. It is all very backroom,

As bad as Sallie Mae is, I must say I was even more appalled by the lack of interest or help available. I contacted Senator Specter's office. Senator Don White's Office, The Attorney General's Office, and they either immediately dismissed it or said, "We will send you some forms to fill out." (Do make some paper airplanes with them because we just do not care. Okay, they didn't say that last part, but I sure felt it loud and clear. )

There is a very interesting dynamic at play here. When you are an average person and you have a debt, even if you are in the process of making it right, you are just a deadbeat who did not have the foresight to better manage your money or your life. But if you are a bank, a corporation, the government is happy to find a way to help you out. By taxing me, who is paying a $2,500 loan over and over?

Now my daughter who has a 4.58 GPA is looking to go to school. I applied for her Parent Plus Loan. I was denied. I make $83,000 a year. Aside from this loan and my bankruptcy in 2005, my ex-spouse split with the state the money from our house the 401K, sold our furniture and I raised 2 girls on my own and filed since he also left me bills. I worked very hard, made something of myself and paid my bills. In 2008, when they said that I owed the over $4,000, I made a mistake. I took a stand and said, "no more", and stopped paying (and tried to get someone involved in investigating them). Specter, White, the Attorney General , Gloria **, various agencies, the ACLU and even the press did not seem to care. I feel that my civil rights are being violated. I am being extorted and it has caused harm to my girls and to me.

I recently reviewed my credit report after being denied, and there is Sallie Mae listing me as 120 days past due. Funny that the amount they listed was $2,500 and not the $4,000 + they told me. I have been paying on this loan. I set up payments with ECMC once it became evident that no one was going to help me out. I am down to $1,500. I intend to pay this last little bit off with a full payment before they can resell it and start at a nice high amount again. I contacted ECMC because they were also showing up on my report and they said that they would take care of it since it shouldn't be on there. I am in fact in good standing and even have my Title 4 rights now reinstated which means I can qualify for federal loans. The representative at ECMC told me to call Sallie Mae and have them remove the negative report from my credit report since I am not 120 days past due. I don't even have a loan through them any longer, but after 3 hang- ups and talking to 9 different individuals in India I believe (Go America), I was told that they cannot remove this and that it stays on my report for 7 years!

I thought only the bankruptcy would stick on my report that long. I have really no debt, just this $1,500. I pay in cash and have a great job. I am responsible.I represent a company, yet I spent the afternoon trying to reason with a mental midget at Sallie Mae who did his best to try to make me feel like a loser. I just want this removed from my report so my daughter can go to school and we are not using Sallie Mae to fund her education. I would actually sell a kidney first!

When I ask why they are making no legal attempts to collect from her and hold her responsible, their response is that I signed the loan and am equally responsible. That is funny! I do not get the benefits of writing off the loan payments (I have been making the payments). I do not receive any statements in the mail (apparently it is illegal to send 2 bills for the same account). I cannot get any deferments or forbearances because I am not the primary borrower and the list can go on and on. How is that equal? I want to find an attorney to help me. I feel that Sallie Mae is not being equal when trying to collect their money. I want to keep my credit in good standing. But who is going to hold the primary borrower responsible? Shouldn't they exhaust all their options with the primary borrower (ex: garnish wages etc.) before going after the co-signer? What are our rights? Now after reading some of these complaints, even if I did pay it off (if I could), they would try to find some reason that I would still owe money. There has to be something that can be done. This is nuts!

After my deferment period had expired, I didn't receive any bills. When I called to inquire, I was informed that I owed some money due to missed payments and, of course, there were some late fees associated with that as well. I asked how this could have happened. I was told that I was responsible for mailing in my bills because I was now on the coupon' method of repayment. I informed them that I had not requested the coupon option and would prefer to go back to receiving my bills in the mail. Sallie Mae's customer service department could not figure out how my account was switched to coupon payment. I spoke to several different members of Sallie Mae's staff on multiple occasions (monthly) and the problem was never resolved, despite the fact that they had assured me each time that it had.

