Your Emails: Sallie Mae Servicing - Loanshark/Beyond Predatory Lender

My loans are consolidated with Sallie Mae. Sallie Mae has added per a recent conversation with one of their customer service reps $15,000 in interest to my student loans in approximately in a 7 year period. I recently started paying on my loans on Sallie Mae's graduated plan. I have a due date for the 28th of the month, but because I pay Sallie Mae earlier than that date I am told I am being charged additional interest on my account. Further, Sallie Mae are showing my loans in my credit file as if I owe two loans instead of one. They are not showing all the original lenders as paid in full even though Sallie Mae was suppose to pay off those original lenders they have listed them as if the information on those lenders are not available and they don't know their phone numbers or the balances, which is impossible since Sallie Mae is the one that paid all those initial lenders off in full. In one of my credit files Sallie Mae is listed on all my loans and have taken the original lender off. In another credit file Sallie Mae show me owing them $58,000 and $66,000 when I have only one consolidated loan with Sallie Mae. Students need to get together and protest and March until our government stop this insane abuse of student loan practices by lenders.

Sallie Mae has not reported my monthly payments to the credit agencies. I have not as of today received a requested written statement from Sallie Mae of my account. Sallie' Mae's customer service told me I had to have either a coupon book or a statement, but I could not have both. While I am paying Sallie Mae the agreed on payments on my loan and before my due date. Sallie Mae tells me the interest on my loans a increasing because I pay earlier than the due date via mail.

The interest on these loans are more than the entire initial loan and near impossible to pay because of the huge amount of interest, which Sallie Mae says accrues daily

The consequences of these loans were never explained properly when taken out. Lenders like Sallie Mae are taking advantage of t he poor, the uninformed, and those simply wanting to better themselves by pushing these bloodsucking loans on to unsuspecting students when the bulk of these students will end up with nothing but degrees in fields where there are no jobs to be had and a loan it will take them the rest of their life to payoff working in jobs slightly paying more than minimum wage.

The interest on all student loans should be frozen for at least 5 years to give students an opportunity to bring down the principle on these loans. The Government should allow students to discharge the interest on these student loans in bankruptcy since the lenders are collecting more than their fair share of interest. The Government should allow lenders to charge only a flat rate of interest on student loans and not compound the interest daily. .

Your Emails: Student Loan Scams - We Need To Take Action

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this letter to let you know about borrowers who have been hurt in taking out Student Loans to go to college and make better lives for ourselves. I am a victim myself. I went to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (Online Division) from July 2004 - March 2007. I graduated from there with my Associates Degree in Graphic Design and to this day, I still have not found any work in my field due to the economy being so bad. I had to defer my student loans twice because I am a single woman struggling to make it on my own. I waitress and have a lot of expenses to pay for every month. I originally took out a loan for $30,796.69 but after graduation I was told by Sallie Mae that it would be better to consolidate all of my student loans. But they never told me how much interest they were going to charge me. After consolidating all of my loans and having to defer them due to economic hardship, the accrued interest to be capitalized is $1,020.66 making the total principal $31,817.35. Then the estimated amount of interest that they are charging me during repayment is $21,591.89. So the grand total that Sallie Mae says I owe them is $53,409.24! Then I was approved for deferment and then they told me that I will be charged even more interest just for being in deferment. And also I still owe $366.44 to the college I went to and I still don't have my degree in my possession. They will not send it to me until the full balance is paid off. I am just trying to survive with the little money I am making right now.

I did find a website www.studentloanjustice.org and found out that there are millions out there who have also been hurt with taking out these Student Loans. After reading these stories, I think that it is a shame that we American citizens are being taken advantage of this way. All we were trying to do was to make something of ourselves and to better our lives. This is why we decided to go to college. But due to the economy, none of us are working in the fields that we went to school for and we are all responsible for paying back our loans. But why should we have to be charged more than what we borrowed for interest? Why is Sallie Mae doing this to us?

I want to take a stand against this because we are all innocent victims who are crying out for help. Someone needs to do something about this. Any questions regarding this matter, you may contact me at cominalive77@yahoo.com

Your Emails: "Struggling With Sallie Mae"

I am struggling with trying to set up a payment arrangement with Sallie Mae.

I have, through a bit of time on the internet, discovered that this is not the best place to have to deal with. I did not have my loans through them originally. My loans have been sold to the best of my recollection, at least 4 times. And, they ended up at Sallie Mae. (First Wisconsin Bank, to Great lakes Higher Education to someplace in Arizona, notw to Sallie Mae. There may be more in the middle!).

I have been through divorce and bankruptcy recently. My bills (without the loans) at this point, amount to over $2,000 a year MORE than I take home. (with the payments, if I cannot work out something, I will be $6,000 or so in the red!). Every year, I hope things will get better. Every year, it gets worse. I cant even keep up with dental work for my kids (with insurance!) or for myself.

I applied for income sensitive repayment. Got a note that said instead of having a payment of $405 a month, I would have to pay only $326! Wow, that is a big help. I have a job. I also have a car loan at 21% due to the bankruptcy; and I pay an extra $500 in rent each month because of my Ex. I ended up in bankruptcy because my wages were being garnished for his bills. Marital property laws SUCK, and are punitive in some situations.

I have written Sallie Mae again, trying to explain my situation. I do not have any hope that it will help. I am 48 years old. My life did not go the way I had planned. I went to school to NOT have to live like this. Ironically, it has actually made my life worse....

I will never own a home, or get to retire. I will be one of those little old ladies, greeting customers at the front door of WalMart, until the day I die. Because I thought that getting a college degree was going to HELP me!

I am also trying to get the original info on my loans, but that looks hopeless as well....

I do not understand how it has come to this. They have all the power. It does not seem as though there is any recourse. And, since forcing me into default is financially more attractive to them, why would they want to help?

Your Emails: Sallie Mae / Loan Forgivness

My husband and I are both teachers in the state of Oklahoma . We met in college and both had student loans. My husband had much more debt than I. He had Perkins and Stafford Loans. Upon our marriage and subsequent graduation from college we began teaching. We started to have to pay off two loans to Sallie Mae, which we couldn’t afford. Then they offered us the chance to consolidate our loans, which we gladly accepted. We have both taught in high poverty schools now for over ten years. My husband was told that his Perkins loans (app. $10,000) would be forgiven in certain percentages for each year taught. So about a year ago, after having taught for a long time we decided it was time to take the state up on their forgiveness of the Perkins Loan. We contacted Sallie Mae which told us to fill out a form, we did and said we were not eligible. One year later, hours and hours of phone calls, and several trips and phone calls with our state dept. of education- still no forgiveness.

This is what they are saying- The state of Oklahoma is willing to pay for the loan, they say will meet all qualifications. Sallie Mae says they will not accept the payment because we don’t qualify. This is their reasoning. They said that when we consolidated our loans, our individual loans ceased to exist, and that is why our claim isn’t valid. I asked them to show me in our paperwork where there was a statement to that effect-none has been provided. If the people giving the money are willing to pay, what is the problem? Their greed, poor communication, and lack of common sense is amazing.

I am at my wits end about what to do. The injustice of it all makes me sick. I am going to fight this, all the while, dutifully paying my monthly payments! Any help you can provide or attention to this problem would be greatly appreciated.