Sallie Mae

RUN. I will end up paying more in interest than the principal of my loan. I have tried to get my payments deferred while I am still in school—I graduate this coming spring—but in response, I have received letters, emails, and multiple calls a day while I am running between school and work. I told the last representative I spoke with that I would need to drop out just to make my payments to them, and the representative basically told me, "Well, in that case, your full loan would become due immediately." No comment on the fact that I was considering giving up on my dreams of an education to secure a better-paying job and life because I couldn't afford the student loan payments along with my other living expenses. They don't care about students. They don't care about people. They are completely unwilling to work with you if you lose your job. If you lose your job, prepare to be without housing so that you can continue to pay Sallie Mae what you owe.

Sallie Mae is the worst. If you have the option to use any other loan servicer, please do so. Sallie Mae has made my life incredibly difficult. I had to use Sallie Mae because I didn't have enough federal funding to finish my senior year of college, and I didn't have the option to use a cosigner. Sallie Mae was the only loan servicing provider that would allow me to get a loan without one. After graduating, I had to begin my payments six months later, even though I didn't secure a job until then. The job I got was minimum wage. I was barely able to pay my rent and my other bills; I was just scraping by. I tried to explain to Sallie Mae that I was the only working person in my family and that I couldn't afford the payments. The only repayment plan they could offer me required paying a substantial sum of money upfront to slightly lower my payments in the future. Then I lost my job and tried to explain to them that I had no means to pay because I was unemployed, but they offered no assistance and had terrible customer service. They didn't try to help me or to understand my issues; they were so robotic and lacking in compassion. I would never take out another loan from this company in my life, nor would I recommend it to anyone. This is a trap, and I advise students and others never to do use Sallie Mae because it will make your life so much harder. This company has no interest in helping you pay off your loan; the whole point is for you to remain in debt, and they either get their money or they ruin your credit. Please, please, please do not get a loan with them. They do not have your best interest at heart. I would give negative stars if I could. I'm currently crying because of the terrible position I'm in, all because I wanted to finish school and create a better life for myself, but all I've done is wind up in a distressing situation with no signs of it improving for me anytime soon, unfortunately.

They have no compassion or understanding. I took out $30,000 for college, made payments, and it is now at $53,000. I just became unemployed with no income, and when asked, "So, how do you pay other bills?" they offer no help and will report you to the credit bureau immediately. Run. I wish I had known this when I chose them, but I was a first-generation student with little help. Stay away. -3 stars.

If I could give this place negative stars, I would. This is an extremely predatory institution and leaves little to no flexibility in payment plans or options. Pray and hope you don't ever lose a job or take a pay cut, because once you leave a repayment program, you have to make 12 qualifying payments (aka full monthly payment) to recertify... if you can't afford to do so, I was told to 'try my best' or asked if I could 'ask your parents if they have savings'... if you are a young adult and need student loans, look at literally any other loan provider. Customer service has generally been terrible across my 8 years of dealing with them. Literally pick any other loan provider. Discover, Citibank, Capital One, any other student loan provider.

Applied for a student loan of $33,000 with a very capable co-signer and good credit myself, and was approved within a few days! Only to see an 18% interest rate for 20 years, coming to a grand total of $115,925.00. A very reasonable interest rate and payback term... HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

Do not do business with this company! They reinvested my CD at a low interest rate without any notification that they would do so, and they will charge an unfairly large fee to withdraw my money early. They also make it intentionally inconvenient to try to contact customer service.

I graduated in 2024 and was immediately billed. They keep sending emails saying "there is help making arrangements," but they are all phony. I was never offered at least a couple of months' delay on my payments so I could readjust. The next month, they marked my credit report as delinquent. Avoid this service at all costs. Save yourself the stress; there are many other better services.

The most immoral company I have ever dealt with. Even after refinancing, they continued to take advantage of us. Applying the refinanced checks incorrectly, they took another two payments and months' worth of interest while they addressed their own error. I'm not able to give 0 stars, or I definitely would.

I can't give zero stars, so they get one by default. The agent who called most recently, to try to collect more money than the $1500/month payment I am already obliged to, threatened legal action and mocked me for not being able to pay more. The worst decision I ever made was taking a private student loan from this company. They are so much worse than "predatory".

If I could leave less than a one-star review, I would. You are better off looking into other options unless you know you will have the money to pay them off by the end of your graduation. Run as far away from Sallie Mae as you can. They are trained, heartless, and soulless. If you can't make your payment, they will pursue you aggressively. They'll call you 16 times a day and offer you no options for hardships. If they do offer you options, I promise they will conceal better ones from you and then tell you that you were out of time for others. They are not helpful. The customer service is awful. One of them told me I would be better off not living.

Super terrible! I wouldn't recommend it at all, especially when it comes to student loans and forcing you to find a "cosigner." They will purposely ask for your cosigner's information and tell your cosigner things that are false, and not even speak to the borrower of the loans until you confront them. They have been known to scam and swindle students and people out of their information and money. Customer service is terrible, and Sallie Mae is just terrible in general. Find better alternatives.

Sallie Mae is terrible. They have been nothing but a stressor in my life for over 10 years now. I am two payments away and I cannot wait! Dealing with them over the years has been awful. They don't care about helping you whatsoever; if you ever go through any hardship, it's like pulling teeth when you need any kind of help with your payments, and they make you feel interrogated; it's uncomfortable! And when you do enroll in one of their payment programs, they still call and hound you even though you're enrolled in a program! Then when you talk to them and tell them to look at the notes, they say "oh yeah, I see that here" as if they couldn't have seen it before they called to hound me and waste both of our time. It makes zero sense. I've tried so hard to be nice to these people because I know they're just doing their job, but more than half the time they aren't even polite. Sallie Mae needs to get it together. There should not be collection calls going to people who are actively in a payment program.

My son applied for a student loan with me as the co-signer and was declined for "Limited Credit Experience." My credit score is currently 818, with zero late payments. Additionally, they gave him a loan last year with me as the co-signer, so he had even less credit experience then. When I called, they said he could try reapplying with a different co-signer. I asked how that made any sense, as he wouldn't have any more credit experience with a new co-signer. The representative then talked in circles. Now I have a hard inquiry on my credit report with nothing to show for it. Stay away from this company.

I don't even know how to start this review based on the terrible experience I had with this company. For the past two weeks, I have dealt with the least helpful people who were not willing to work with me and kept telling me different things. I wasted two weeks of my time, and my co-signer's time, since the application kept getting lost and they could not locate it. I recommend you do not get this loan because they will refuse to work with you. I gave my school information and everything, and they still could not seem to get the application to work, even though the representatives stated it did. Save your time and try other student loan companies, please! My school had everything ready to certify and Sallie Mae still seemed to mess it up.

Sallie Mae is terrible. They are unable to work with you. I have asked more than once to move back the payment just one week and they tell me they are unable to do anything. I pay $422 in interest a month on $50k. It's a very shady company that preys on its customers.