A short time later, I contacted Sallie Mae to try and find a solution to my problem of not being able to make a particular payment on time. I was waiting for a check to be mailed to me. I had not received it yet and I was unable to pay my bill at that point. When I spoke to a Sallie Mae representative, he assured me that I could avoid the late fee by switching my due date to a later date in the billing cycle. He proceeded to switch the dates for me. Later that month, I was informed, via a barrage of phone calls, that I was late on that month's payment and there were some additional late fees as a result. It seems that the due date switch cannot take effect until the next billing cycle, negating the reason I had the switch made in the first place. My customer service help' failed to inform me of that. Of course this error, his error, resulted in fees I had to pay.

My next phone conversation with Sallie Mae was concerned with trying to get my account back onto paper billing, again. For some reason, my representative could not make this adjustment. They suggested that I use Sallie Mae's online payment option through their website.

Frustrated with all of my previous attempts to resolve this situation with customer service, I was willing to try anything. I went to the website and created an account in an attempt to pay my bills online. I reviewed, checked off and paid every due amount I could find on the web page, associated with the billing groups on my account (the website is unable to display them all on one place, apparently). Still, a month later I received a volley of phone calls indicating that payments were missed and, you guessed it, additional fees were due.

Adding insult to injury: Feeling financially overwhelmed, I decided to apply for an income based repayment plan. I tried to fill out the documentation on Sallie Mae's website, but I was confused by some of the wording of the questions and opted to fill out the forms which I downloaded from the same site and just fax them in to the number provided. I never heard from Sallie Mae.

Having no real alternative, I had to call Sallie Mae customer service for some help with this new issue. I called during the week, during normal business hours (I have learned to never call after hours or on the weekend, since the help' available at those times is even less adept) to try and find out what had happened with my submission. At this point I had also learned to never talk to the standard Sallie Mae staff, since they could not solve any of my issues. In fact, they tended to make matters worse. I immediately asked for a supervisor, thinking that this will enhance my chances of success. In addition, I have started asking for names, full names. Corey **, if that was his real name, was the supervisor I was working with.

The first thing he said was "Wow, your account is a mess!" He then proceeded to ask me when I filed the income based repayment documents. When I told him that I wasn't really sure, he gave me a hard time, indicating that I should know that information. I made a guess off the top of my head as to when I submitted the paperwork. He rudely piped in and informed me that it was actually a month after the date I had given him. I could not figure out why he would ask me for the information if he had it in front of him, on the computer, all along.

Feeling like I was being verbally reprimanded, I asked him if he remembered every date associated with forms that he had ever filled out. He very snidely said to me: "If it's important to me, I do it and I remember". He then indicated to me that I had filed for income based repayment online and no action was taken since the form was incomplete. I told him that I that I was aware of that and that I had filed a second time with a fax. He told me that no action had been taken since the paperwork was not received. Feeling extremely frustrated, I asked him to send me the paperwork, via the mail, again.

It's been over two weeks and I have still not received my income based repayment documentation. Obviously, Corey had not followed through on his responsibilities. I wasn't sure whether Corey ** job wasn't important' enough to him or if he was just a liar, but I wanted to call and find out. Seeking some measure of accountability, I called Sallie Mae and asked for Corey. I was put on hold while he was located. I sat on hold for 48 minutes. At that point, I hung up in frustration. Had I not done so, I would probably still be on hold, waiting.

In my desperate search of Sallie Mae's website for some answers, I came across an interesting quote which is sited as being a Sallie Mae slogan. It reads: "Customer Service is not a department, it's an attitude". As a customer, I didn't really experience a great deal of service, but there was certainly a fair amount of attitude.

The solution: Despite all of this, I am still willing to try and salvage this situation. If Sallie Mae is at all interested in making things right, this is what I propose. (1) Repair my damaged credit rating. All of these issues have lead to late and missed payments, none of which are due to any errors on my part. In addition, I have exerted considerable effort in trying to rectify the situation to no avail. Therefore, I do not believe that I should be penalized for them. (2) Waive all outstanding late fees associated with late and missed payments. Again, these fees are directly associated with my inability to work with a competent member of the customer service staff and as a result, I do not believe that I should be penalized. (3) Return me to paper billing. Just mail me my bills, all of my bills, clearly indicating the amount (s) owed for all of my billing groups.

I believe that these are very reasonable requests and my argument is well founded.

I have now applied for a deferment twice and been denied twice for "reaching the maximum deferment time." Nobody told me there would be a maximum and I am still in school until at least December so I am very confused. I have even tried a voluntary forbearance and the guy who helped me apply, customer service agent from Sallie Mae, said I should be granted an in school deferment and that I easily qualify for one. I desperately need help sorting this out because I honestly cannot afford to pay them back right this second but after I am out of school and working definitely, but not right now. My family is still trying to get back on our feet after my husband lost his job in January of 2009.

What is resulting is a debt in my name when I am trying to find out and settle this. I acknowledge they have tried to call me and when I realized that my son defaulted on his obligation, and I started calling them, but nothing.

Well, it has been a month and I am now on-hold with Sallie **** because it wasn't done and I am being told that all payments made go to interest first before late fees and that I have $4,000 in interest but they will try again. I am on an income-sensitive repayment so tell me where I am going to pull $4,000 dollars out to be able to pay my late fee. I am also thinking that my interest due is also going to increase so I will never be able to pay my late fee and they will keep reporting my late fee to the credit agencies thus affecting my credit. This is so absolutely ridiculous.

Half of my loans due are now all due to interests. I accrued them when I got sick and had to put my plans on forbearance until I got better and then was able to work and have an income that would allow me to pay back my student loans. If I had known when I was in college that I would be at the mercy of Sallie **** for my life, I never would have gone. Dealing with them is impossible and I just cannot bear it on my own anymore. I am sure that I am not the only one they are putting through the ringer like this which is so morally corrupt. They need to have their business practices investigated.

Despite many pleas, requests, and discussions with Sallie Mae, I am still stuck with my ex-husband's loan of almost $100,000. I am more than willing to pay on my loan, but why should I still be stuck with his on my credit rating?

When I told them to call his wife at Fort Hood, they told me "well, maybe she doesn't have the authority to talk to us on this". I informed them that while he is deployed in a war zone, she most certainly does have the authority! I told them to file papers and have his pay garnished, they said "do you know how long that would take?" Seriously, it is not my problem! They call 7 days a week from 8AM-9PM. He is not a deadbeat, he is serving our country in Iraq.

My wife and I have raised 3 children, put them all through college and are now living paycheck to paycheck just to keep up the mortgage payments. I, too, was in the army. I served in desert shield then desert storm, only to be told they didn't need me after 18 years and let me go as a Major with an honorable discharge, but without a pension and benefits. Now, I have to deal with this. I don't know what else to do and they have made it clear that they will continue to call me until they get paid. This is beyond harassment. Our stress levels are high enough with my son in Iraq and now we have to deal with this on a daily basis. Please, what else can I do?

I believe that Sallie Mae is working to set me up for failure as each time I call, they tell me something different, and they tell me about policies that they do not have in writing and that are not written on the application forms and then tell me that is why they denied my application form. I am not in default but if they keep doing this, I will be in default due to their negligence.

They are also charging me for loans that are on my credit report which they do not have promissory notes for and that I did not borrow. They say that this is the interest that has capitalized over the years and has now become part of the principal. Well, that amount is equal to the amount of the loans that were initially taken out (25k) and that doesn't include the interest. I don't believe these practices are lawful or ethical. I want to repay but it seems that they are playing games so that they can make me go into default to have a reason to begin to garnish my wages for an amount that would be far more than I could ever afford and cause me to not be able to live.

Something needs to be done about these practices that they are implementing. Their own staff told me that there was nothing wrong with the documentation that I sent in and she did not understand why they keep refusing my payment plan, and of course, when I spoke to a supervisor, she said that wasn't true and they don't hold applications on file more than 30 days. Is there a record retention law of at least 7 years or does it not apply to them in this category? I need help and justice! Thank you for looking into this matter for me.

I responded that I have an issue with the company's customer service, and I need to speak with a supervisor. He denied me the right to speak with a supervisor. I requested several times, but I was continuously denied the right to speak with a supervisor, unless I was willing to pay my bill. I again informed him that I intend to pay my bill, but I would like to speak with a supervisor. He denied my request and hung the telephone up on me. I called again and this time I got customer service representative named Fredrick. I asked him for the telephone number or the address to their complaint department, and he said, "um…", and placed me on hold, then hung the telephone up on me.

I called again. This time I spoke with a customer service representative named Charles. I requested the address or telephone number of their complaints department. He provided it to me. He then stated that my account was outstanding, and he gave me a different amount that was past due on my account beside what I was previously told. During our conversation, he told me that I needed to bring my account current, and I told him that I would, after I spoke with a supervisor. As I'm getting off the telephone, he told me, "Your account is in collections and it will be ongoing in collections.”

They are claiming I am delinquent and asking for nearly $600 to clear up my account. That is nearly 4 times my normal payment and also threatening to report my "bad credit habit" to credit agencies. I have done nothing wrong and they are using their intentional mistake or error (I can't be sure) to extort money from me. I have no problem making my payments each month automatically, but they have not even tried to withdraw the funds.

Needless to say, nothing was resolved. Although they were getting something, one of the loans went into default. If they were taking what we sent and putting a little on each loan as they said they were, then how did this happen? Also, as much as we requested consolidation, why would they not offer it to us until after the loan defaulted?

Her loans started in 2003 and the loan that defaulted was from 2005. Is that because it was the higher loan (which, by the way, has now more than doubled)? Now, because I'm the co-borrower, they are trying to set the payment amount according to my salary instead of negotiating with my daughter. They've illegally called my job and harassed me. I am fully aware that the loan has to be paid, but why should it be at the expense of causing hardship on me and my family? I contacted them and like what they have been doing to so many others, they refused to adjust the payment to something we can afford. They were ridiculously unfair.

I feel that Sallie Mae loans are a "set-up" scam, taking students and parents for granted. When is someone going to challenge their wrong-doing and check their records? I would not recommend them to anyone. They are constantly sending mail to my youngest college student and I just toss it in the garbage as soon as we get it.

Times are really challenging and people are losing homes and jobs. The children are moving back home in an effort to survive and Sallie Mae can care less about any of it.

It is now the end of 2010 and I have discovered that Sallie Mae did not correct anything. Instead, someone put forbearance on my loan for several months and, therefore, using most of my eligible forbearance time. About 2 years ago, I filed for 6-month forbearance and was approved. There was a charge added to my principal balance but otherwise the forbearance went smoothly. When I asked for an extension, I was turned down but without a reason being filled in on the form letter. I called the U.S. office I had called before but it was disconnected. After weeks of investigating online, I finally decided that office no longer existed.

The regular 888-2SALLIE number had representatives that could not help (nor understand) me, so I gave up trying to find out why my forbearance was refused. Due to losing one of my 2 jobs recently, I applied for forbearance again in early 2010. My application was ignored. I tried again with a letter; also no response. After a third try on November 2010, it was approved on December 10. I received an official letter telling me so on December 20. On December 27, I began to get harassing calls from Sallie Mae telling me I was delinquent. Knowing this wasn't right, I checked my online account. It suddenly said I was delinquent, being reported to credit agencies, and now owed late fees. There was no forbearance on my loan anymore and no indication what had happened to it.

As an aside, I should note that Sallie Mae charges late fees for no reason. They delay processing and I have about a 50% success rate in getting these fees removed. The delay also causes their system to register me as late and Sallie Mae will call both me and my relatives listed as second contacts on my loan immediately when this happens. That's why with this current problem, I called Sallie Mae immediately because I didn't want my relatives harassed again. The first person I got seemed confused and she seemed to notice immediately that there was something weird going on with my account. I was disconnected. (Again, I note that over 50% of the time I am on the phone with Sallie Mae, I am disconnected and have to call back.)

I got a second representative and told them the situation. This representative was confused, gave conflicting information, and wanted to argue with me. I'm not even sure he was looking at the correct loan. He told me the forbearance had been "canceled" 2 hours after it had been approved. I told him I had received no notice of this, and he said that it didn't matter. Before I could ask what he meant, he continued by saying the forbearance was denied because I was out of forbearance time. That's when I found out it was because they had used my eligible forbearance time when I was still in school. This was done without my knowledge.

He also said my current forbearance was canceled because my co-borrower had not signed the paperwork. I do not have a co-borrower and told him so, at which point he laughed and called me a liar, claiming he was looking right at my forbearance application. I asked who the co-borrower on the account was, and suddenly he couldn't tell me. Then he said I had to pay them $50 as a "forbearance application fee" and once I did, the forbearance would be approved. At this point, he began to push hard for me to give him my checking account info for that $50 to be withdrawn immediately. I asked how they could process forbearance when I was out of forbearance time, and he couldn't answer.

I asked about the co-borrower business, and suddenly he said that didn't matter. This whole time he was pushing for my checking information, and I refused to give it to him. I told him I would deal with the situation online, thanked him for his time, and I hung up. I paid them online and sent them an email demanding the late fee be rescinded immediately. I will be sending them snail mail as well, complete with the same information I am reporting here. They will also get a copy of the letter I am sending to the BBB in complaint.

This resulted to about $100 in late fees that were due to their delays in processing. (It was $200 total, but about $100 were eventually removed when I complained.) Loss of eligible forbearance time. Loss of cell phone minutes (approximately a $50 loss over the course of this loan) and harassment by Sallie Mae every time they erroneously believe my loan payment is late.

Well, some months later, I was getting mail stating that they had sent my loans to a creditor. To put the topping on the cake, I had GED classes that they were not even making important to attend.

So now, I can't go to any school due to their loaner who won't budge a bit for small payment amounts. I would like to go back to school but I cannot because Sallie Mae will not take my loans out of default. I am really hurting at this point because I can't find a job and my family is in debt. I would at least like to go back to school that will make me feel a lot more confident.

Every time, they gave an excuse of not receiving it or told me to send more information. As time passed, they started harassing me, calling everyday all day even when I was still in school in Ohio. They told me that I was going to go into default and I needed a forbearance. I signed it and sent it. When I called, they would say they received nothing so they kept sending forbearance forms for me to sign, but never helped me. I would sign and send them (when I would call, they'd give me the runaround ).

This went on about 5 or 6 months until I found out I was in default about three months ago. So when I was in the financial aid office for the new school I want to attend, we were there almost two hours trying to find out were my loans were because each Sallie Mae representative gave us a different number to call, transferred the call or just would hang-up. They all kept passing the buck saying they didn't know anything. I honestly don't think I should be in default because I did all I could. They wouldn't help. I knew I couldn't pay it because I was still in school. If they weren't so busy harassing me, they could have helped me. I wouldn't have needed a forbearance or been in default if they would have done there jobs when my school faxed all the information in October 2009. I'm still very young. Why should I have to suffer not being able to go to the schools I apply to or in my future buy the house or car I'd like to because someone else neglected to do their job?

I've even sent one check for $130.63 for my monthly payment and a second check for $70 to go towards the principal and they take the two checks and make them one amount of $200.63, which they apply on the principal and interest of both loans equally. I'm trying very hard to pay my school loans off quickly but I'm not being allowed to do so through Sallie Mae. Is there anything more I can do about this? At this rate, Sallie Mae will not allow me to pay off my student loans early. This could cause a financial crunch for me in the future. I thought paying off my loans early was a good thing; instead I feel like I'm being penalized for trying.

A few days later, I received another harassing phone call about making my payment. Upon request to speak with a manager, I was transferred to a senior account manager. This senior account manager said the person I spoke with did not follow up with the IRS handling department as she had stated she would do to process my application. Also, after discussing my forbearance letter with the same senior account manager, he adamantly proclaimed that I did not receive any recent forbearance because I was not eligible and that I should send in any documentation verifying my statement. I faxed in this statement on Nov 26, 2010. Since then, I have received two phone calls and spoken with four people who adamantly proclaim I was not eligible and did not receive any forbearance.

