Consumer complaint received 2025-06-22 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Co-signer
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
Beginning XXXX of XXXX I began to investigate my sons default of loan repayment on his student loans. I am the cosigner of all 5 loans and as such I was responsible for repaying them according to the Sallie Mae rep. I asked them if they'd contacted my son and they said they tried but ultimately it was my responsibility since he was ignoring their attempts as well as mine to contact him. At this time the loans were in excess of {$170000.00} which neither my ex-wife nor I had a way of paying that much. In multiple times discussing my options I asked about a settlement payoff which they claimed was an option and that they agreed to negotiate. So, I asked what they wanted, and they replied with What can you afford? After multiple back and forth settlement bids, they agreed to {$11000.00}. I agreed and we mutually agreed, and they set a payoff date. I told them that I was having to include my ex-wife in the settlement as her portion would have to be half the amount per our divorce XXXX XXXX and they said no problem. However, they would not put us on the same phone call together. She had to call separately. So, I then communicated to my ex-wife the amount and she began to secure that share of the funds. Between one-way recorded phone calls with Sallie Mae and trying to coordinate with my ex, this situation was far more stressful than it ever needed to be, considering Sallie Mae just wants parents to pay. Until they bamboozle you into something you didnt know they were trying to pull and won't communicate with you now. They refuse to provide documentation of conversations/agreements and it all relies on having to be on hold for hours in a day to try and get anything accomplished. On XX/XX/XXXX I transferred my share ( XXXX ) to Sallie Mae and they separately contacted my ex-wife and she transferred her share ( XXXX ) to Sallie Mae. In XXXX of XXXX I received an email stating that all the balances of all XXXX accounts were ( XXXX ) XXXX. Then in XXXX of XXXX I received another email with payoff information thinking it was another confirmation of the agreed settlement, so I ignored it not realizing until XX/XX/XXXX that my ex-wife decided to contact her attorney to send me a threatening letter claiming I was a fraud and that I didn't pay off the loan because Sallie Mae re-instituted the balances that we negotiated to be reduced. They never once mentioned that this negotiation for settlement that we agreed to was just to remove my name from his loans. They issued a Cosigner Waiver Completion when they initially told me that I could not release myself from his loans without him signing some type of authorization. So, the entire time Sallie Mae led me to believe that we were negotiating the full and complete settlement of his outstanding loans. They would not talk to my ex-wife and I on XXXX phone call together so that we could hear what was happening, they never said the words cosigner release to EITHER of us because that is not something that my ex-wife nor I would have agreed to if we knew that a couple of months later they would come back to try and recoup the remainder of their money. After receiving those threats from her attorney, I reached out to Sallie Mae and the first representative ( I have record of her name ) stated that nowhere in the multiple conversations of notes did it say anything other than a settlement that I was trying to reach. She said that based on the notes and putting me on hold and talking to several other representatives that it looked like this cosigner waiver completion was sent by mistake. She informed me that I would need to once again be escalated to multiple people to figure out why Sallie Mae is now pulling a bait and switch of my negotiated settlement with them. I then was transferred up to a person that was supposedly a manager, he said verbally that he was a lead and then after not getting the assistance I was looking for, I asked to speak to his manager, he then stated he was a manager, and then I asked for all of the transcripts that each representative has been able to see. He then told me that I would need a subpoena in order to get the copies of the conversations that I have personally had with these people. Then I asked once again for his manager, and he said that she would get back to me later that day and I have not heard anything back. Sallie Mae removed me from the accounts without my knowledge and has since re-added the remaining balances that they agreed to negotiate off. They are now collection calling my son for almost XXXX which is gaining interest every day and was the balance that I was led to believe was gone. I am now being threatened with legal actions because of their negligence in not providing documentation or details of what exactly was being negotiated. Since they removed me from the accounts they will no longer provide me with the information I need to try and understand what went wrong. They make it as difficult as possible to reach a resolution and being that I was good to make the original payment, now they can't talk to me without once again requiring authorization from the person that wasnt paying the first time around. I would have NEVER agreed to make a partial payoff of any kind knowing that this would then come back to cause issues for me with the marital settlement agreement that I am bound by. Just to clarify, their representatives are nice and cordial, however, they have a system in place where it is designed to torture you slowly, by being placed on multiple holds and at half hour or more intervals at a time and then coming back to say the manager or whoever you are waiting to speak to is not available and they will contact you at a later date/time. It takes DAYS to MONTHS to reach a resolution because of all of the red tape that they put in front of not only the consumer but the people that work for them. When they pull my information ( SSN ) it shows that nothing is owed, but the issue is, that not even my son should owe anything. That is part of what the complaint is about.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief