Sallie Mae is the absolute worst. I fought with them for months to try and get them to fix their many mistakes. They didn't even fix all of them.

I started a site dedicated to educating people on Sallie Mae's true motto: "Squeeze every penny out of students, then squeeze again."

There are many people out there who think that students who get into trouble with their student loans did it to themselves. That is NOT the case. Sallie Mae plays many games to get students into trouble, including mis-applying payments and then systematically doubling or tripling what students owe them as a result. Do you think Sallie Mae plays by the rules? Think again.

Christopher Zeman
Sallie Mae Beef
http://salliemaebeef.com

This is a copy of aemail I sent them regarding SOME of the errors they have made with me.
____________________________________________

Too bad there's no catagory of 'Complaint' for the subject.

I have never had to deal with such bull shit in my life. First of all, I am a 19 year old guy working two jobs to break even, and you are a multi-million dollar company. Seems like you should be airing on the understanding compassionate side. Not so. Over the past few months, you have made several idioc blunders, costing me both time and money, and I have been told by your so-called customer service representitives that there's nothing you can do. Its a interesting pattern of you fuck up -> I pick up the tab.

example 1
The other day, I spent an hour on the phone, and was transferred to eleven different people, several of whom I could not understand- resulting in my being late for work. Finally, after all that, was told there was no way I could be helped. What was the big super-complicated issue that eleven of your trained professionals couldn't resolve? Well, I was told over the phone the day before that there was an accumulated late fee of $40 on my account. However, I had not recieved any statement telling me what amount to send or when to send it by. (The reason I had called in the first place.) Therefore, I felt it was unfair that I should send you $40 for being late, when I didn't know when to send the initial payment by! After being transferred back and forth between departments, the 11th person I talked to finally said it was a "legitimate fee". Kiss ass.

example 2
On at least two occasions now, I have set up a "post- dated" payment, in order to avoid additional late fees on my account. Sounds like a very helpful convienent win-win solution. Except that either the moron who set it up did it wrong, or the idiot I talked to when I called to verify it was coming out couldn't read. Today I recieved a $62 overdraft fee from my bank, because of Sallie Mae fucking up. On April 3rd, I set up a post dated transaction, set to come out of my account on the 14th. When I called on the 14th to verify that it was coming out that day, the girl said "I don't see any payment set to come out today." At which point I had her withdraw the payment immediately as to not get fined. However. Evidently there HAD been a payment set to come out on the 14th, because one did, and then her 2nd payment came out of my account on the 16th overdrawing my account by about $380. What the hell is wrong with your phone operators.

If you had simply inconvienienced me, it would be one thing. But to waste my time AND cost me money AND make me late for work AND overdraw my account thus effecting my credit score, that just pisses me off more than you can imagine. I can't even begin to describe how eager I am to get a loan from another company to pay you off and never send you morons another penny of intrest on my loan. I will never recommend you to anybody.

Very poor customer service. Customer services representatives are very rude and unprofessional. I have, on numerous occasions, been given incorrect or inaccurate information. There reps are unprofessional and their demeanor is nonchalant. One of the customer reps hung up in my face (Gregg- in the Career Training Loan Collection Department) after I questioned their practices, and when I called him back he proceeded to tell me that he didnt have time to argue with me. I am usually transferred to several departments and no one can seem to help me. I have contacted this company to set up payment arrangements, and either the rep does not have valuable information to offer or I am told that the past due balance must be paid in full before they can offer any assistance. Customer Service with this company is terrible. Gregg is the rep that hung the phone up on me and flat out told me to be sure to contact the Better Business Bureau when I mentioned that I would. On my last call, when requesting to speak with a supervisor, Lucas Boehm, I was put on hold and the rep came back to the phone and told me that her department did not handle those kind of issues and once again directed me to another department. The department i was directed to was just as unhelpful as she. These companies should be held responsible for services that are not up to par but they get away with it everyday.

The stories are endless at studentloanjustice.org

They are absolutely horrible! My husband has over 100k vested in this moronic company and we can't WAIT for consolidation time to pull the business out from under Sallie Mae. When my husband first started college he had a neighbor co-sign for the first few loans. Since then, he has about 4 other private loans after the fact just in his name. He's literally in the last leg of school now and when he applied for his final loan of merely a few thousand dollars was denied. Evidently the neighbor who co-signed for the first few loans filed bankruptcy at the end of last year. In result, the bankruptcy court notified Sallie Mae that a co-signer of theirs had filed. Well, evidently being able to read isn't a pre-requisite for employment at Sallie Mae because they updated their system as my HUSBAND filed for bankruptcy! Not only did they deny him his final loan based on this but they proceeded to notify the 3 major credit bureaus that my husband has filed for bankruptcy. Mind you, my husband is still in deferment status as he's still a student. He hasn't even HAD the opportunity to miss a payment not that he would. When I realized what they did, I immediately pulled his credit report and sure enough his previously good credit score was squashed.
We called Sallie Mae again and didn't even mess with anyone short of management. We went right to management and made them physically pull up this letter and read it to us. It wasn't then until they realized that the co-signer filed and not my husband. I demanded something in writing from them indicating their error and that they will be rescinding their notice to the credit bureaus. I was promised that I would have this letter and that the corrections would be made within 14 business days. I never got a letter from them and the 14 days passed. My husband called again trying to get that last little loan and things seemed ok from the onset. He called a few days later and was advised by the processing center that they had denied it and needed something in writing from him (or the credit bureau who THEY notified of this) indicating he didn't file bankruptcy.
I then called again with the name and employee number of the last manager that we spoke with and started the process ALL OVER AGAIN! Every phone call takes a minimum of 30 minutes so make sure you time to sit there on hold for a ridiculously long time. I asked to speak to a manager (and got another that I could barely understand) who put me on hold for 25 minutes while he called the processing center to explain to them the mistake and re-instate the loan. I'm told that it's getting fixed. I put through another demand for something in writing from them regarding their mistake and confirmed three times that they notified the credit bureaus of THEIR mistake. I've also been told that my husband will be getting a call within 24 hours about the new loan and that there shouldn't be any issues. After confirming all of this I got the gentleman’s name on the phone as well as the name of the manager HE spoke with at the processing center because I'm sure this still isn't over. I have a feeling that their mistake is going to be following us for quite some time.

Overall, this has been a horrible experience and I would tell anyone to run as fast as they can in the opposite direction from Sallie Mae. If you are already one of the unfortunate souls to have to deal with this company the best advice I can give is document EVERYTHING. If you have an issue don't even mess with customer service call centers. Demand to speak with management and get everyone's name and employee number (they don't have extensions) that you speak with.

I personally had Nelnet for my student loans and they were FABULOUS! Never had one bad experience with them and I would recommend them to anyone, just steer clear of Sallie Mae!

Ok, I understand your frustration, these are hard times for everyone. While I have sympathy for your situations, there just a few things I must say. Firstly about the customer service, it’s a big problem at SM, I have complained about it myself and finally they started CS training. Also there are three sites where there are collections depts: Las Vegas, Muncie, IN and Newark, DE. The first two are the oldest and have terrible CS but at the DE office we started to change all that, really. Secondly, as you may or maynot know, SM is a servicer of student loans both federal and private, they don’t actually disperse them. Also, I am assuming the loans you guys are talking about are private loans. Private loans supplement what you don’t get in federal loans. Private loans are backed by a bank (PNC, Bank of America, JP Morgan/Chase etc), they are the ones who make up the rules concerning the different options with the loans, some charge a forb fee, some don’t, some give you 24 months of forb time, some give you 6, and they all set the interest rate not SM. They do have great programs in particular a new one where they can reduce your interest rate to 1%, so you actually pay down your loan and 9/10 times the pmt is lower. I understand the calls are annoying but instead of avoiding them (which actually increases the number of calls and causes SM to call your references) pick them up and talk with them a couple of times. I had a wonderful experience with a rep from the DE office, they really helped me. I hope this sheds some light on your situation. good Luck to you all, remember it’s always darkest before the dawn.

This company is horrible. I have an 800 credit score and STILL had to get someone to cosign a loan for me. I was just approved for a home loan in San Diego however I couldn’t get a 10k student loan from them without someone to cosign for me. LOL. Then, they don’t send me any correspondence regarding interest accrual or payments due, instead they send it all to my father who cosigned the loan for me. I tried contacting customer service and of course after a 20 minute hold time, they connect me to some MORON in India. I HATE Sallie Mae and I am doing my best to pay off this loan quickly and to never deal with them again!

Oh thank god I'm not the only person that despises SM! Unfortunately, I don't have the best credit in the world so I'm having to apply for a "Smart Option Student Loan" with a co-signer...god, what a nightmare. First I had my dad co-sign for me and after 20 days of "pending application status and credit review" (and having to call over and over and send in copies of just about everything short of a written copy of what I ate for breakfast) we were denied. This is ridiculous because my dad has decent credit. So on to my mom, currently we are still waiting for an answer...and it's been another 20 days. Again, we have had to fax in numerous copies of everything, and everytime we talk to someone they tell us something different. Last friday my mom and I both spoke with 3 different people (foreign of course...making them incredibly hard to understand) and the final person we spoke with said "there is nothing else you need to send in and you need to call back Tuesday, we will have an answer for you then". Well, guess what...when we called back Tuesday the guy I spoke with said we had to send in more copies of things they already had, and that it would be another 7 business days. I told my mom this and she called and was able to speak to someone with a southern accent (!! amazing!!) and that woman told her there was nothing else needed and that today (tuesday) was the 7th business day so if we call back Wednesday they should have an answer for us. So I call back Wednesday and the woman tells me my mom needs to send in more things (so she dug up everything she could find...mind you this is all just to verify her address on her license because when she faxed it in the first time something happened and the address was unledgible) and to call back tomorrow for an answer. Well I just got off the phone with those assholes (it's Thursday now) and the rude woman (they have all been quite rude) said it would be another 7 business days from yesterday...and that in her notes it says "if the borrower continues to contact for status, the application will be denied". I am beyond irritated right now, the reason I needed this loan was to cover a 4th class that financial aid didn't cover...and because this has taken SO long the deadline for registration is up tomorrow (classes started almost 2 weeks ago). Their customer service agents have all told us something different each time, and now it's my fault for calling back when they told me to!? GRRRRR!!!!!

I also had just recently been screwed by Sallie Mae. And its soo true they fuck up and I pick up the tab. Sallie Mae screwed my credit report up. I had no idea that I was being billed. Maybe because I was never given billing statements. The claim to have given it to via email as attachments to their mailer ads. NOT TRUE! So where are my mailed billing statements???? None were sent. Then they say that they had called me numerous time. But not once was a voicemail left. And Sallie Mae's customer services repeatedly tells me, "I'm sorry there is nothing I can do!" But they inform me that my credit report will be screwed up for the next 7 years. Great thanks for nothing! At this point I don't know what to do!

I also had just recently been screwed by Sallie Mae. And its soo true they fuck up and I pick up the tab. Sallie Mae screwed my credit report up. I had no idea that I was being billed. Maybe because I was never given billing statements. The claim to have given it to via email as attachments to their mailer ads. NOT TRUE! So where are my mailed billing statements???? None were sent. Then they say that they had called me numerous time. But not once was a voicemail left. And Sallie Mae's customer services repeatedly tells me, "I'm sorry there is nothing I can do!" But they inform me that my credit report will be screwed up for the next 7 years. Great thanks for nothing! At this point I don't know what to do!

Wow! I have read all of these comments. Unfortunately, I had to go with SallieMae because I couldn't afford my school's increase in tuition.. EVERY time i try to log in, it takes me at least an hour. I messaged them and they respond "please log in and message us again" but I can never really login. Im surprised ive been able to make the payments I have been able to make. So, Ive tried to write down the information so I could easily log in next time.. Didn't work. So, i made screenshots of everything. My username, account number, password.. Everything.. Emailed it all to myself. Tried to login using the exact information.. Surprise, didn't work. Now im just waiting for a couple days to get a response.. I hate this freaking company with a passion

Sallie Mae LIES

This is a true story based on my experience, and all statements reflect my direct experience or opinion.

Five years ago, due to an illness, I had trouble with a student loan and it was referred to Sallie Mae. A representative told me that if I was able to make payments on time for a year, they would be able to transfer the loan -- and that if I did this, I would regain the ability to receive student loans in the future and that the negative item on my credit report would be erased.

I busted ass and dug deep, and I was able to financially dig my way out and make the on-time payments, and the loan was transferred and is current. It was very hard, but I did everything they said to do, for them things went perfectly.

When I pulled my credit report recently, the negative entry was still there. I wrote Sallie Mae and they told me to buzz off, in so many words.

Sallie Mae lied. I understand lying to collect a debt, it’s done every hour of every day. But when people find out you’re full of it, don’t be surprised when you’re called out.

If you are a person with a student loan, and you get into financial trouble, be warned by my experience: Sallie Mae will make deals they have no intention of honoring. Pay your student loans (obviously), but if you are in financial trouble make sure you take into account Sallie Mae’s dishonesty when prioritizing how you’re going to get out of debt. In other words, put the money where it will do the most good first, because Sallie Mae won’t do any good for you.

It sucks working here to.

Sallie Mae is nothing short of terrible. I've been in the process of applying for the Income Based Repayment Plan since mid-November of 2009. I just spoke with another member of their fantastic customer service team and found out that my application most likely wont be processed until March 5th. Pretty ridiculous that it is going to take 5 months if not longer to get this application processed. In the mean time I'm left to apply for forbearance after forbearance or try scrape together any left over unemployment benefits to pay the bill. I'm sure everyone has noticed but it always seems like you always get different information from everyone. No one at Sallie Mae is on the same page- they all have a different story to tell you. Or maybe they are all telling the same story but I simply can't understand them because of their ridiculously thick Indian accents.

College really doesn't seem worth it after all of this debt and having to deal with this fat asshole of a company.

I actually have the same experience, I believe sallie mae acts like a loan shark. Over the last 3 years I tried to my best to pay off my loan. However, when I thought that I was done (my online account said $0 balance) and called again, I was told that there was additional $1,300 still due. This really broke down my spirits. Even with that the customer service person starting cursing and threatening me even after I had paid $12,000.

If there is a law suit out there, I would be willing to testify against these people.

Salliemare are complete cirminals and as Zahara mentioned if there is a law suit, please let me know because these people are complete crooks. I think everyone should start taking names and the times you all talked to each person, this is what I've started to do. Even with names sometimes they will lie to you and tell you this person doesnt exist and then go on to accuse you of yelling at them and proceed to hang up on you (this happened to me today). I called right back and when I asked to speak to a manager, guess who they transferred me to, John D11, the man I was just previously told didnt exist. I have been lied to SOO many times by this company it is unbelievable! In January I signed up for an interest reduced payment program with Salliemae and they told me the first 6 months of the program had to be automatic debit . Well on March 18th these jerks took out a double loan payment from my account and consequently overdrew my account by over 300 dollars. Finally on April 8th, these jerks agreed (or at least I thought so - yet another lie by Salliemae) to refund the amount of $480 back into my account, but they said it would take 5-10 business days to process the refund. Well today is the 10th business day and guess what - the money is still not in my account. So after speaking to imaginary John D11, who a very rude call representative told me previosuly did not exist, he informes that the loan payment of $157.72 wasvrefunded into my account today but the nsf fees were still under review. Well let me tell you a little bit about John D11. I've spoken to him before and he is nothing but a big rude liar as well. So long and behold, I get home to check my account and GUESS WHAT - there is NO refund of $152.72 (when really indeed they owe me the entire amount including the nsf fees). I will be calling them back tomorrow and if I do not get my money I will be sueing this company. All I want is my hard earned $480 dollars back that I cant afford to just hand over to someone. This idiotic company makes millions of dollars every year but refuses to give me back my little (i said little bec they are a multi-millionare company) money back but and they cant even do that. Someone needs to bring this company down and it might just have to be me!

Is this group legally required to have X amount of handicapped employeess? I ask because everytime I call, the person/s I speak with seem to be at least mildly retarded. There customer service sucks, they have sent me the same bill 3 times in one month when I had already made an online payment before the first paper statement arrived raising a bit of concern as to any late fees that I had been missing. My first payment was scheduled for 6 month following my graduation in the summer of '09. When 6 months came I yet to receive my statement but 9 months after graduation I recieved a bill stating I was missing 2 payments and that I had late fees due with my regular scheduled payment, that exceeded my usual payment. My shitty, entry level position just barely brings in 30k per year, I have ridiculous amounts of debt that I had accumulated while I was in school so for me to have to make more than double what I usually pay is literally taking food off of my plate because I can now barely afford $50-$100 per month on groceries. I enrolled in the online billing system and notifications but that only seemed to make things worse. Half of the time I go on to make my payments it tells me that the service/page I am tying to use/access is currently not available and to come back later. REALLY! How am I to make the payment when this fucking thing does not work. I hate this company and I know there is pretty much nothing I can do to stand up for myself with having to spend countless hours of my free time, which I do not have, pursuing them to change internal policy. They are a fucking plague on society and have ruined the financial futures of young adults around the country.

(This is regarding private student loans, which I have with Sallie Mae. Big Mistake. This is not the same for federal loans. )

I needed a forbearance for a few months, something that I've done with my account before in the past. BUT this time around, there were new rules:
1. Forbearance could only be for 2 months at a time
2. There's a $50 fee for forbearance.

First of all, NEW RULES? NOT FAIR.
And what?? A $50 fee for forbearance? This goes against the very idea of a forbearance doesn't it? A person goes on forbearance because they DON'T have the money to make their payment. SO how does CHARGING the customer help? It's an obvious attempt to just get anything they can, when they can. They are wallowing in greed these f**king pigs.

The real kicker: Because forbearance is only good for 2 months at a time, you really get screwed, here's why: Say your monthly payment is around $50 like mine. Say you want a forbearance, and they grant this to you for 2 months. Normally this would save you $100, or two months worth of payments. BUT THEY NOW CHARGE YOU FOR FORBEARANCE, SO YOU END UP PAYING THEM $50... This means that:

1. A TWO MONTH forbearance really only saves you ONE MONTH of payments, because you still need to PAY $50 for the Forbearance in the first place.
2. You get screwed out of forbearance time.... even though in dollar amounts you only saved ONE MONTH of payments, your account records TWO MONTHS of forbearance. What a freaking robbery. You're only allowed a certain number of months for forbearance for the lifetime of your loan btw.

I pointed out how this system screws us, and TWICE I WAS HUNG UP ON, BECAUSE I CALLED THEM OUT ON THIS... 2 MONTHS FORBEARANCE IS REALLY JUST ONE MONTH... THANKS TO THE $50 FEE. WHAT GROSS GREED.

I cosigned my son's loan. He graduated from college hasn't been able to get a decent job. His son was born with mild autism. His wife ran up a big loan taking their son to doctors. Now I'm stuck with paying the loan back. I retired in June with a small pension. I asked Sallie Mae to reduce the interest rate down from 11% interest due to difficult economic times and they refused. I can't keep up these payments of $215 a month and neither can my son. What to do???? I'm stressed!

What do you mean!!! Tghis is the first time I ever left you sa message!!!

I cosigned my son's loan. He graduated from college hasn't been able to get a decent job. His son was born with mild autism. His wife ran up a big loan taking their son to doctors. Now I'm stuck with paying the loan back. I retired in June with a small pension. I asked Sallie Mae to reduce the interest rate down from 11% interest due to difficult economic times and they refused. I can't keep up these payments of $215 a month and neither can my son. What to do???? I'm stressed!

Sallie Mae take extra payments and misapplies them each month. Although I follow procedure written on their site and told to me by supervisors, they continually advance my due date which means they collect "prepaid" interest.

Is there a class action lawsuit anyone has heard of for this pattern of misapplying payments? When I google Sallie Mae this same issue comes up everywhere.

I don't believe this is incompetence; they are deliberately trying to screw over people. It happens too frequently to to many people for it not to be an "unwritten" company policy. We mistake their "agenda" for incompetence.

Sallie Mae and Title IV are both jokes.....A school that is starting up, it has to be in business for 2 years.....problem is, if you can't provide loans for a student, how can you be in business for 2 years?? seems like the government and sallie mae aren't interested in working with schools -unless they are run by rich people who can afford to be in business.......it's a catch-22 for starting up schools.....and very un-american.......looks like occupy wall street should become occupy sallie mae and Title IV.....

i hate sallie mae...i took out a small loan of 9,000 back in 2003, ive since paid pack over 5 and half thousand of that..yet my balance is still over 10,000 dollars,... everytime i get them on the phone all they say is the interest and late payments and they are unwilling to help me in anyway. WTF!!!!!! ive had it with this company. a lawsuit please someone do it!

I think a couple thousand law suits are the only way to get sallie mae's attention. I find it hard to beleive they can be as incompetent as they appear to be. There are far to many stuipid mistakes that could be easily corrected by even thier mediocre call center employees. I believe most of what they do is intentional. For instance my credit was just dinged for 120 days past due on a loan that has been paid off for nearly two years. How can a deliberate act like that be a mistake. If it isnt corrected I will sue. Make them pay legal fees and get thier attention.

Something needs to be done about this company..It sucks that this is happening but i'm glad i'm not the only one in this position. I don't understand how it is even legal what they are doing to people. I graduated in 2008 with a nursing degree..of course the year in which they stopped consolidating private loans. Now i'm stuck with 7 private loans and no way of consolidating. And the best offer they could give me was a plan of paying interest only for 2 years, which is about $600 a month just on interest!!! this is ridiculous and something needs done. I am willing and want to pay off these loans, but it needs to be easier to do so!!

Today I cried! That's how mad and aggravated I was. I've been calling for about 2 months to ask if I can put an in-school deferment on my account, since I'm back in school. The first person I talked to (who had an accent) told me that the deferment was in process, and that it would take about 2 weeks. 3 weeks later I called and the lady ( who spoke perfect English) gave me the nastiest attitude and told me that the man had lied to me, and that I couldn't get an in-school deferment because I had a career training loan. Yet all of my paper work at home says student loan. I called again a few days later to get another perfectly good English speaking person who again ha nothing but an attitude. So I asked her if she could please send me a copy of my terms so that I could go through them. I get the copy today and it's a HORRIBLE copy. All of the words are distorted, it is just a terrible copy. So I call again I request another one tht I can actually read. The lady was very nice and actually had a very strong accent and I could barely understand her. She actually told me I could put an in-school deferment on it, but I would still have to pay a VERY small monthly fee( which I am more than happy to do), and that maybe the last girls I talked to ( they acted like little girls) misunderstood me and thought that I wanted to suspend the payments completely. At this moment it makes me a little glad that all that all of these countries out talking our jobs, atleast they're nicer and have some kind of respect! It's a shame!