On Dec 3, 2010, I spoke with another senior account manager. He originally stated that I did not fax any information for my new unemployment application which was sent on Nov 26, 2010. I told him that I just confirmed it was received through another account manager. He continued looking and then stated I sent in the wrong forms. I debated with him that I sent the forms through an electronic fax account, and I can see the receipt and forms that I sent. He stated he needed a minute to continue looking at the documents received on my account. He located the correct documents I sent and advised me to resend them with a new date. For the record, most conversations are handled this way.

Please note that during my forbearance period, approximately two months, the phone calls stopped. Once the phone calls resumed at the end of my forbearance around the 11th of October. I spoke to a representative who stated any past due balance would be added to the back of the loan. As per the forbearance letter, "You must resume making monthly payment at the end of your forbearance." I have made my monthly payments for October and November. This past week, I received a coupon book indicating my new payments would begin December 4, 2010. The representatives harassing me state I have a past due amount and of course, never received forbearance.

My loans have troubled me and I was able to have some consolidated and thus payments have been lowered. Unfortunately, Sallie Mae shows no mercy. They never sent me any bills and they just have them on my online account. I am now delinquent two months and they are threatening to send me to collections on the 30th. I have called several times, even before receiving a delinquent notice, to try and make arrangements. My payments are $300 a month and the only thing they offered was a payment of $222. I had just told the person I spoke with that I was completely tapped financially and she offered no help, just a $88 lower payment. Then, if I pay $150, they will grant me a forbearance for the months I am behind but then next month, I need to pay an additional $150 or I will be in default again. The only response I received was sorry, it's a private loan so there really isn't anything we can do. Really!

I understand that I took out the loan, but lenders need to be realistic. I am trying my best honestly but times are just not what I expected when I started school in 2004. All I need is a payment plan and I have no problem paying Sallie Mae but $304 a month is just not it. I do not know any graduates at this time who are making enough to begin their life as an adult and make loan payments. I am fighting just to find a job and making a decent amount in this economy overall.

I am severely stressed. I am now choosing between car, insurance payments, food, bills, other loans and Sallie Mae. I feel like I am in between a rock and a hard place.

In January of 2009, I was contacted by a Sallie Mae representative who was extremely rude and told me that I was overdue on my student loan payments and that if I didn't pay immediately they would note me in default. She said the total amount was $7,000. I was a kid fresh out of college trying to make it on her own. I didn't even have any idea why they would say I owed money, let alone have seven grand to pay. I explained to the lady that I was under the belief that the loans had been paid off, could she tell me why she believed that I owed the money. She couldn't; she just said she saw that. I asked her to provide a proof of my signature, telling her that if I did indeed owe the money, I would pay it off as best I could. She said she would send the request down the line, and I should receive the signature in a couple of days.

Six weeks passed, and no signature, but the harassing phone calls started. They were bothering me day and night. Most of the time, I would let it go through to voicemail, but every once in a while I would answer and again demand a proof of signature, and be told the same thing. I could expect to receive it in a couple of days. I never got a copy of that signature.Then, in February of 2010, I started receiving extremely harassing phone calls from a credit company called DCS who explained that Sallie Mae had turned everything over to them, and that I now owed $16,000 as part of the late fees. I explained to them the situation, and they said they would contact Sallie Mae. I can only assume they got the same runaround that I got because they couldn't give me a straight answer for months.

Finally in September they were able to provide me a copy of the promissory note, and I was able to (with the help of my wonderful and blessed parents) pay it off. (The promissory note was actually a FAFSA form that every student at my college was required to fill out in order to attend the college. Apparently the college took the loans out in my name is the best we can figure) Again, I thought that was that and good riddance.

Now, I recently went to apply for a home loan because I'm ready to move on and start a family. The person who checked my credit informed me that not only is the delinquency on there (which I knew it would be) but apparently Sallie Mae reported the delinquency three separate times: one for each year of the loan. So now I have three major delinquencies on there, denying me the ability to get a home loan, and all because the people at Sallie Mae are rude, inept, and completely without any knowledge of the field they work in and unwilling to help. My credit is shot because of this horrible company. Rest assured, when I have children and they go to college, I will be searching desperately to find an alternative to Sallie Mae.