Student loans and Sallie Mae... ugh

[erikab922]

I am so incredibly narked with Sallie Mae these days. I mean, no one loooves them, but they don't do themselves any favours.

I have to transfer money to my US account via PayPal in order to pay my student loans, so the hit on my monthly budget is totally dependent on the exchange rate. Several years ago the exchange rate was great and I was able to overpay every month, but now it's in the tank and the hit on my budget is crazy.

I took forbearance/deferment back in 2008 when I lost my job but then started paying up again a year later. When I found out I was very unexpectedly pregnant I started to worry about the payments because we now needed to get baby stuff. I continued to pay even though I really could have used the money elsewhere.

So... new baby. Lactation consultants. Private tongue tie clipping. Get a safer/bigger car with non-bald tyres (still got it used of course). Deposit for the childminder. I'm sorry but Sallie Mae have had to take a back seat to my little one. I tried for months and months and months to get my payment amount changed or to get another deferment but they will NOT budge an inch with me. So I'm having to pay one payment but every other month, so I'm always a little behind. I don't want it to be like this but all I want is one stinkin' year to catch up and they just won't listen.

I can get away with the hit my credit will take because I don't live in the States any more and won't for the foreseeable future, so they can report me as 60 days late as much as they like. They email me 4,000 times a day to tell me I'm overdue but I tried SO hard to deal with them before the baby came and it was always 'no no no'.

I'm all for paying my bills and up til now always paid them on time but it's so hard to care with Sallie Mae sometimes.

Anyone else in student loan hell?

 

[CharmingBeake]

YES!!! I have loans through Sallie Mae and one other company...and as I'm not working right now because of LO and can't afford a babysitter, I've had to defer... I owe so much and its so depressing. You're totally not alone.

 

[bumpbear]

The uk student loan system is pretty good.

When we emigrated, my husband provided a handwritten letter stating that he was supporting me financially and they froze my payment requirements. Obviously interest is payable every month on the amount outstanding but at least it's something.

As I'm a SAHM, I don't have to pay any of it until i restart working and am earning over £15k.

It's pretty fair.

Though I wish someone had told me that the loan is such a burden and I wouldn't have taken as much as they would give me when I took the loans in the first place. Offering young people tonnes of money and telling them it will be easily repayable is a really irresponsible thing to do!

 

[vintage67]

Very much in student loan hell!

 

[erikab922]

Though I wish someone had told me that the loan is such a burden and I wouldn't have taken as much as they would give me when I took the loans in the first place. Offering young people tonnes of money and telling them it will be easily repayable is a really irresponsible thing to do!

Yes I agree - I mean, I know I'm responsible because I took out the loan, but I went to a very expensive university with a good name because I thought it would pay for itself because of the reputation, but then I wound up moving to the UK where no one has ever heard of it except in the movies. In my profession I could have easily gone to a state university and saved myself tens of thousands of dollars and gotten the same education, I'm sure of it.

Hindsight, eh?

 

[hb1]

from my previous job I worked for an american company from a compliance perspective - the occ (us regulators) have become far more stringent and do not allow a great deal of movement as far as reduced payments/restructures are concerned -maybe this impacts student loans too

 

[erikab922]

from my previous job I worked for an american company from a compliance perspective - the occ (us regulators) have become far more stringent and do not allow a great deal of movement as far as reduced payments/restructures are concerned -maybe this impacts student loans too

I think it must - they used to be quite helpful because they obviously wanted payments any way they could get them so would work with you to find a good payment level. Even now they have income-sensitive repayment options but because my income is subject to the vagaries of the exchange rate they just don't know what to do with that and so it's easiest to do nothing

 

[hb1]

the occ rules for normal loan reduced payment arrangements is that the debt should pay down in 5 years and if the customer misses 2 of the arrangement payments then it should default immediately - they allow no movement whatsoever and any digression from this could result in issues for the company. Not sure if us student loans are subject to the same rules though.

the uk is different - our regulators are more consumer focused and interested in a fair outcome for the customer.