They've now called me a total of 8 times today... One of which was while I was on the phone with them, and three more times immediately afterwards... They tell me that I have a choice - I can either pay $50 for another forebearance which would last me through March, OR I can pay my account to current now - which is a total of $1500... Yeah, like I have THAT kind of money hanging around... And, get this - that's only THREE MONTH'S WORTH of payments.
I was actually told by the rep at Sallie Mae that they can call as many times a day as they want until they get paid. I told them that it's against the law to harass me that way, and if they didn't knock it off, I'd take legal action against them for harassment. The gal sounded sympathetic, but then told me that it was their right to continue the collection process until they received a payment. I then asked her "So, what you're saying is, Sallie Mae believes that somewhere during the 3 hour period of time between calls, I'm going to somehow magically come across $1500 that will bring my account current - is that what you're saying?" She got snotty with me after that, saying that it was up to me to make sure that the calls stopped...
Of course, after I got off the phone and had 3 more phone calls from them in the next 15 minutes, I sat at my desk and cried for a few minutes - and then started looking for collection harassment laws. And found that I was RIGHT!!! Section 806(5) says "Section 806(5) prohibits contacting the consumer by telephone "repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number". NEENER! Now I need to figure out what to do with said knowledge.
I also found out that I can contest the amount that they're insisting that I pay since it places a hardship on me - so I'll have to look into that and take care of that as well.
Bwa ha ha ha!
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I believe you can file a formal complaint with the state Attorney General, and if you inform a creditor to contact you only at a specific number (such as not calling your work) or only by mail, they have to abide by that.
http://www.creditwrench.com/
I used the information that I dug up on this site to get a pretty substantial debt cancelled because the collection agency was breaking the law.
You'll have to to do a lot of digging and reading to get the info and the process is long and somewhat tedious, but it works.
(Yes, I do check your journal occasionally and since I had the info to help you out, I am. Good luck with the collection agency.)
I have been having problems with Sallie Mae as well. Their organization is FUCKED UP. I've been making the payments, but Sallie Mae is applying them to the wrong loans. See my site for more information: http://salliemaebeef.com
well if you werent such a LOW LIFE And wld pay your bills on time this wouldnt happen...or if you put a little effort into looking into your options you could have done it that way and 3rd if you were smart enough you would have realized that there are 1st and 3rd party sallie mae calling you themselves is !! ding ding ding !! FIRST PARTY WOO HOO LOOK AT THAT PAY YOUR BILL RETARD
Gee, Anonymous - you fill me up with such great angst and frustration with your pointing out the great and obvious flaw in my plan for hoarding all my monies... *tear* Perhaps you could put a little more effort in learning more about me and my financial situation prior to you deciding to attempt sweeping me to the ground with your stunning display of verbal excrement and non-existant spelling skills. Way to go. I'm really feeling the hurt... Especially with the oh-so-clever "anonymous" name you put down there. Nice way to be brave and put a face and name to the post. Loser.
Hey, anonymous, how's that razor? Open your fucking wrists with it, if you please. Or if you need, I can help with that.
NEVER EVER GO INTO FORBEARANCE. Your interest payments are capitalized (added) directly to your principal so when you exit your forbearance you have more money to pay and less time to pay it thus why you owe so much. You need to call and ask them to put you on either SelectStep or do an automatic debit option that takes the monthly payments directly out of your checking account and uses a forbearance to wipe clean your delinquincy. Also. You should tell them to use forbearance to bring you current. Contrary to popular belief they can call you as many times in a day as they wish, seeing as you owe them money. It's not harassment it's due diligence, which is a law they must follow. You need to ask them to "cease and desist" then they cant call you anymore but you'll still owe money. trust me. I know.
One more thing that section 806 doesnt apply here. they're not calling you to harass or annoy they're calling to collect on a debt which frees them from that law. also, they wouldn't call you if they didn't think you could come up with the money somehow...and they can tell..they can see your other accounts and credit information.
I could understand them calling and calling when you don't pay your bill. What constitutes harassment by a lender is when you pay your bill up through and including the following month, and ten days later they call back . . . again . . . and again . . . and again. I feel like I'm speaking farsi to these folks.
I have fallen on hard times and am currently unable to pay on my Sallie Mae loans. They call me like 20 times a day. I just hit the ignore button on my cellphone and laugh. Justice will come to them someday...either that or I will file bankruptcy. Eat shit Sallie Mae. HAHA.
Jeremy, you do realize that even if you do file for bankruptcy your loans cannot and will never be included in the filing, no matter if they are federal or private loans. Additionally, many of you who say that Sallie Mae calls you 20 times per day is a complete and total lie. What you don't realize is that there are as few as 4 interested parties in the terms of the loan. The Lender, the Guarantor (usually state entities if a FFELP loan), Secondary guarantors for private loans, the calling companies employed by the guarantors, and the Servicer of the loan. Because they are all calling on behalf of the same loan I can certainly understand the distress, however, you must remember that it doesn't stop there. The school through which the loan was originated, their representatives may be calling as well. Oh, and correction; the only way that any interested party can see "other accounts" (anonymous said...) is if there are other accounts with the party's company. The borrowers credit score is only visible to any party if it is a private loan, not federal loans.
A little advice, if you have a federal loan, chances are, they are guaranteed by the state or guarantee region in which you went to school. Look up those companies and see the different options. If you can't make your payment ask about an "Income Sensitive Re-Payment Plan" or Graduated re-payment plan. These programs adjust the payments accordingly and can be withdrawn from at any time.
Elliot, it is not wise to use forbearance too much; good advise. Just to note though, the industry standard is 60 months (5 years) of forbearance time alloted and these are lender discretionary. This means that the forbearance can be denied by the lender at any point during the forbearance if the the terms of the forbearance are not met; i.e. beginning payment at the end of the forbearance.
Now I am sure that if people really sat down and read and asked for help to understand their promissory notes, then there wouldn't be as many pissed off people. So please, please, please start taking responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming it on 'the man'.
While all the comments here are great, let's get them over to the proper website where I've been tracking my progress with Sallie Mae, and that of members of the PAC "Student Loan Justice". You can find everything here: http://sallie-mae-warning.blogspot.com/
Thank you.
~M
PS - to "mortgage Financier": The calls I was getting, which numbered at 8 times a day, were all from the exact same call-back number, and they always identified themselves as being directly from Sallie Mae Services. Just an FYI.
~M
Here is how to at least get someone to listen, lets all flood the Vice president of Srevicing with Emails Robert C Ballard, email address - Robert.C.Ballard@salliemae.com
companies like sallie mae are purhased and sold all the time emailing the VP will do no good. Besides do you honestly think anyone will read them? I used to work for "Salie Mae" although i represented the Guarantor, USAFunds. We are in the same building (same #) calling about the same loans but are a seperate corp. thank you "mortgage financer" All i can say is you know how much money you are borrowing what did you expect the payment to be afterwords? try taking out 40 - 50,000 for a car and see what that payment is. The fact of the matter is that federal student loans have an extremely low interest rate are are the best type of loan a student can have. If you took out Private loans then sorry for you those interest rates are crazy high, but that amount was figured at an amount that someone (you, parents etc) should have been able to contribute to your education, wastefull spending is no justification for these "harrassing" calls. If you borrowed enough money to make a $500 / mo payment your job should reflect that. I borrowed 40k myself make $9/hr and can still find plenty of money to live and pay every bill i have. Stand up be a man and adjust your lavish lifestyle back to normality. I would imagine you have used forbearance over and over which has only capitolized your interest probabl doubling your loans by now. Word of advice if you havnt already. START PAYING anything will slowly eat away your debt, may not stop the calls but will obviously help. You have to prove and "Undue Hardship" to get any legal help for student loans. These loans are created to be given easily to students to get them the knowledge they need to succeed, for that reason they are incredibly hard to dismiss. Your choices are A: Permanent and Total Disability or B: Death.
Has anyone ever looked into a 3rd Option: C - move to a foreign country?
The problem I have encountered is that you have three main options:
1. Sallie Mae
2. Sallie Mae
3. Sallie Mae.
Oh, and I forgot the fourth option:
Sallie Mae. Though I went with a bank that did not have even a single mention of Sallie Mae I still have to deal with them. It's a dsigusting monopoly and they know it. As for moving to a foreign country -- while I have the option (Citizen of the European Union) to move to pretty much anywhere in Western and Central Europe most people have to go through an intense and often painful immigration process -- having enough money on hand to support oneself is almost always necessary.
Other than the 8 to 12 phone calls I and my 80-year old parents receive on our phones every day, what else can I expect from Sallie?
Anonymous- moving to a foreign country will not get rid of your loans. If you move to a foreign country and have a job or something that requires a copy of your college transcripts, your school WILL withhold that information until the loan is paid back in full.
If that is not the case and you move out of the country, if you ever decide to move back your credit will be trashed and you pretty much won't be able to do anything and if you can, your interest rates and payments will be ridiculously high.
Also, another Anonymous- yes, Sallie Mae will call you probably around 10 times a day. They will do this every day possible at any legal time until your loan is put in forbearance, deferment, or you bring your account current. Yes, they will call your parents (I assume they're your co-signer/maker/borrower) because if you don't pay, they're legally obligated to. The calls won't stop unless you make some kind of payment and change the status of your loan (from delinquent to repayment if brought current, from delinquent to forbearance/select step/etc.).
Sallie Mae's stance as a lendor is this: you borrowed money, your grace and non-payment statuses (in-school deferment) have been used up, and they want their money back.
FYI I work for SallieMae and I wont give out my name because I love my job and what I do. I am one of those people that call your house everyday just trying to get someone to answer the phone were really only their to help. People never answer because they are scared and dont know what their options are. Let me tell you something their are afew options for everyone just answer the phone when were calling were not bad people I have worked for Collections and Servicing so I really would be the best person for you to talk with about your loans so if ya guys have any general questions without being rude about it ask me. Ill try my best to help anyone dont let this ruin your life and make you guys move and change your names lol its not that bad their is help.
Duh! Moving to a foreign country could work just fine. Your college won't automatically hold your transcript. The college and Sallie Mae are not in bed together (for the most part.)
Is Anti-trust the way to go?
My advice to all of the high school students I work with is to be sure and give false telephone info on your loan application. They'll never check. That's what I did on my reference list when I attended grad school. If i am late on a payment my aunt and grandmother don't need to know about it.
I have 13 different loans and they call me 8 times a day for each little pod of three or four of them - and won't let me consolidate.
Yeah, they still suck. http://www.citibankrobbers.com/2012/06/26/petition-of-the-week-sallie-mae-defer-service-members-loans-while-they-are-on-active-duty/
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