Consumer complaint received 2016-01-30
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Non-federal student loan
Issue: Can't repay my loan
Sub-issue: Can't temporarily postpone payments

Complaint:
On XXXX/XXXX/16, I contacted Sallie Mae to attempt to place my loans into temporary forbearance and was met with extreme indifference to my financial hardship. I work as a XXXX and have been unable to find work for approximately two months ( in or outside of my field, despite actively searching throughout my entire period of unemployment ). This has unfortunately led to a state where I have had to live exclusively off the meager amount of money I had been able to save over the previous year. This bout of unemployment was extremely unexpected and a large percentage of my disposable income from the previous year had been channeled into paying down my student loans, far exceeding the minimum monthly payments. 
Knowing that I would be unable to make my XXXX payments I placed my federal loans into forbearance, without issue, and had hoped that Sallie Mae would be as willing and flexible with helping me avoid falling into delinquency on my account. 
Upon contacting the company and explaining my situation, I was given the option of forbearance on the stipulation that I would make a " Good Faith '' payment, equal to XXXX % of my monthly minimum payments. I explained how I am not in a financial position to make any payment of any amount at this time and inquired about further options that the company may be able to offer. 
The second option I was given, was to put in a retroactive forbearance by using my previous month 's payment as the " Good Faith '' payment. Thus negating any progress I had made on my principle and interest for the previous month. While XXXX supervisors I spoke to made this suggestion, my first representative ( who also checked to see if this could be an option ) explicitly told me that it would be illegal for the company to use a past payment in such a manner. Upon raising this concern XXXX supervisors gave unclear, vague and dismissive explanations as to why the first representative made such a statement. 
With both options being unviable, the first of which I am financially unable to comply with and the second I felt extremely uncomfortable about due to conflicting information, I inquired further for any other options or exceptions that could be made for my particular circumstance. Specifically noting that : # 1 I have, multiple times in the past, paid in-excess of my minimum payments, ( which I was explicitly told could not count towards reducing future payments, despite their website clearly stating otherwise ( XXXX ) ) # 2 My account has never been delinquent and # 3 I have been in good standing since beginning to repayment of my loans. Despite pleading my case, I was told that there was absolutely nothing else the customer service department could do for me, and that the only other avenues for relief options would arise only if my account fell into delinquency and was sent to the collections department. Who, as I was told, have more flexible means of dealing with those who are unable to meet their financial obligations. Leading me to believe that both supervisors were essentially implying that becoming delinquent was the most viable course of action in my situation ( which I was trying to avoid by contacting Sallie Mae in the first place ). 
I am appalled that Sallie Mae treated me with such blatant rigidity regarding this " Good Faith Payment '' policy, especially in light of my payment history with the company ( should that not prove my " good faith '' to repay these loans? ). And feel like I am being extorted for what little money I have so that my credit ( which was severely burdened by taking these loans out in the first place and has taken extensive effort to repair ) is not damaged by delinquency/collections. 
I sincerely hope others may read this and take it as another reason, and another warning as to why they should not do business with Sallie Mae.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief