Consumer complaint received 2017-12-29
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: IL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
Back in XXXX, I attempted to make my first payment to Sallie Mae, it was almost {$600.00} on top of my other student loan payment of over {$600.00} to XXXX. I tried to figure out a way to pay both sets of student loan bills on top of my other bills ( car, gas, insurance, etc. ) I was able to consolidate my XXXX payments but Sallie Mae told me they could not help me. They told me my only options were forbearance, delinquency, or bankruptcy. I asked if there was any way they could lower my payments and again, my only options were forbearance, delinquency, or bankruptcy. I chose forbearance until I could figure out a solution. My forbearance ran from XXXX through XXXX, which I was required to pay $ XXXX loan as a good faith payment for a total of {$150.00}. I was instructed to call back at the end of XXXX to extend my forbearance. I was limited to one year and I could extend in 1, 2 or 3 month increments. I called back on Thursday, XXXX XXXX and the representative asked me why I was filing for forbearance. I simply replied that I could not afford the payment. She asked me a series of questions and I told her that my income, as a XXXX XXXX XXXX could not support me enough to be able to pay the {$600.00} / month. She gave me attitude and asked me if I looked into a 3rd party income driven repayment plan. So I went and looked into it. On Friday, XXXX XXXX, I applied for it and noticed that it went to my XXXX  loans and not my Sallie Mae. I contacted the federal student aid services, ( that 's who I filed my income driven payment application through ) and they informed me that I needed to contact Sallie Mae and fill out a paper application to send to them or input into their system. So I contacted Sallie Mae and the girl informed me that I needed to contact the Federal Student aid people and see if they could just send over my application or call XXXX and see if they could forward it to Sallie Mae. So I called XXXX and the very nice representative informed me that Sallie Mae is strictly private loans now and my Income driven application would not even be applied to those loans. At this point, I was irate. I called Sallie Mae back and was given the run around. Never once did someone at Sallie Mae tell me that my income driven application would n't be valid for private loans. Over a span of 40 minutes, I talked to customer service representatives who told me my only options were were forbearance, delinquency, or bankruptcy. I asked to speak to a supervisor and again he told me he could n't help me and my only options were forbearance, delinquency, or bankruptcy. The supervisor said he does n't work with collections when it comes to payments and that they could transfer me to collections and see what they could do. They told me to call back the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX of next month to see what they could do for me. I asked to be transferred to collections. Now, at this point, I have explained my situation 6 different times to representatives at Sallie Mae over the course of 2 days. As soon as I told the collections agent, the first thing he said was, this sounds like a customer service issue. I said oh no, they told me it 's a collections issue. So the collections representative from Sallie Mae explained that because I did forbearance for 3 months, I would need to wait till XXXX XXXX to call back, with the stipulation that I do n't make my payment for the month of XXXX so I go into delinquency. I explained over and over and over again that I do n't miss payments and that I did not want this to hurt my credit score. They assured me it would n't hurt my credit score and that the collections reps at Sallie Mae should be able to help me lower my payment. I am trying to be proactive and get ahead of this but Sallie Mae is not making this easy for me. The only reason my father cosigned my loan was because they wanted to give me some outrageous interest rate if I did n't have my father cosign. Even when I applied for the loan, I felt discriminated against because my loan disbursement and interest rate was based off amount of income my parents generated which I do n't think is appropriate since I am the one paying my loan off, not them. I am trying to pay my loan, that is both reasonable and affordable. I am sick of getting the same, ridiculous excuses. They had no problem giving me a loan with interest rates all over the place but now they expect me to pay back loans that I can not afford with my salary. I ca n't even live on my own, I have to live with my parents because my income does not allow me to support myself and pay my student loans. I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX, I am not making anywhere near six figures.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation