Sallie Mae Reviews 64

I have stage 3 brain cancer and Sallie Mae will not forgive my loans. I am on SSI disability, my radiologist wrote on their form that I am 4 out 5 scale mentally impaired, and that radiation damage progresses. Discover forgave my student loans with the same application. Sallie Mae has denied me 4 times. They use a third party insurance company, Securian, and they told me that they provide their opinion to Sallie Mae approve or deny forgiveness, and 99% of applications are denied and that even when they recommend approving the forgivess, that Sallie Mae still denies them.

I wish I could give 0 stars. This company is from hell. They ruined my life. They went after me while I was still in school and during Covid. My loan has increased by 33% because I couldn’t afford it. And their interest rate is 14.75%. How is this legal?! Sallie Mae is horrible and I DO NOT recommend at all.

Please do not get a loan with Sallie Mae. They have destroyed my life and countless other lives with their predatory business practices and horrible treatment and harassment toward their borrowers.

I created a change.org petition called "Halt Abusive and Predatory Business Practices by Sallie Mae" to try to put a stop to this because they have circumvented legal recourse for their actions long enough and its disgusting at this point. Please sign and share it if you can.

I just spoke to them today about the way they have treated my elderly grandmother and cosigner, because they have harassed her with calls that have alarmed her, insinuating that she owes something on a loan that hasn't even matured yet. They called up to 4 times a day and even estranged family members who I have never been associated with.

After months of inducing unsurmountable stress and anxiety in me and my grandmother, they admitted they shouldn't have been calling her and apologized. They never addressed their behavior and they immediately moved to get money from me. They still called my grandmother after being sent a cease and desist email and spoke to the consumer advocacy and they said they removed her, because it appears Sallie Mae knows they can circumvent the law. So their actions and the detriment to mine and my grandmother's wellbeing they caused had no consequence for them.

During all this harassment I am still in school and I lost my job. Just today I explained this and tried to defer my loan payments and they tried to tell me that I don't qualify because it says my course is part time. It is a part time masters program and that is the program they approved me in for the loan, that is not an enrollment status I chose, the program itself is called a professional part time masters because it involves distance learning and is structured differently.

They truly are a loan shark disguised in a shiny 'reputable' wrapping thanks to the broad scope of schools they are willing to cover. But they don't have any integrity, they will approve heinous loan terms to charge someone amounts knowing they can never feasibly pay, in my case someone with no income on government benefits (my grandmother). Their finance charges are absolutely absurd. The finance charge for one of my loans is nearly double what I borrowed (JUST the finance charge). That amount was justified by a cosigner they required, who is an elderly senior citizen with zero income and has been on government aid for years.

I am assuming they can get away with this because they have monopolized private student loans. Since I didn't qualify for a federal loan for my program/school (this seems to be the case with a lot of overseas schools) you have no choice but to take a Sallie Mae loan. A lot of these schools even say on their website the only private student loan option is Sallie Mae. So you are financially entrapped to accept whatever loan terms they put in front of you. They then harass you, drive you insane through incessant phone calls, texts, etc. with no regard for the mental or physical anguish they cause you.

They will absolutely set you up to fail - I know Im not the first and I won't be the last, there are a ton of stories from people who cannot get out of debt with Sallie Mae because they purposely set them up with egregious terms knowing that the person will never be able to pay it off and get out from under. They basically financially entrap you,

Please do not fall for their trap. Please do not put yourself in this position. They don't care if they harm vulnerable populations like the elderly. They don't care about how they treat their borrowers.

Awful customer service that harrasses my co-signer and doesn't call me (the person making the payments). My loans are not behind, my loas are not in default status and these people call and belittle me. They treat me like an immate in a max security prison and on top of it call and harass my co-signer CONSTANTLY, telling them I would not be able to finish paying off the loan, just because I paid my monthly payment late a couple of times. Late by a couple of days and of course paid and up to date now

Ruins Credit Score. I co-signed a loan for my son. I had no other debt. While making the monthly payments on auto-pay, my credit score dropped from Excellent to Good on a $9K student loan. Sallie Mae should say to its victims, "We'll ruin your credit score even while you pay us on time. Shall we continue?"

Don’t even bother applying. They are so rude and do not consider your feelings and concerns. So basically they kept denying me for the same reason and they eventually approved me. However, when I applied a second time, 6 months later, they denied me again for the same reason they were denying me 6 months ago. So, I called them and told them how that didn’t make sense and the girl told me that they also were now considering my new loan that I got with them. Why would they consider that loan if they know I am in school ? I explained to her how none of that made sense and she was rude and disconnected the call. Luckily, I do have great credit so I was able to apply elsewhere. Never again will I apply there nor will I recommend anyone to apply!

Horrible horrible horrible customer service. They seem to only hire completely incompetent people. I updated my payment method for ALL of the rest of my payments and they only updated it for one payment and did not notify me? Who does that? Who updates a payment method for only one payment? They are unhelpful, horrible problem solvers. They are unable to use their brains to think of an actual solution to fix issues that they themselves cause. Talking to them ruins my day every singe time without fail. Stay far away.

Applied for a CD, created account, username and password. Saved all. Had a question. No phone support Saturday and Sunday. Logged with my information. Refused access. Reading other's reviews withdrawing my application.

If I could give one star I would. I just had knee surgery and I will be out of work for about 2 months. I will not have any income coming in due to just being on a leave of absence. I had made a call to see if they would postpone/defer my payment for two months, that would equal a total of $195. Also I have about three and a half years left to pay off my loan. To their response of the person I talked to the “only option” is to lower my payment to $35 a month and lower my interest rate. Here is the hilarious part of this conversation. If I was to pay the $35 a month it would extend my loan pay off time to ELEVEN YEARS. I think it it down right awful that as a company they could not find anything better to help someone who is out off work due to an injury and and has no income coming in and they are practically penalizing me. I would not recommend this company to anyone after this experience.

Sallie Mae is reluctant to rewrite a school that was supposed to be deferred payments. I would gladly pay a refinance fee to make an existing school loan deferred payment. But, they refuse to due so. Sadly, they lost a customer for the next two years. I will make sure I will tell my friends too.

Horrible company, customer service does not know what they are talking about. I called them 5 times to ask if I needed to make a payment while I was in school, every time I called they told me that I did not need to make a payment and they were clearing it up on their end. Sixth time I called, all of a sudden, I do need to make a payment, plus the late fees that they tacked on while they were telling me no payment was needed. And then, on top of that, the customer service lady claimed that the first person I talked to told me I “did” have to make a payment. A COMPLETE lie. I am disgusted by them. I made the payment in full (including late fees) that day. I would’ve paid on time every month, had they had the correct training and knowledge to properly check my loan status. Incompetent and unprofessional. I have since paid the loan off in full to avoid any further business with them. They have predatory loans, my interest rate with a co-signer was 16.25%. Sallie Mae is an awful and distrustful company. I would never do business with them again. And I will steer any student I know away from them.

Don't do it!! Not worth the harassment and the thousands you end up paying extra in interest.

Co signed for grandson. This company is a rip off. Paid loan off but interest changed. Payoff was always higher than calculated. Don't borrow from them. Only foreign people answer phone. No grace period for the student. Thankfully went to trade school and got job right out of school. I don't know how anyone else could make it. Shame on them

I've had problems logging into my account via the website and have been in constant battles with their customer service reps about it. I can only use the mobile website, which is inconvenient.

The website also has inaccurate information about when my next payment is due, stuck 2 months behind which is super confusing to me.

Their customer service reps are always extremely rude, cut off conversation by saying "is there anything else I can help you with" when the issue is still being resolved, and have even given me inaccurate loan payment information. When calling them out about it, they try to cover their tracks even though the proof is literally two messges above in the chat...

Don't do it you will be in forever debt they sell your debt and have numerous separate collectors herass and call you to set up payment plans in foreign accents and then sell your debt to other collectors and share the money, so you owe three times more each following year. Then they illegally get the IRS on their side and garnish all future wages and tax returns. while collecting your payments. DONT DO IT. In debt from 8k starting 2004 and amount reached as high as 54k over years of theft the balance never went down to current 2023. I have paid over the amount, they still want money.

Run away... Avoid this criminal company at all cost. THEY DO NOT OFFER GOVT LOANS despite what they say. They do not allow income-based repayment "ON PRIVATE LOANS" they ONLY have Private loans which is how they deceive. They have unending robo-calls that continue after your loan is paid in full until you call 3 or 4 times to complain. I used Sallie Mae for myself and made the mistake of using them for my kid's college as well so I have lots of interaction and I can say that every single contact with Sallie Mae left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

This company is the most heartless predatory lender in the world. They kick students when they are down and keeping kicking. The use variable rate interest so that they can make money on top of money. When the student graduates they cannot even begin to pay off the loan principal for years because they have increased interest at least once or twice during the in school deferment alone. When the student starts to pay back what they can afford its just interest they are paying while they are still charging interest. So in reality the student is in debt for years upon years. This is terrible to do to students when they are trying to achieve more in life by getting an education and their only means is through a loan. This company does not work with their customers at all and just sucks money from them. I highly wish that this company would go out of business since they have no regard for students just treat them like a dollar sign and not a human being. The are predatory and down right lying criminals! Please never use them for any loan while your student is in school.

I truly do not know where to even begin. They began charging interest when the loan was disbursed and I did not finish my education until 5 years later. They also do not have a separation between interest and principle. You cannot pay toward your principle alone, and the interest is on the total amount due not the loan amount. I was told it would take EIGHT YEARS to pay off a very small loan. They lack compassion, and only like you if you play the stupid little game. I cannot stress enough how evil this company is. Hands down the worst to ever ever exist. Sallie Mae is why people don't attempt a higher education, because they are an 'easy option' but DO NOT BE FOOLED!! EVIL EVIL AWFUL COMPANY!! I would never recommend them to anyone, even my mortal enemy.

If I could leave a -10 star review I would do it in a. This is a classic example of a ridiculously unmanaged government program with zero oversight and zero sensibility.

In April 2022 I applied for a student loan for my sons flight school. I had a few credit cards and a couple of car notes on my credit report and had about a 740 credit rating.

I requested a loan in the amount of $113,000 and they wanted 8.75% interest rate on a 15 year loan. That was ridiculous as I haven’t had an interest rate that high since I was in college. I am now 54 I’ve had my home since 2006 never a late payment I have been employed by the same company for 21 years as a professional pilot. There are no negatives whatsoever on my credit report. I had to call them five different times because it took ten days when I reapplied for $100,000 loan and every single time I was on hold for a solid hour or more to get a human being that not once offered any sensible assistance.

I reapplied for a lesser amount given the horrific interest rate. I had since paid off three cars, all credit cards and I have zero short-term debt. I have a primary mortgage that is well within my means and a second mortgage on a rented rental home. I also have a boat payment that is more than half paid off . Those are the only three line items on my credit report and I have well over $150,000 available credit in credit cards. They all have a zero balance. I also show an 820+ credit rating on all three bureaus.

During one of my five phone calls the person on the telephone attempted to educate me on how credit scores are calculated. I really wish I had said, do you think with my credit rating that I don’t know how to use credit properly? I did not say that, I did ask her why on earth with my credit rating and my credit file how they now have come back with a 14.75% interest rate, the highest one they can charge.

She had no answer, only to try and educate me on credit scores and informed me that it was automatically done by the computer and there was nothing she could do, needless to say this is a broken system with zero oversight no accountability and no common sense.

They have you over a barrel when it comes to flight school training they are literally one of the only ones that will offer a student loan for this type of school.

If anyone out there thinks that Sallie Mae is a good option for any financing I would think again I would look long and hard to avoid dealing with these morons at any cost

To make a long story short this company is not helpful to their borrowers. Basically if you already used the Graduate Repayment Program and used the forbearance then thats it. You have no more options. So unless you miss a payment they will be more than happy to assist if possible but there is no guarantee. If you are trying to avoid that and trying to get ahead of this you can forget help. I will never ever recommend them to anyone. They are unhelpful and will send you all over the place to finally have someone tell you no they can't help. Even with Covid-19 they only pause the payments for three months they never offered any alternative repayments other than the Graduate Repayment and once you used that then your done. Now with Rescission looming over they will not help. So I will repeat never ever use them.