Sallie Mae Bank review: Scam and cheating! 15

I agree, the same thing happened to my son! DO NOT GO THROUGH SALLIE MAE!

Words are just words. Pjease read your contracts before you sign them. Did you contract say that payments are only $50 per month?

They settled last year and claimed they were putting an end to these tactics yet they still practice them today. If you refuse to pay because you were lied to about what would happen they hurriedly push your account into default. After that you get to deal with the ### collection agencies who act as if they are above the law. They lie to you and try to scare you!

Its a real treat!

you should never default soon after graduation (or at all ...
). you have all kinds of options for postponing payments till things are going better.

You are referring to Salliemae.com yes? They keep sending USPS mail to my son. I can tell it's a scam because it's not a government association.

Like any legal document, you should've read what you were going to agree to. They have many ways of helping borrowers out, and it's your own fault that you did not look into them. Good luck on that default process too, because you will get 25% added onto that loan, and your 9.00 an hour job? Get ready to get less money because your wages can and most likely will be garnished. Better think twice before you sign anything without reading it again.

I went to the Le Cordon Bleu in Mendota Heights MN. I was 19 when I started there and got my loan(s) through Sallie Mae. Number one, they should have never let a naive 19 year old with out a co-signer take so much out in private loans. Number two, I have been trying to set a reasonable payment plan with them for about 3 years now. My loan payment per month is supposed to be about $950 a month! I would have to make about $50 an hour to afford that! I offered them $350 a month, (which is still a lot for me and also more than they would get if they garnished my wages) but they still said that I was just screwed. They said they were going to take me to court for it, but I haven't heard anything in months! Plus, all the phones records and legal letters I have sent them are stating that I WANT to pay back my loans, but that I just can't afford that much. They also told me that I have exhausted all options to try to fix the payment amount, and that they helped me as much as they could (which was not at all). So now I'm in default, with wrecked credit, on what is now 4 loans! When I'm pretty sure it started out as 2. WTF?

I have been in re-payment with SallieMae for 14 years and just recently started having dificulty receiving my 1098-E statement for how much interest I have paid them for tax purposes. In contacting SallieMae I found that at one point in time they actualy put my student loan in derferrment for no apprent reason, I NEVER requested or signed anything for a derferrment. Also, has changed payment amounts on me for no aparent reason. Also found out after checking my credit report one day that 12 years into the loan SallieMae mistakenly reported my Student Loan as two seperate loans showing double the total loan amount. Which of course does a number on your credit score. How does somehting like this happen? Do NOT use their online service, to many mistakes occur And when you call them you get a call center in another Country with representatives that are very difficult to understand and have know idea what to do to correct the problem. the big question is : WHY IS SALLIMAE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS? Where the hell is Consumer Complaints and Better Business Burea won't touch it, and since SallieMae is the Federal Government, no Rep. or Attorney General will respond. Does anyone have a telephone number for SallieMae in the U.S. with reps. that you can understand? How do you get a class action started?

If you are having, or have had issues with SLM and are interested in a possible solution, please send me a message. Thanks you!

My complaint is that my deadbeat daughter decided to give them my name and other secured info to apply for a loan and use me as a co-cosigner. I had no knowledge of this and never signed anything. Now I am being held repsonsible for a loan I had nothing to do with while she sits on her dead ### doing nothing but raping the system even though she has a degree through a now defunct college that she expects me to pay for. And did I mention I am disabled and get at least 10 harassing phone calls a day from Sallie Mae?

My name is Stephanie. I took out a student loan back in 1995 from Sallie Mae from Devry University-Long Beach, CA. I graduated in 1997, I was making payments on time until I ran into financial problems and had to get a deferment. I started repaying again but then I when I left my job in 2001 to pursue a higher paying job back in Michigan where I was from. I had two opportunities awaiting. I figured if one fell through I still had the other one. Both opportunities fell through. I was unemployed for two months, took a security job and still looking for something in my field. Shortly after I was in a bad accident that had me down for three months. I was on crutches to cane for nearly two years. It was hard to find something that would not require me to be on my feet because in the accident I had fractured my hip. By the time I healed enough to get a job in my field that requires standing I couldn't get work. I believe because of the gap in my work history. In between time I was still filing forebearance and deferments. When I got work, it wasn't enough to pay what sallie mae wanted a month, so i continued to file deferments and forebearances. my bills and living expenses made it where I was living check to check. I had no money to pay the amount they were asking each month. Now its 2011, I finally have a job that gives a little cushion to start paying them back. But the amount i have to pay still hurts my finances with all my expenses. My loan amount was 25, 000, now they are saying when i finish paying back my loan, i will have paid them 100k+. That is far too much for an Associates degree. the amount is mainly due to interests, late fees. Is there a way I can get out paying so much in interests? I know i have to pay the loan but damn the interest and fees are ridiculous. I just don't want to end up homeless trying to repay all that money, living out my car with no address. I have the income based repayment. but after a year its going to increase twice the amount i am paying back now, which is $335.74 a month. I can't afford to pay more than that. what can i do.
*out of options*

I agree, but i will leave short words. Look at it like this. America wants to be prepared for tomorrow today. This is only a lie. So they need us to believe this lie saying that we will have a good future if we go to school and succeed. Remember America wants to be ahead, So boosting us and using the fear of poverty and low income living will have you thinking, "EDUCATION"! SO you go to school and guess what happens? YOU END UP PAYING MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE. SCHOOL HAS BEEN A SUPPLY AND DEMAND. YOU NEED MORE MONEY TO LIVE, COST OF LIVING IS HIGHER. EDUCATION SUPPOSEDLY WILL CHANGE THE TIDE, BUT THE ECONOMY IS LIKE THE WEATHER. SO IF THE ECONOMY IS LIKE THE WEATHER, THEN WHY DO THEY PLAN SO FAR AHEAD AND LEAD SO MANY TO BE MISLED. SCHOOL IS JUST LIKE GAS. WE NEED IT, THEY KNOW WE NEED IT, BUT THEY RATHER ABUSE AND WRONGFULLY USE THE POWER FOR THEIR OWN GAIN. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME...o well

I BELIEVE YOU

I'm going to be completely blunt (and pardon my language), but Sallie Mae is all ###. I also fell into their trap when I attended an Art Institute and I was also under the impression that I would only need to repay $50 a month. Whoo-hoo! I could afford that. Yeah, when I graduated with about $74K in student debt for a useless degree from an unaccredited (at the time) diploma mill school, I was told I would be expected to repay almost $800 a month! So I called Sallie Mae and said there was no way I could pay that since I didn't even have a job. I got it lowered to about $380 a month, but that's stilla lot when you have no job and it was by sheer luck I could pay them due to doing a few scant freelance art projects for people. I'm back in school right now and my loans are all in deferment...my balance has also gone up by $4000 due to interest and I'm only halfway through grad school.

The bill would go up almost every month and by the time I'd been in repayment for about a year, my monthly bill was nearing $600. I tried to tell them that I had no real job and I made honestly $1500 in the entire year while unsuccessfully looking for a job. They didn't care - they still wanted their money. I also had issues with the website and my payments not going through. Like many, I went to college to try and acquire skills that would maybe allow me to make enough money to live. But because of what I owe to Sallie Mae and their complete inability to work with its borrowers and try to establish payment plans that will also allow borrowers to afford their other expenses (insurance, rent, food, kids if they have any, etc.), I will be in poverty forever. You only get so many deferments before they say no more and want your money. Even if you have no job, and things like income-based and income-contingent repayment plans do not apply to private loans, nor will Sallie Mae consolidate your loans without increasing the interest (interest which, by the way, continues to collect when your loans are in deferment).

Sallie Mae is awful and they will do whatever they can to keep you in debt forever. Even if you do pay, you'll get mystery bills for unpaid balances because you didn't pay 5 dollars 10 years ago and, oh look, now you owe $6000 because of all the interest and late fees on that remaining single-digit balance.

And sadly, you can't just not pay to try and "teach them a lesson, " which I see advised on many anti-Sallie Mae sites. If you don't pay, they can do several things to get that money. Things like garnishing your paychecks, emptying your checking and savings accounts without your permission, suing you, putting a lien on your house/stuff, going after your co-signer if you had one, destroying your credit and harassing your loved ones to pay what you owe. They are relentless. I would suggest trying to claim disability to try and get loans forgiven...say you're crazy or something. You will never get away from Sallie Mae once they've got their claws in you.

I feel your pain TelemarketingHell