Read the reviews below to see the experience other people have had when dealing with customer service from Sallie Mae.
Horrible customer service, once i finally got help it was all for nothing the customer service rep if I could call her that blew off everything I said and told me to check online. When I told her that I needed to speak to someone she refused to help. My advice to others is to find another way for help this site is useless.
Been trying to get my payments lowered. They are absolutely unwilling to work with me. I've only talked to 1 somewhat pleasant person. She's apparently the only one in the entire company. I've been hung up on twice today. I even tried talking to a supervisor but she didn't have very many people skills and basically hung up on me too. Maybe if they would pull the stick out they would be easier to deal with. Definitely going to tell everyone I know how much they suck. They don't mind ringing your phone off the hook but they're quiet testy when you ring theirs off the hook.
Called SM because I'm a cosigner on a loan & I get a paper saying it's late. I wanted to clear it up. What a mistake!! Was hung up on 3 times, (1 of those times was by a rep.) Then when I tell them the confirmation # they still said the payment was not registering...huh? Isn't that the point to that? What a nightmare ! I will never get another loan through here & I'm telling everyone about it.
I could not get any information on my federal loans from their site or customer service. While I paid my private loans off completely, my federal loans went into default. I made all my rehab payments (including extra ones) on time, during which time they also garnished my check. Now they are out of default, my check still gets garnished even though all of my loans are in good standing, or completely paid off, and i get calls from them trying to collect payments on my private loans that are paid off. I am thinking of just buying some stock in the company instead of making my payments, there is no way they can lose money with this approach.
No you will like this one. After my sister had pass away I find out that she and her son put my name on the loan as co-signer and sents she has pass her son has not made any payment. For this I'm dealing with trying to get my name taking off and these asses will not take me off even after i contract the fraud department and filled out all the paper work they wanted they still will not remove my name. and after all this i have collection agency calling and sending me letter telling me i own this amount so everytime i make copies of the signatures on the loans and copy of my driver lis and sent it to these collections and tell them sorry but i did not sign and i'm not paying for this.
so my message to anyone that reads this if you see anything saying you are a co-signer of anything contract that company and get a copy of the loan.
Impossible to deal with! The worst! All customer service is outside of the US and their people are not trained to deal with problems. That this is based offshore is enough of an insult to our battered economy and unemployed. That they are incompetent and can't get their records straight adds to the insult. The one thing they excel at is keeping track of your debt. They can ruin your credit rating and your life.
Take it from one unemployed college grad...the cost of a degree and is not worth putting yourself in debt for life to deal with this corrupt system.
Whatever, will my comments really make any difference anyway. No. these people have no idea they work for such a corrupt company. If you're a hard working person and pay your bills, you're a putz. I just can't bring myself to not pay my bill but Sallie Mae is more ruthless and more powerful than the IRS, well at least their lobby is. Oh well I'll be dead before it's all paid off anyway, here's the rub Sallie Maes lobby is so powerful that it's lobby team has gotten laws passed enabling Sallie Mae to attach the dead person estate so that they get their money even in death. SO what does that mean, you will debt, your survivors assume your parents debt, can anyone say pre-revolutionary monarchy.
Since Sallie Mae has taken over my citibank student loans, communicating with someone to talk about my loan balances has been nothing but torture.
I do not mean to sound like I am discriminating, but each customer service rep I reach is obviously not from America and are all Indians with a heavy accent. They do not understand anything that I ask of them but rather read a script and if I ask again or ask them to explain what I read myself but need clarification, they continue to read a script like robots with heavy accents. They do not know how to answer a simple question.
Just recently I asked about deferment extension for someone who was on leave from school and now returning thus their graduation date extending. Granted the original deferment was done automatically, meaning, I never completed any documents. However when I asked how to complete this, they read me a script more than 5 times and then placed me on hold because I asked them if my school needed to complete anything. They kept saying to just fill out a verification form myself. But again I said to them, should not my school complete something at their end because I could make this whole thing up about my graduation date changing, shouldn't I submit some kind of documents from school...should I have financial aid handle something...is my medical leave paper work sufficient. Their response...just fill out the verification form yourself. Back and forth and finally the unintelligent person decides to place me on hold again...finally reading another script that reads that the school needs to verify my new status through financial aid or the registrar's office with a copy of the leave form, etc. So I said...this was all I have been asking for the last 15 minutes...I do not understand why we went through all of this...and in her strong accent she just says...mam I'm sorry for this particular information...and then began to read her script again!!!!!!!
There are so many Americans who need jobs..why are we outsourcing jobs to Indians so they can handle the money information of Americans...when there are a lot of capable Americans available to do the job...do it with knowledge...professionalism...and able to enunciate their words.
I plan to pay this loan off completely in the next 4 months so I can be done with this terrible customer service and dealing with people who do not even bother to learn the ropes of the job they have acquired. If I had to read a script every damn day for my job...I'd be fired in a heart beat for not learning about my position.
Want to borrow money...borrow from small business banks handled by your neighbors. The big banks will just sell you out to some company like Sallie Mae who wants to save money by passing the jobs off to non-Americans who cannot and care not to learn their job post....a way for greedy Sallie Mae to keep and make more money....disgusting!
Sallie Mae assumed in October 2011 management of several loans that originated with Citibank. Since then, Sallie Mae has not handled a single payment correctly. The statement of the status of each of the loans provided excellent detail on the status of the loans each month. They invoice me for a single payment that is distributed across the loans according to the interest rate and remaining principal. An example of their mishandling of payments is as follows: the monthly payment is applied to five loans, with a minimum of $200 for each of the loans. In one instance, they credited ~$6 to one of the loans when >$200 was credited to each of the others. I wrote them about this and their response has been to stop sending me monthly statements, where I can keep track of such details; instead, they sent we payment coupons, which give me no loan status information.
It's as if they don't want me to know about their mishandling of funds, rather than wanting to fix problems in they way they do business.
Sallie Mae auto-debted my bank account over three times what I owe them last month. I am in the clear with them and have been faithfully making my payments for years. This sudden and unexpected error on their part resulted in a domino effect that they were unwilling to rectify. I have little recourse. Despite it being their error, I have to jump through hoops of fire to fix it.
I have stopped making auto payments and have started writing checks again.
I'm sorry to say but Sallie Mae is not doing anything illegal by trying to collect what you have contracted to pay back plus the interest that is due. If you are not smart enough to realize the recourse of not paying back your loans maybe you should have stayed in school and gotten your degree.
Also, Sallie Mae cannot legally collect the money it is owed twice. Meaning it cannot collect money from the government and still come after you unless the government didn't satisfy 100% of the obligation. Not much different than dealing with a car loan. If you total your car and the insurance company doesn't pay 100% of the loan balance, guess what? You are still responsible for the balance. There is nothing in the contract of a loan that states you will not owe money if you fail to graduate or fail to get a job.
Ignorance and the economy are no excuse. The only person that can be blamed for how your life turned out is YOU!
The MOST amazing thing about Sallie Mae is how they handle millions of dollars and yet can't apply payments to the proper accounts. Every few months I get a nasty letter telling me (a cosigner) that the account has not been paid. I look back to insure there was not an issue with the auto pay and of course I have made every payment BUT these fools apply my payment to loans that I am not a cosigner for. Since they do business in my state I should be able to see them in court for malicious incompetence resulting in diminished quality of life and mental anguish. Anyone want to get on board?
So I was waiting for all my taxes papers to come in the mail...and they all did except for the two.... two of which I cosigned for. Long story short, I cosigned for two people who neglected to make their payments. Sallie Mae began contacting me and informed me that if I don't pay they will send my account to collections and report it to the credit bureaus as a default. So naturally I tried to reach out to the people I cosigned for and of course no reponse. To avoid damaging my credit I began paying it while continually trying to reach out to reach out the borrower's. It has been a year already and still paying their debt, but come to find out I did not receive the 1098-E from them. I have paid out only in interest $1800!!!!! So I called Sallie Mae to see how to go about getting those documents. They response .....and I quote "It is policy that the borrower get the 1098-E document". I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. Here I am trying to pay for a stupid mistake of having coigned for someone and THEY GET THE 1098-E DOCUMENTS!!!!! Their answer was call the IRS. So I did just that.... for about 2 hours of waiting for a representative....I finally got an answer ...that I can claim it, but if he claims it as well he and I will both be audited....SALLIE MAE should never have sent those documents to them if THEY ID NOT PAY!!!!!!! What a headche this is? Next year I will certainly be audited.... what a mess........
Do you realize Sallie Mae charges over 8%
and sometimes over 9% interest...That's why they do nothing to try to get payments. Now
my grandchild owes them $110,000 instead of
$75,000, and now they are calling our phones
all over the place about 6 times a day. When
I try to call back, all I get is a whistling
phone? I wrote to the government in Washinton, D.C. but never received a response! How are they allowed to end up with a 50% addition, for a young student who
didn't even complete 4 years of college?
If any bank or business is dunning you for something you did not sign or give your permission for a contractual obligation then they are the one committing fraud, simply take them to small claims court ($8000)limit in Pa. or have an attorney sue them for fraud if you have evidence to prove your in the right. I am not an atty so check my solution with an atty.in your area. You could also file a claim with the U.S. Postal Inspectors office for mail or wire fraud.
I have been trying to deal with a Fraud situation since I learned of the loan in my name since 2004. I am in the process of trying to find an Attorney who has the guts ( and knowledge) to go after these guys for all the years of ignoring me, the nasty phone calls, being told to kill mysef, on and on it goes. I have tried to reach out the the political groups for help, but I am afraid they have no idea how to handle this huge mess either. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if I can help anyone out there with what I am learing about Sallie Mae. Also, please read the Student Loan Scam when you can. You will see that all this is just a big goverment supported scam. Good luck, Dorothy
I have cosigned three Sallie Mae loans for a medical student. Just six months ago, I began receiving harassing phone calls from Newark, Del. The message in the telephone is taped, female voice, not identified as to who is calling, and states to "call another number". I then searched Newark, Del, and found there is a Sallie Mae office...this led me to many, many calls, many minutes and hours on terminal hold. Finally, I was told there were three additional loans taken out using my ID. These loans were dated in 2008 and 2009...why am I hearing about these loans now. Sallie Mae Fraud Unit is a joke. I have had to do everything required as a victim of ID Theft. I have also mailed every copy of evidence to Sallie Mae Fraud Unit. This was last month...September, 2011. Have I heard anything from Sallie Mae, NO!!!! I am the VICTIM and all of my ID is now in the hands of people OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES DUE TO SALLIE MAE OUTSOURCING.
you guys DO NOT GET it. Sallie Mae doesn't seem to chase the loans it provided you and it doesn't seem to care if you pay or not because Sallie Mae simply wants you to default on the loan! The company is insuured by the government and when you stop paying - it will get the money from the government PLUS it'll chase you, raise the interest, sue you, go after your family, and maybe even get some of the money... This way, ladies and gents, Sallie Mae will get the money TWICE.
for 18 months I have been interacting with a Sallie Mae Unit Mnanger Brion Lawlor regarding a forebearance agreement. this man has emailed me documents to sign to defer my students loans, and today I find out that i am in default and connot continue my education.
sallie mae had me on hold for 45 minute, and when i did get someone they were rude and made me feel like the villain.
this is what our country has come too.
I have been on hold for over 2 hours.. listening to their music.. i can't believe all they want to do is threaten you especially when you want to pay but their records are off... HOW do you pay at Walmart.. I will be glad too... they are just morons ... when they sold my loan to the dept of education i wish they sold all my loans to them... they are charging me for BOTH.. dept of education easy to deal with and easy to keep current.. SALLIE MAE mr Obamam could be run by your daughters and save the govt lots of money from ignorant people who can't answer simple questions.. like how much do i owe and what happens when it gets creditted to the wrong account.. who can you talk to when a payment MAde doesn't get credited.. do you care or just want job security.. I am recording all calls..and informing them so if i take them to court for fraud.. and theft.. they won't be able to deny those charges
I agree that Sallie Mae is terrible on Customer Service. The availability is not enough, I have tried online access but my default font is somehow messing it up, you wait on hold too long if you even get to a person. I started paying at walmart because they key info better than Sallie Mae employees who I think messed it up purposely to make me look like I didn't pay enough to send me a deliquent letter. I'm taking a few cents off keyed 3 different times. Seems deliberate to me!
sallie mae is the worst company to deal with the customer service people are unhelpful. All they care about is you making a payment, not the status off you account or if you do not have a job just get sallie mae the money, out of your???? And pay use now. I have told about 6 people about me experience and I the thank god they went some were else three of them went to Chase to bad for sallie mae and two went to First mark
