Consumer complaint received 2016-02-10 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
As a young person in today 's rapidly growing world I took it upon myself to get a degree to better my chances at having a better future. Unfortunately during my time at XXXX College and XXXX University I found myself, like most blue collar students, having to borrow money to make it through. I was told that not alot of places will lend to a student who does not have a high credit score, this made things more tense, until I was told that Sallie Mae could help. 

This was not really a blessing but a curse in disguise. At this time I was working a part time job as a XXXX not making anything and still had to work there even after my graduation in XXXX 2015 because the economy is bad and it became harder to get XXXX even after getting a degree. So a few months before my loans were due XXXX found myslef worrying about how can I be more proactive about getting on top of things and making my life easier. Well the answer I was looking for was never found. 

I called Sallie Mae about two months before and spoke with a representative about what i could do because it seemed like every loan I used from them was separate and had its own minimum payment and interest rate. I thought to myself this could not be right because that would mean i would have extremely high minimum payments and I would never pay this off living on a XXXX salary. Unfortunately my doubts were actually reality! The representatives I spoke with the first time told me that I was correct and that there was nothing they really could do at the time to consolidate them. 

At this time i was mad as all get out because how is that we go to college to become better yet we get stuck with tremendous amount of debt and hold us back from continuing our pursuit in academia. After speaking with a few representatives I get ahold of a different person they tell me that they can lower my payments from about XXXX to about XXXX. I am at this point tired of trying. They would never consolidate nor offer me the ability to add a cosigner. 

After this occured I gave up. I tried finding different loan companies that would consolidate but because I had so much debt no one would touch it because the loans ruined my credit score. Now at this time I am stuck and do not know how to fix my situation. 

So I call them back and ask again and i still do not get any help. Now remember, I started this way before they were due and now it is past due. Now it is almost two months past and they threaten me with collections. My credit score has dropped tremendously and now they tell me we can give you 2 % interest rate and a payment of XXXX per month. Um, excuse me but why did you not help me before when you knew i could not afford the original payments and now I have a XXXX credit score and stuck with a financial burden that already adds stress to my already stressful life seeing how my job is not particularly liked at this time. 

It has caused an undue hardship on me and my family and quite frankly it is not fair. I can not find anyway to get out or get help. So maybe this rant can help others and maybe bring attention to a problem that needs a lot of help fixing!

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