Consumer complaint received 2017-01-19
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Sub-issue: Can't get flexible payment options

Complaint:
I graduated a from 2 year college ( at the time ) with over {$70000.00} in debt with Sallie Mae. Thankfully, I had the 6 month grace period to find work until I had to start repaying back my loans. After the 6 months, I had started a minimum wage internship with a company that related to my field. During the internship, I quickly realized I had not been fully prepared by the school and there was a lot I had to learn. 

During my second year, I had started to feel cheated by the school. I was one of the few who had joined a new program - which turned out to be mostly lectures and loading and unloading staging props and sets into and out of a studio they would be no longer using. The program did n't continue after that year, and my classmates also feel cheated from it as well. 

During my internship, I had no other choice but to place my loans into forbearance since Sallie Mae would n't lower the sky high monthly payment of close to {$900.00}. My dad happened to be my cosigner, he was forced to retire a few years ago because he has XXXX from XXXX and is XXXX. His monthly check from social security is his only income, which he uses to provide for my mother who is also sick, himself and the bills for the house. For some reason, Sallie Mae wo n't lower my payments because of the amount of money my dad receives ( which really is not a lot to begin with ), no matter how low my income is. 

I was lucky enough to get hired by the company right after my internship and started to pay back my loans with some help from my father - perfect timing since I had used up all of my forbearances available. A few months later, the company suffered major cut backs and had to let go of an entire department, which included me. I started XXXX for the time being, which is not really steady income as you may know, and my father and other family members have been helping out with the loan payments since I also spend most of my time at home taking care of both of my parents who need the help. 

After over a year of struggling to make on time payments with the minimum payment ( being the {$900.00} ) the extremely high interest on the loan has already increased the total amount due and none of my payments have barely made a dent to it which is heartbreaking and outrageous. I 've even tried to refinance with other loan companies and I keep on getting rejected either because of my income, or the amount of the loan is too high or because I do n't have a 4 year degree. I would love to go back to school to get one, but I 'm already living in a nightmare full of debt I ca n't imagine taking on a single penny more. 

I 'm XXXX years old and I would of loved to of had my own apartment at least by now, and I do n't know if that will ever become a reality even if I do find a steady job soon with these high monthly payments which keep on increasing. My father and other family members are giving me all they can and I 'm starting to really feel like a charity case. If I would of known that this college and these loans would of put a huge burden on me like this, I do n't think I would of went. I was told in the beginning that there would be repayment options and I would be prepared for my field and I was duped.

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