Student Loans

[Driveloader]

I just called Sallie Mae and got an exceptionally unhelpful person. After explaining that in the process of consolidating my loans I got deployed overseas and as a result was still paying old accounts but not the new one, etc. she said she'd be glad to change my payment plan... clearly she wasn't paying attention.

After flat-out asking if they would consider removing the the 90-day late indication from 11/2006 she said, "No, we don't accept goodwill credit requests." Based on what I've read on this site and elsewhere, that's B.S.

I'm wondering if anyone here has had a successful goodwill letter with Sallie Mae and, if so, where you sent it. Any help is much appreciated!

-DL

[Timothy]

You know-

SM knows ALL about myFICO - after their "Hiccup"

I really don't remember seeing any SM gw that was not a legitimate mis-reporting/error

[caliborne]

Drive you need to find ivyalmighty (she posts here), I think you have legal recourse if this happened while you were deployed on military orders

[ivyalmighty]

Hi Driveloader,

I saw your post before you had the chance to track me down. You're right, Sallie Mae will be as unhelpful as possible, even when there are Acts of Congress that have been passed specific to your situation! Here is the text from the post that caliborne referred to. You'll find the link to the Heroes Act, wording, etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I had 90+ days late showing on Sallie Mae from when we moved overseas in late 05-06. It took a long time to start receiving mail & no internet service so I had no way to pay. When we finally started receiving mail & had phone/int set up, I did a forebearance & was told it would backdate & no lates would show.

THAT was not true. All lates show, and I've had no GW success even though I explained the situation.

Today, on THEIR OWN webpage, I found a link to this: http://www.finaid.org/military/heroes.phtml which is the Heroes Act of 2003. It means if you are late due to military deployment --whether you are the servicemember, their spouse, or their dependent, you will automatically be forgiven.

This may not help a TON of people out there, as I don't know how many others have lates b/c of military service, but maybe someone else can benefit!!! The SallieMae numbnuts didn't know anything about this, even though it's on their own website. And the one who had heard of it thought it was only for the servicemember themselves, didn't know it extended to spouses & dependents as well.

I am faxing in a copy of the orders (still have them from 05, thank goodness I keep everything) and these lates will go away, which will be sooo good for my report."

[Driveloader]

Many, many thanks to all for the replies. One correction, I'm not military, though my original post did seem to imply that. "Deploy" is in our company lexicon though the less ambiguous term would be "transferred." My apologies for implying that.

That said, SUCCESS! I mailed my goodwill letter to Sallie Mae's PA address and mentioned that I wanted to do new business with them, which is true. I also included a copy of the acceptance letter to the Master's program that I'll be attending as evidence that I'm not BSing them. Much to my surprise, they obliged! All told it was 1 week since I sent my snail-mail letter form Germany to when I heard back form them via e-mail. Not bad at all. Good on ya Sallie Mae!

Those 90 days late payments one four separate loans were the last recent (under two years) blemishes on my credit report. Like many here, I've turned a new leaf when it comes to credit and I'll be responsible from here on out.

Good luck to everyone else who's working with SM.

Cheers,
DL

[LynnInMN]

Federal Law requires that student loans report accurately and factually which means no goodwill.