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Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

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kbns625
Valued Member

Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

I just recieved my disbursement for my Unsub Direct Student Grad loan (NOT PLUS). 

 

Sallie Mae is charging me 6.8% eventhough Congress/Obama signed the new law 8.9.2013 making the rate 5.41% for ALL Grad loans disbursed after July 1, 2013.  I told them about and some auto-bot emailed me back basically blowing me off.

 

I double and triple checked  (Federal Student Loan website) and the rate SHOULD be 5.41%  Is anyone else being ripped-off?

 

 

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
SCF
Valued Contributor

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

Was the loan FIRST disbursed after July 1?  Sometimes, one loan will have multiple disbursements, so you might receive amounts for summer, fall and spring terms on the same loan.  The best way to check this would probably be to hop over to the National Student Loan Data System (nslds.ed.gov) to see exactly when your loan was disbursed.

 

If it was after July 1, get in touch with Sallie Mae again.  Given that the legislation was fairly recent and retroactive, they may need more time to get the change entered, but staying on top of it certainly won't hurt.  If Sallie Mae continues to ignore your requests (and it may take mailed correspondence or phone calls to get a real person to read/respond), then you could reach out to the Student Loan Ombudsman for clarification on why your loan rate is what it is.

Message 2 of 7
kbns625
Valued Member

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

Yes, This loan was first disbursed after July 1, 2013 - 8/19 to be specific.  I realize this is fairly new, but as someone who works with critical data on a daily basis there is no way a company with such a large stake in Federal contracts and supposed government oversight should not be able to change their systems to comply with Federal Law. 

 

It is not rocket science to program an interest rate change in a computer system.  

 

It is either complete ineptitute/incompetence or they are hoping no one notices.  (see this on how they have been ripping off soldiers) .  

 

Personally I'm sick of constantly having to monitor Sallie Mae to make sure they are not screwing up - for the amount of money they are making off all of us we deserve better service. 

 

 

 

Message 3 of 7
SCF
Valued Contributor

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

In an ideal world, you would be right, everyone would have woken up the next morning, reported to work and worked until all the neccessary changes had been made.  Unfortuantely, it's more complicated than you are giving them credit for.  The DoE spent over a year trying to upgrade their computer systems, and you can read many posts on these forums about the on-going mess that created.  That's a computer system that Sallie Mae has to interface with.  They service a LOT of loans, all of which have a LOT of rules that have changed every few years attached to them.

 

Mistakes happen, did this mistake happen because Sallie Mae is hell-bent on ripping off graduate students with recently disbursed loans?  Maybe, maybe not, I don't think we have nearly enough evidence or time elapsed since the legislation was passed to come to a conclusion on that.

 

It's not just with student loans that you need to be on top of your lender, because mistakes can happen on ANY account.  Follow up with Sallie Mae and then reach out to the Student Loan Ombudsman if the results aren't satisfactory.  That should both help correct your situation, and give the agency in charge of student loan oversight evidence should they need to investigate further.

Message 4 of 7
kbns625
Valued Member

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

Back on topic -

 

Can anyone who has a Graduate Sallie Mae loan PLEASE let me know what their website has your interest rate at for loan disbursed for the fall semester?  

 

SCF - I appreciate what you are saying but I would like to know if others are affected.  This forum as been a great resource for sharing info and experiences so one person doesn't feel alone or feel like they are fighting a one-man crusade against legitimate issues with lender/creditors they bring up.

 

Please don't let this important topic disintegrate.  Thank You.

 

 

 

Message 5 of 7
dta
New Contributor

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

If your loan was first disbursed after 7/1/13, the interest rate on your loan will be retroactively reduced. It's the law, which you can put more trust in than the current state of Sallie Mae's website. It's still a federal loan, lent by the government and simply being serviced by Sallie Mae.

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Message 6 of 7
jenn_bar
Frequent Contributor

Re: Grad Students - check your Sallie Mae loan rate for fall - RIP OFF!

I do not have a SM loan but my law school loans through FedLoan have kicked down to the 5.41%, so you will probably just need to be consistent with them.

Like dta said though, you are probably not the only one this is occurring with, so it will probably be reduced at some time.
Message 7 of 7
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