Consumer complaint received 2020-12-07
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
XX/XX/2020 - I paid my daughter 's five ( 5 ) loans that I am co-signer. Sallie Mae correctly applied four ( 4 ) of the loans ; however, they applied the payment for the account ending in XXXX in the amount of {$74.00} incorrectly. Instead of applying it to loan XXXX, they applied a portion of the {$74.00} in small amounts to the other four ( 4 ) loans. 

XX/XX/2020 - I called customer service and was given the website upload.salliemae.com to upload proof of payment. The website doesn't exist. You must go into your account, log-in, and go to other forms and then you can upload the document. I sent them the proof from my bank, XXXX 's, web bill pay company showing proof of payment. 

I continued to receive daily phone calls and emails that the account was delinquent. 

XX/XX/2020 - I called customer service again and was told that the document that I sent wasn't sufficient proof and needed to send a bank statement with my name, account number, and payment to prove that I paid. I don't receive my bank statements until the end of the month so I had to wait. In the meantime, I also submitted a request with my web bill pay servicer to investigate and work to resolve the problem. 

XX/XX/2020 - Redacted my bank statement and faxed and uploaded it to Sallie Mae. 

XX/XX/2020 - Web Bill Pay emailed that Sallie Mae wouldn't speak with them and that I need to do a conference call with them and Sallie Mae. We called Sallie Mae and I was told that my account was now with the delinquency division. We were transferred. We were on the phone with Sallie Mae for 45 minutes. They confirmed that they'd received my bank statements and were sending them to the resolution unit and it would take at least three ( 3 ) days to update the account. My web bill pay company also faxed proof of the ACH payment from XX/XX/XXXX to Sallie Mae. 

During all of this, my daughter was working to refinance her Sallie Mae student loans with XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

XX/XX/2020 - I XXXX  and found the number for the Office of the Customer Advocate for Sallie Mae and spoke with XXXX ( ext. XXXX ). She said that they'd received the proof ; however, she couldn't email or mail me a letter indicating that account XXXX was timely paid and an error on Sallie Mae 's side caused the account to be delinquent for a few days. I told her that my daughter 's loan refinance was being held up because of Sallie Mae 's error. Her loan approval expires on XX/XX/2020. XXXX offered to do a conference call with XXXX. 

I am filing this complaint because I am sure that I am not the only one experiencing issues with Sallie Mae. Their error has cost me hours trying to prove that payment was made and may cost my daughter the refinancing of her loan. We also have to pay Sallie Mae the XXXX payments which are {$500.00} more than our payment would be with XXXX.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation