Consumer complaint received 2022-09-09
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan
Company: SLM CORPORATION (IN)

Over the last 6 weeks I have contacted my loan provider on 5-6 separate occasions to inquire about student loan deferment for graduate school enrollment. For background I am a 5th year Biology Ph.D. candidate with the timeline to graduate in XX/XX/XXXX. I came from an extremely low-income background and therefore my parents did not have the credit to co-sign federal student loans. For that reason I had to get private student loans with variable interest rates co-signed with my grandmother to attend XXXX. 

I therefore unfortunately have student loans with Sallie Mae. For the student loans they only allow 48 months of graduate in-school deferment. Therefore this summer I worked throughout the months on XXXX and XXXX to get them to approve a temporary extension of the deferment through XXXX such that I could finish my Ph.D. and not drop out. With the caveat that if I can not get the deferment I would not be able to afford to finish my degree and would have to drop out 8 months before finishing. During this time 3 separate agents told me the deferment would be approved as long as my institution provided the documentation that I was fully enrolled ( they did ). The final agent told me they could see the deferment in my account and to not worry because it had already been applied. From talking the customer advocates today they reiterated that that was in my account for XXXX and XXXX, but was removed in XXXX once the 48 months lapsed. 

I tried to work with them on two more occasions once with a customer service rep and once with a customer advocate to determine any other options to help lower my payments to pay just interest or to get that 8 month extension on my deferment. I was told by both customer service and customer advocates that my only option would be forbearance and I could only use that for 4 of the 8 months I had left in my graduate program. This is because after XXXX I used 8 months of forbearance to do a year of service helping children living in extreme poverty in the XXXX XXXX. 

I also asked if we could refinance them to get a lower or fixed interest rate and they said they do not provide that service, but I could go elsewhere. I am looking into that but that has been difficult because I am still enrolled in school even though the loans I have are from XXXX ( XXXX ). I also disclosed to Sallie Mae that I am also publicly crowd source funding my last year of my Ph.D. due to this circumstance, which is true and has been successful so far. Though unfortunately only successful enough to get me through XXXX not through the rest of the year, so unfortunately I will probably still have to dropout. As a XXXX XXXX XXXX student from a family still living in poverty this is heartbreaking and disgusting. 

My principal on the loan was only ~ {$67000.00} but now I owe more than {$120000.00} due to interest alone and it is disgusting. I am working on my Ph.D. such that I can get the best paying job possible to not only pay off my student loans, but also help my family get out of poverty and have a house of their own one day. I can't pay {$1500.00} a month in student loans as a grad student only makes {$1900.00} a month, but I offered to pay any lesser amount, but they were not willing to work with me it was everything or forbearance or delinquency. 

I also brought up the fact that 3 customer service reps told me on the phone in front of witnesses that my loans would be deferred and not to worry as long as I stayed enrolled in school full-time to then go back on that once XXXX hit. 

I have also been reading a lot about the law suit against XXXXSallie Mae due to forbearance steering of low-income students, and I am heartbroken that my loans were current and not delinquent at the time. Though I wanted to submit this complaint because I would say after speaking to at least 5 agents in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX they have changed none of their practices when it comes to forbearance steering of low-income students and should 100 % be fined or sued again. I am not saying that such that my loan could be forgiven or removed from them, but such that they could not do this ever again. They also gave me an extremely predatory loan and as a low-income student with 0 other options for a student loan for XXXX I had no other option that was it, but that doesn't make it okay. 

Also, they do not offer the interest only graduated repayment option to graduate students because you have to apply for that during the first 18 months after you graduate from XXXX and as graduate students the issue isn't until 48 months after you graduate from XXXX. 

All in all I hope that Sallie Mae gets re-sanctioned because their treatment of me and my student loan in this circumstance has been both inhumane and disgusting. I had said a million times that me finishing my Ph.D. would put me in the best place to pay back the loan without undue financial difficulty, but they just didn't care. To them I am no more than a poor person who was XXXX enough to get a loan with them when I was XXXX to try and better the life of myself and my family.