Consumer complaint received 2017-01-20
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: NJ
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Sub-issue: Can't get flexible payment options

Complaint:
Since my repayment period has began XX/XX/2015, Sallie Mae has been uncooperative after multiple attempts to negotiate repayment amounts. I have explained on multiple occasions the difficulties I have been having, such as my father 's passing, followed by XXXX with no health insurance. They refused to acknowledge my financial hardship and did not reach out to me until after my credit score dropped tremendously ( over XXXX points ) as well as my cosigners ' scores. I had proof of both my father 's passing and my ectopic and was willing to submit it for them to work with me. Still they said the best they could do was {$1600.00} a MONTH! Initially they insisted that this was the absolute lowest payment they could accept with no exceptions and my credit was already shot before I could ever even try to refinance. When I walked into the numerous banks and told them I was looking to consolidate with Sallie Mae Loans, they said " we do n't mess with them. '' Only XXXX gave us a chance, and even then it was too late, our credit had been damaged. {$1600.00} was " the lowest they could go '' because " they do n't have to follow the federal rules and regulations because they are a private lender. '' Months after I refused to pay their amount they finally decided they could accept {$1000.00} a month but ONLY if I supplied a financial statement from myself and each of my cosigners. I explained that it was still was not affordable for me and they assured me once again that this is the absolute lowest that they could offer me. A few months later they contacted me again with a " Limited Time Offer '' in which they could somehow accept {$600.00} a month WITH financial statements. However at this point I had already been looking into bankruptcy options. ( Unbelievable that my personal debt is less then {$5000.00}, but I thought I had no other options, so I was willing to have a bankruptcy on my record just so they could stop destroying my family and so they 'd legally have to work with me!! ) The only slightly helpful option that they made aware to me, was that whenever I put my loans into forbearance, they were somehow able to clear my previous overdue balance with a {$50.00} charge per loan which brought it out of deferment and stopped the calls for a month. Then we were right back at square one with no options, until THAT option came up again. After my loans being overdue for a while they made this offer again however they only gave me one month without notifying me that I would have to pay the {$50.00} charge for every month instead of putting the forbearance down for multiple months initially. We were unable to pay the {$50.00} x XXXX = {$150.00} payment again because we did n't know we would have to as we were n't filled in on all of the details again. As the calls continued, they got nastier and more frequent. Now I 'm being harassed at my place of employment even after I 've answered numerous phone calls to my personal line, and asked them repeatedly to not call my job and risk my personal business along with my career at risk or they 'll never get paid! I never listed my work number or gave right to call me on it. After bringing up filing for bankruptcy, they were a lot more eager to try to work out a deal, but at that point, after being XXXX years old, working hard on a XXXX Credit score, to watch it fall under XXXX for doing what I thought was the right thing by going to XXXX .... Who cares right? Beaten, Tired, And Fed Up. I Hope they get whats coming to them. For what it 's worth I 'm a very hard worker who does n't spend money on anything unless I need to. My debt before Sallie Mae/XXXX? Less than $ XXXX. Got ta love it! 

I wish the multiple choice section below was able to select more then one bubble. These people are truly the devil.

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