sallie-mae

Sallie Mae Opts Not To Go After Family Of Dead Woman For $120K In Student Loans
By Chris Morran on May 14, 2012 11:15 AM  
As we wrote last week, while many parents consider it a no-brainer to co-sign their children's student loans, that decision can come back to bite them later. And if that child passes away, there's little stopping loan servicers from piling debt on the parents' grief. But here's one story where Sallie Mae ultimately opted to not go that route. More »

Which Worst Company Contenders Force Customers Into Mandatory Arbitration?
By Chris Morran on March 21, 2012 3:30 PM  
As we sifted through the mountain of nominations for this year's Worst Company In America tournament, we noticed a trend of readers who cited companies' mandatory binding arbitration clauses as a reason for nominating. And while it's businesses like AT&T and Sony that have made all the headlines for effectively banning class action lawsuits, there are a lot of other WCIA contenders who are forcing customers into signing away their rights. More »

Worst Company In America Round One: Sallie Mae Vs. Ticketmaster
March 14, 2012 2:00 PM  
For today's afternoon bout, two companies that probably avoid walking down dark alleys for fear of being beaten up by angry consumers get a chance to kick each other in the teeth. More »

Are Student Loans A Ticking Time Bomb For The Economy?
By Chris Morran on March 12, 2012 2:15 PM  
Four years later, we're still standing on the rim of a smoldering crater where the housing market used to be, pledging we'll never let another financial disaster like that happen again. But some prognosticators worry we could soon be bracing for another blast, judging by the growing number of people who can't pay back their student loans. More »

Here It Is, Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2012!

March 12, 2012 12:00 PM  
Welcome to Consumerist's 7th Annual Worst Company In America tournament, where the businesses you nominated face off for a title that none of them will publicly admit to wanting — but which all of them try their hardest to earn. So it's time to fill in the brackets and start another office pool. That is, unless you work at one of the 32 companies competing in the tournament. More »

Sallie Mae Agrees To Stop Pocketing Forbearance "Good Faith Deposit" & Actually Apply It To Student Loan Balances
By Mary Beth Quirk on February 6, 2012 5:00 PM  
Working off the peitition model that forced Bank of America to back off its $5 debit card fee, one woman's crusade against Sallie Mae's "good faith deposits" of $50 per loan in forbearance every three months has seen some success. The fee will still be applied, but now they actually deduct it from the total loans owned. More »

Have A Private Student Loan Horror Story? Today Is The Last Day To Tell The CFPB
By Meg Marco on January 17, 2012 11:15 AM  
We see enough horror stories about private student loans that we know there must be quite a few of them out there. If you'd like to contribute to the public good by sharing your experience, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would like to hear what you have to say. And if you actually had a good experience the CFPB would like to hear about that, too. More »

Sallie Mae Sends Student Loan Bills Into Abyss, Still Expects Me To Pay Them
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2010 9:00 AM  
Unless you're the U.S. Postal Service, paperless billing can be a real blessing. It saves trees and clutter, saves companies money, and is generally quite useful. James tells Consumerist that he discovered a case where paperless billing is not so great: when a company enrolls you in it without telling you, doesn't verify that they have your e-mail address from the present decade, and sends collections after you. More »

Sallie Mae's Customer Advocate Unit Makes Up For Regular Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 4:00 PM  
Jen wrote to Consumerist to let us know that the number we posted in August for student loan servier Sallie Mae's Customer Advocate Unit is still valid and staffed with extremely helpful people.. She cut through the nonsense of regular customer service who were unable to help, then hung up on her. More »

(Photo: Furryscaly)

Make Debt Collectors Give You Money By Suing Them
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 5:30 PM  
This may not work for everyone, but it worked for Jeff. He tells Consumerist that after he filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, Sallie Mae representatives continued to call him, which is sort of illegal. So his bankruptcy attorney sued them. And won a $4,000 settlement. More »

Reach Sallie Mae's Customer Advocate Unit
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2009 11:45 AM  

—>Are you getting nowhere with the usual channels at Sallie Mae? Here's how you can reach their Customer Advocate Unit, a charming oasis of competence and politeness.  More »

Big Shocker: Students Are Abusing Credit Cards
By Carey Alexander on April 26, 2009 10:00 PM  

—>Sallie Mae's 2009 study of credit card use shows that students just love binging on plastic. Kids these days have more than four cards on average, and most of them carry a balance pushing $3,000. Many don't tell their parents, and almost a fifth graduate with more than $7,000 of debt. This is how meltdowns start...  More »

Sallie Mae is going to "reverse outsource" and move 2,000 jobs from overseas back to the US in order to get people, (the president?) to like them again. Will it work? HAHAHHAHAHA. Oh, sorry. That was unprofessional. [ReutersMore »

Use UPromise To Pay Down Your Student Loans
By Meg Marco on November 25, 2008 7:49 PM  

—>UPromise is a site from student lender SallieMae, and we always assumed that it was just for parents to save for their children's inevitable college expenses, but the Wall Street Journal says that anyone can join and use the money to pay down their student loans... or whatever.  More »

Round 39: Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal
By Ben Popken on May 15, 2008 4:00 PM  

This is Round 39 in our Worst Company in America contest, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal!  More »

Sallie Mae's 100+ Point FICO Drop Error Getting Fixed
By Ben Popken on May 14, 2008 4:45 PM  

Sallie Mae has publicly apologized for a coding error, potentially affecting around 1 million customers, that caused some consumers credit scores to drop over 100 points, and some consumers report that their dinged scores are already back up. If your score is not back to normal and you are in the middle of a transaction where your good credit is at stake, Sallie Mae said it will provide a credit reference letter. You can also call Sallie Mae customer service at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie has pledged that the fix is in, but consumers can still take matters into their own hands by pulling their free credit report from annualcreditreport.com and disputing the incorrect information with Experian. Note, it's against Federal law for creditors to report false information to credit bureaus, and consumers can sue violators up to $1,000.  More »

FICO Scores Drop Over 100 Points After Sallie Mae Recode, Potentially Millions Affected
By Ben Popken on May 13, 2008 8:17 PM  

—>Consumers are complaining that a change in how Sallie Mae decided to recode some loans caused their credit score to drop by over a hundred points. That's enough to make a $93,240 difference in a home loan's total cost. Here's what happened.  More »

Sallie Mae Stops Student Loan Consolidation, Will No Longer Pay Origination Fees On Stafford Loans
By Chris Walters on April 15, 2008 10:09 PM  

—>Consolidation loans are no longer profitable for Sallie Mae, so it's saying goodbye to them. SmartMoney points out that ultimately this shouldn't matter for students taking out new loans, since the original point of consolidation—converting lots of variable rate loans into a nice predictable fixed rate loan—is no longer relevant (all federal student loans are now disbursed with fixed interest rates.) SmartMoney says if you still have variable rate loans you need/want to consolidate, check out the government's consolidation offering—"You're likely to pay the same consolidation rates you'd pay if you did so with Sallie Mae," they write.  More »

Sallie Mae Has No Idea Where Your $1500 Is
By consumerist.com on April 15, 2008 12:03 PM  
Then I finished my enlistment, was honorably discharged, and waited for the last payment to come in. It was 4 months late and when it got there (mid-December), it looked like it was $1500 MORE than what was left owed on my account. I called the Army and they confirmed that they had payed the correct amount they owed me, taking interest into account. The overpayment belongs to me. Yay, more free money!  More »