Consumer complaint received 2025-02-11 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
I am disputing the late payments reported by Sallie Mae on my credit report for XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/year> for XXXX separate loans. These late payments resulted from misinformation provided by Sallie Mae representatives regarding qualification for a payment relief program. 

In early 2019, following the loss of my job and the passing of my mother in XX/XX/year>, I contacted Sallie Mae to request lower payments while working to get my finances back in order that summer. Instead of providing a clear path to relief, Sallie Mae representatives informed me that I needed to miss XXXX consecutive payments to qualify for their payment reduction program. They explicitly instructed me to become delinquent for XXXX months to gain eligibility, but at no point did they disclose that each loan would be counted separately, resulting in XXXX total missed payments across XXXX loans. 

Following the direct instructions provided by Sallie Mae, I later learned that I had been reported as having XXXX delinquent payments ( XXXX per loan ) something I would have never agreed to if given the correct information. After multiple escalations, a Sallie Mae XXXX acknowledged on a recorded call that I was given incorrect information by their representatives and that I should not have been told to miss payments. However, despite this admission of fault, Sallie Mae never removed the late payments from my credit report. 

Adding to the issue, XXXX XXXX constant calls over the years about increasing my payments conditioned me to ignore their non-urgent voicemails, making it difficult to differentiate critical notifications about my account status from routine sales calls. The vague nature of their messages did not provide any actionable information about the delinquency situation, which I also mentioned during my phone call when I was informed that I had been misled. 

These negative marks on my credit report are the direct result of Sallie Mae providing inaccurate and misleading information, which led me to unintentionally default on my loans. The Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ) explicitly prohibits the furnishing of inaccurate information to consumer reporting agencies, and this case falls under furnishing inaccurate information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) has taken enforcement action in multiple cases where loan servicers misled borrowers into missing payments, and my situation is directly in line with those precedent cases. 

Furthermore, my loans have been fully paid off, and I have no remaining balance with Sallie Mae. These late payments, which resulted from misinformation rather than financial negligence, should not continue to impact my credit report. I am requesting the immediate removal of these inaccurate late payments from my credit history to ensure fair and accurate reporting.

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