The following are testimonials submitted to this site. To tell your story, please go here.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lynnae 

My story: undergrad/grad - borrowed $70,000 (mostly for grad) paid back about $10K..years of underemployment and unemployment and consolidation =105k+ in debt. I am in economic hardship deferment after (harrassing Albert Lord and company) until the end of October as my loan compounds more interest...I make $36K as a sales rep in NYC. I am scared but hopeful - to ROCK Sallie Mae and the like to their knees!!!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Erica 

I took numerous loans out for the California Culinary Academy April 2003-May 2004 and they were bought out by Sallie Mae. Interest rates were at the highest due to marginal credit history and I am not in the bracket to receive too much of Government aide.
Right now I am in deferment because I owe approximately 1,100.00 a month when, as a chef, we make no where near that for the cost of living.  I am also out of work due to my seasonal job (being of 3 seasons a year). Makes you wonder why you tried to better yourself in the first place.
 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damian 

Without going into great detail, I borrowed money for school in the late eighties and early nineties.  I believe the actual amount I was loaned totaled somewhere in the area of $30,000.  Unfortunately, my loan went into default, and then into judgement.  I am now paying interest only on the outrageous sum of $77,000.  Interest and penalties have practically tripled the principal of the loans and are still accruing daily.  I will probably be paying this off for the rest of my natural born life.  This is the price of education in our fare country.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Petra 

I am a single mother, currently unemployed.  I have been chased around and abused by the Department of Employment (DOE) and its agents for the past 20 years.  A $40,000 loan has now "grown" to an astronomical sum of $152,000 and I receive letters and phone calls almost weekly threatening legal action and seizure of assets.  This agency is worse than any collection firm I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.  The worst part:  I do not owe the money, yet DOE refuses to leave me alone.  Here is my story.

I graduated from law school in 1986 with a little over $45K in federally guaranteed student loans.  I moved to Illinois and began making regular payments on my loans as required.  In 1990, I lost my job due to the market crash and began defaulting on my loans.  I requested a deferrment and only got one for a few months.  Without any meaningful prospects of work, I went back to grad school to get another degree and managed to get a lengthier deferrment on my loans.  When I got out of school, the IL. Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) came after me with a vengence.  At this point I was gainfully employed. However, I was working in a low-paying public interest job and was unable to make the full monthly payments.  I tried to negotiate with ISAC and requested a different payment structure.  I told them that I was absolutely willing to repay the loans but given my salary ($32K at the time), and given the monthly loan payments ($1,200/mo. at the time) there was no way I could ma!
 nage.  ISAC wouldn't budge.  I told them they would drive me into bankruptcy if they didn't try to work with me.  Yet, ISAC continued to insist that I make payments that were clearly beyond my capacity to make.  They hounded me with notice letters, called my place of work, threatened wage garnishment, and when they finally filed a lawsuit against me I was forced to file for bankruptcy.  In 1995 I reluctantly filed for Ch.13.  ISAC was paid 10% on the debt and I never heard from them again.

As anyone who files for bankruptcy knows, it's a painful ordeal.  You pay a huge price.  Nevertheless, I worked hard to try to rebuild my life and my credit history.  Six and half years later, I moved to NY and got married.    With a lot of hard work, my husband and I scraped together some money to pay a down payment on a small house.  As soon as I applied for a mortgage, I received a letter in the mail from ISAC demanding payment for the old student loan - now with penalities, interests and collection costs.  The figure was now in the neighborhood of $103,000.  ISAC hired a collection law firm to come after me and they quickly filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court for the collection of the loan.  My former bankrupcy attorney out in IL agreed to handle the matter for me.  He argued the case based on  laches (unreasonable delay) as well as some other technicalities.  Fortunately, and surprisingly, we won and the case was dismissed.  ISAC appealed the decision and again the !
 case was dismissed, with prejudice.

For a short time, I enjoyed a reprieve.  But then the letters started again.  Not surprisingly, when I refinanced my home, I began getting letters and phone calls from DOE and from its collection agents.  They come regularly and in mass quantities now. I have sent them all of the legal documents at least 25 times demonstrating first, that the loan was discharged in bankruptcy back in 1996, and second that the matter was litigated and dismissed in Illinois state court in 2003.  Nevertheless, the people that I am dealing with are non-lawyers, they don't understand the complexities of the argument we are making, and they keep stating that student loans aren't dischargeable - not realizing that, in 1995 when I filed my bankruptcy case the law provided for the discharge of student loans. 

The collection agents working for DOE are agressive, intrusive and ignorant!  They do not do their research.  I have requested copies of my records and they have not been given to me.  The alleged balance on the loan is now up to $152,000.  Keep in mind that the principal balance is only $40,539!  Despite the fact that my attorney and I feel that the law is squarely on our side, I actually tried to negotiate with DOE at one point recently.  I offered to beg, borrow and steal so I could come up with $40K - the principal amount.  I told them that I'd be willing to pay them that amount in a lump sum if they would just go away and call it a day.  They refused.  They have seized my tax refunds and have only applied the proceeds to their collection costs.

At the start of this story I mentioned that I am a single mother.  Part of the reason for my divorce is this issue.  My ex-husband couldn't handle the pressure and the threats of the lawsuit.  He became enraged whenever I received a harassing phone call or notice letter demanding $152,000 in payment.  It was too much for him to take.  I am now a single mother who was recently laid off.  DOE keeps threatening wage garnishment, which is laughable since I have no current income.  And yet, they don't give up.

How do I make this stop????


____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. Adams (NY)

I graduated in 1983 with a BA and $7,500 in loans.
Since I was (and am) an actor and musician living in
NYC, I had problems from the get-go with making
payments. I made payments on and off for years, and
eventually lapsed into default.

At some point -- maybe seven years ago -- I went to
great lengths to rehabilitate the loans from default,
get my account back into good standing and repair my
credit. At some point, I also consolidated the loans,
and they're currently held by SallieMae, that bitch,
with the absurd interest rate of 9%. However, I've
still struggled financially (the years since 9/11 ahve
been particularly tough in NY, as elsewhere) and have
had to take numerous deferments and reduced payment
plans in order to keep the account in good standing.
As you well know, all the interest gets recapitalized,
and the upshot is that the loan's new balance is
$16,688.00 -- more than twice the original amount
borrowed. In my 22 years of good-faith efforts to pay
this thing, I've succeeded only in doubling its size,
with no end in site.

Last year I earned less than $20,000.00, and the
future outlook is not bright. At this rate, I stand to
continue exponentially growing the amount due, with
the payments putting a continual drain on my limited
resources, without ever putting a dent in the
principal. I am, literally, paying monthly to increase
the size of my debt. It's an impossible situation.

The Dept. of Ed. has an "Income Contingent" payment
plan whereby the balance outstanding on a student
loan is "discharged" after 25 years of payments.
(Deferments and forbearance terms are not counted.) At
that point, the IRS counts the amount discharged as
income earned, and whacks you with the tax bill. It's
not clear to me whether or not that's a one-time-only
whack , or whether the IRS comes after you with
interest and penalties.

Surely there should be some loan amnesty for poor
bastards like us who have struggled for years to come
to terms with these debts? And who could hardly be
characterized as reckless consumers of luxury debt?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

E. T. J. 

I went back to school Sept '00. Left and took career employment Feb '03.

Paid off one student loan early this year.

Applied to SallieMae to consolidate remainder of another student loan, the balance at that time was about $8109.35.  I made one more payment of 130.00 to SallieMae and then I was notified that my loan was transferred to ACS.  My consolidation application was completed Jun 23 '05.  I have a pdf copy of the promissory note, it has an electronic signature.  The loan interest rate after consolidation should have moved from 3.37 to 3.375. When Wachovia transferred the loan to ACS, the interest rate on the loan was listed as 5.3% and the balance ACS listed was $7968.67.  I thought it was a small oversight and called to clear it up.  Little did I realize that my problems were just beginning.

ACS would not fix the rate and suggested that I re-apply for the loan consolidation (of course by then it was way past the July 1'05 deadline).  Didn't take that advice.  Finally, Wachovia sent me a letter that listed a Wachovia customer service number.  Started calling Wachovia in July, sent them pdf of promissory note.  Yesterday SallieMae (not ACS) sent me a bunch of payment stubs and surprise, surprise...

after paying an additional $276.50 to ACS (which should put my balance at somewhere around $7620.00) , I now owe Sallie Mae $8020.00 on this loan.

Well, by gosh who wouldn't want to  be in the student loan business with that sort of math!!!!!

I have spent a ton of time on the phone with Wachovia, ACS and with SallieMae.  I am really sick of this.  Tomorrow, I'll spend some time on the phone with a good lawyer.  May also send this info off to New York State Banking and Insurance and the New York State Attorney General.. who's that guy...oh yes ... Mr. Spitzer.

By the way, I do think that the actions of Wachovia through the servicers is indeed criminal.  Last but not least, I am not in default, but I am betting that it may be arranged via this shell game.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Valerie 

I took out a student loan for my daughter 15 years ago when I had a job with grummans I was hit by a drunk driver and became disabled at this time I was supposed to be absolved because of the disability. now as time went on we sent dr. reports and they said they didnt receive them, we kept sending reports but they just kept ignoring them , now they are garnishing my $550.00 disability check.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dave 

Going to make this semi-short because so much is the "same" as so many others...and I have not checked for spelling. Back in the 80's I wanted to go to college.  My parents could not afford to send me and I was not eligible for grants (Pel?) because my parents earned "too much" - which at the time was something like 100 more than what they allowed people to earn per year. The only way I could go to college was to get a student loan. I did this three times - one for each year I was in college, for a total of $7,500.

 So college is done and I start to make payments. On a good day (month) I would pay up to 3 payments at once. never one time did I get a "thank you" letter about doing that. On a bad day (month) i might be a week late. The DOE wasted no time in contacting me with threats about "We will report you and that will ruin your credit". Around 1985 or so it got very bad - multiple letters and phone calls with colleciton agencys making threats about ruining my credit and telling everyone they could about how bad I was at making payments. Agian with not knowing what I know now I was freaking oput about all of this and I just sent a nasty letter to them. The ltter was basicly a rant from me syaing that I was tired of being treated as a number, I was tired of calling and being told that none of my letters were "on file" and all that came up was my name on a computer screen saying I did not make payments, that I was tired of not one time ever being thanked for getting payments ahead of time to them but being a day late and getting calls with people making threats. I also said that if I got any more letters or calls I would consider the remaining $2,500.00 paid in full and also report them to the AG of California. Needless to say I got more calls and letters so I sent off a letter saying because they failed to honor my request my debt was now cancelled,  I also sent a copy of all the paperwork I had at the time to the and CC'd a copy to the AG of California at the time...and to this day I have no idea why I actually did that, but I am, glad I did. For the next almost 18 years there were no more letters, no more calls...nothing.

 Than one day I am on a film set. Suddenly the line producer comes out and stops the shoot. She has the really concerned look on her face. She hands me a cell phone and stands there looking so sad. I say hello? and I hear a mans voice ask "is this Dave?" and I say "yes..." and his tone changes and goes into this whole "We are a collection agency and you defaulted on your student loan..." blah blah. I was stunned and chocked and i could barely muster any words...sitting on a set with the entire production being help up because of this phone call. As calmly as I could I had a semi-noir freak out and asked how they got the number and he would not tell me. I told him he had no right to call me on set and hung up. I asked the line producer how, and why, she would stop shooting for that. Well - after she told me what the guy told her I did some back searching. I called my mother and she had gotten a call from an "old friend" of mine who "has some jobs lined up" and needed to get a hold of me as fast as he could. So she gave him the studios production office. They got a call asking for me and told the person I was on a shoot and could not be reached. So the caller tells them there is a serious family emergency and he needed to get a hold oe asap.  So they give him the productions cell number so they can call the set directly. The phone rings and the line producer answers the phone and she is asked fo rme and she sayd I am busy, they are shooting and so on. Now she gets told that my mother is ill and possibly near death and it was of the utmost improtance that he speak with me. By the time I got this whole story together I was shaking and had I known where this collection agency was and the who the person was, and where they lived, I would have done whatever I could have to bring them to their knees in whatever way I could.

 The best I could do is get the guys voicemail and left him a message that he was never ever to contact any member of my family or my emplyers again. That if I ever found out who he was I was going to bring charges agaist him for the methods he used. I never heard from him again. But a few years after that I am married and have a child. The first year my wife and I file and get to use th e"erned income" credit suddenly instead of a return we get a letter saying that the entire amount  was used for a past debt...you got it - the student loan. This has gone on now each year for the last 5 years, except I am much wiser and my wife fills out the "injured spouse" form so their amount they take is less than 100%.

 Like someone else posted the IRS on behalf of the DOE has taken more than what was owed to start off with except now, this week actually, my neighbors are getting phone calls from a "Val" at "Van Ru" looking for information about me. She says she is an old friend of mine and needs to speak with me urgently. I have no idea who "Val" is or who "van ru" is - so i do a search and find out "Van Ru" is a collection agency that seems be hired a *lot* by various state and federal agencies for debt collection. They also seem to have long list of lawsuits against them for their methods. Seems they claim I owe $8,000.00 on the loan plus another $52,000.00 in interest and "fees". Keep in mind when the harrasment was going on the first time around I only owed $2,500.00 - seems they upped it a bit...ok, they upped it a HUGE bit.

 Now here is a bit of info on "van Ru" - I contacted the DOE about them and they said they could not help me because Van Ru was not one of their contractors. So I did some searching and found out their contract with the DOE expired in March 2005. Not only that but guess how much "Van Ru" was paid? (or I should say "guess how much our beloved DOE "awarded" them for the contract to go out and collect debts?") $47,029,654.57  yes - you did read that amount correctly.

 So now I have to wonder what the hell is "van Ru" doing? They have not contacted me at all - yet they are contacting all my neighbors asking about me. I did a credit report search and I come up with nothing - as in nothing owed, no debts, no bankruptcy - a clean and good report. But now here is the "fun" part. In the last 12 months guess who has requested to see my credit report? yup "Van Ru". They did it in August 2005.

 So that is where I am at as of today. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. But I now save things, I now keep records. I dod not have any student load records around - I don't have check stubs of copies or even statments. I mean they tell you to keep thing for maybe 5 years....and we are talking over 20 years years now with no word about student loans from anyone for about 18 of those years. So sad...so very sad. If I harrased people like some of the Collection places do I would be tossed in jail.  Not only can they get away with it, one look at the stack of lawsuits agaist "Van ru" over the years shows they not only keep doing it but get HUGE govt contracts to do it. 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. 

My story is not nearly as tragic as others, but reading these stories makes my heart absolutely break. currently i am a undergraduate student pounding on debts door. I had never had a problem with taking out small loans and thinking i would be able to make the payment back but now i am so fearful of that future i cant even begin to think if college is worth it.
my college was bought out by a larger more corporate run college which pushed me out to transfer schools. after applying for scholarships grants and any other financial aid i was denied due to " mid semester ransfers dont usually get a lot of aid, so try again".  so after taking out another loan, i saw my debt rise up to 35,000 ( i have been in college almost 3 years but now am at the status of a sophomore). after reapplying for aid, i learned that with the school i go to i can only apply once for grants and scholarships-and thats it! i was told by the financial aid counselor that i would have to just take out loans or my parents could! i remember sitting their explaining to her that my parents can barely afford to take care of themselves, how could they have more impending debt over their head? i was then told to talk to loan execs from sallie mae, who said to just go ahead and take out another 2 years of 20,000 loans.

Thats 55,000 in loans without interest in a career where i plan on making less than about 21,000 a year.and im still in undergrad pending on the fact to have a job that isnt flipping burgers, grad is becoming more and more of a requirement.

though we have not defaulted, many other students are in this same situation with myself. we are caught in this limbo where fafsa says our parents should be able to pay for us but then are paying off their debts and cant! we have to financially support ourselves, working and still not meeting a quota of financial stability. scholarships and grants are becoming more and more difficult to come by, so then we are basically gang hassled into taking out extravagant loans to pay for our educations, because an education is the most important thing. what about being able to go to school and not be floundered in debt? isnt that just as equaly important?

does anyone remember the meetings in college where they talked about your loans? mine included you will have to pay it off, were not sure how much your interest is and have a good day, hope you dont default.

i am so scared of my debted future and even more scared of these loans that pile up so easily.and i know i am not alone.
if anyone out there has any helpful information it would be most appreciated. anything!

i hope everyone here can get past their student loan crisis as best they can
all the luck and help,

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vera 

I am being harrassed by a collection agency called PIONEER RECOVERY. IN OR AROUND 1985, I WENT TO A BUSINESS SCHOOL CALLED CROWN BUSINESS INSTITUTE IN BROOKLYN NY. THE ORIGINAL LOAN WAS 2,521.00. I ONLY WENT FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS AS I FELT I WASNT LEARNING ANYTHING. I NEVER FOUND A JOB, AND REMAINED ON WELFARE.

OK.IN 1988 I WENT TO THE BROOKLYN TRAINING CENTER AND I TOOK A LOAN FOR AROUND THE SAME AMOUNT. I DID FINISH BUT I DIDNT GET A NURSES ASSISTANT JOB.SO I GOT EMPLOYMENT IN 1995 IN A THRIFT SHOP UNTIL, 1997. THEN I STARTED WORKING AS A HOME HEALTH AIDE.I STARTED TO PAY THROUGH SALLIE MAE. I AM STILL PAYING THEM NOW.BUT THIS COLLECTION AGENCY PIONEER JUST CONTACTED ME THIS MONTH ON THE PREVIOUS LOAN. I TOLD THEM I DIDNT HAVE THE MONEY THEY WERE ASKING FOR. BUT I COULD TRY TO PAY SOMETHING.THIS PERSON NAMED LUANN, ASKED IF I COULD FIND A FAMILY MEMBER TO ASSIST ME.MIND YOU I ONLY MAKE 7.60 AN HOUR AND WORK 20 HRS A WEEK. THEY DIDNT WANT TO HEAR ME OUT  AND HER SUPERVISOR MADE THREATS TO HAVE MY WAGES GARNISHED.MY FAMILY MEMBER OFFERED TO HELP ME WITH A PAYMENT OF 80.00 FOR THIS MONTH TO GET THE BALL ROLLING AS LUANN SAID I NEED TO PAY 79.00 FOR 12 MONTHS AND THEN MUY PAYMENTS CAN BE REDUCED. MY FAMILY MEMBER MAILED ME THE PAYMENT LAST WEEK. I DIDNT GET IT TILL TODAY. BUT YESTERDAY 1-24-06,  LUANN AND HER SUPERVISOR WASNT HEARING MY EXPLANATION. SO I WAS THREATENED WITH THE GARNISHMENT OF MY WAGES.NOW I HAVE BEEN FAITHFULLY PAYING OFF MY OTHER LOAN. I TOLD PIONEER THAT IF I GET MY TAXES, I CAN PAY A MUCH LARGER AMOUNT. THEY DIDNT WANT TO HEAR IT. SO THE SUPERVISOR GOT NASTY AND I JUST HUNG UP ON HER YESTERDAY, 1-24-06. WELL THERES MY STORY. I ALSO FILED A COMPLAINT WITH THE FTC.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

J.L. 

IHESC - Higher Education Services Corporation (or the Board of Education) is now garnishing my Social Security Disability Income 15% due to student loans. I am a 63 year old disabled woman. 

HESC and Sallie May and General Revenue Corporation phone me every day of my life to hound me about my student loans of $38,000. And they refuse to cut down or cut off the interest, so that maybe I can get a fresh start before I drop dead sometime after my 64th birthday maybe.

Since my social security income is being garnished 15% (BY HESC), I no longer have funds to pay my monthly bills - electric, phone, medication, food, etc. But Mr. Chronchite of HESC and Mr Bush in his Oval Office, can sit pretty in their offices and not worry about their bills or whether or not they have electricity or food or medication etc.
 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Linda 

MY story, I will make it quick.  I sued NYS because the original lending bank and New york state higher education services corporation ripped off the money I had given them. I still have those checks, the court conveniently "lost" one.  Made it disappear.  It is bigger then you think.  These corporations own the courts, thats correct.  Not only did the Attorney General lie, so did the judge.  He chimed in and said my repayments were actually "interest payments".   None of this of course was on their counterclaim, they made it up as the trial proceeded. Check out the court paperwork , you will be amazed.  Nothing was kept according to federal rules of evidence.  When I asked the AG for documents,  the judge threaten me with contempt of court.  And finally, my third attempt through the freedom of information law,  getting my documents from   New York State higher education services, they put it on the xerox machine and "blanked" it all out.  Sons of bitches huh.  Here is the big problem.  The corporations own the courts right now. The judges, AGs etc are just pimps for the industry.  Get em another way.  Follow the CEO,s and show the world how they live, and I bet, you just may get a shot of seeing, the judge and the ceo playing golf together. 
 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Trevor

I went to school and never finished because of having a family. Life happened.

Now i'm somehow 40,000 dollars in debt from about 12,000 $ in student loans. My pay is being garnished by both the DOE and HESC. HESC calls me regularly and their agents are verbally abusive and harrassing.

Someone needs to do something. Why can't we file harrassment charges? The loans schedule they use is tantamount to Usury, which last i looked, is illegal. I suppose if it's the government doing it, they can make it legal for themselves.

At this point my credit history is destroyed. I'm considering just quitting my job and working under the table to prevent continued collection.

Isn't there anyone who can help?? Why won't our representatives DO ANYTHING?

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

David 

I STARTED OUT OWING SALLIE MAE $3400 I'VE ONLY BEEN LATE ONCE AND NEVER ASKED FOR A DEFERMENT. SINCE EARLY 2003 I'VE PAID $2200 . I PAY DOUBLE OR MORE EVERY MONTH. I AM CURRENTLY 4 MONTHS AHEAD ON PAYMENTS HOWEVER WHEN I CHECKED MY BALANCE AS OF APRIL 4,2006 I OWE $2300. I CAN PAY THE $2300 BUT I FEEL [I KNOW] THERE IS SOMETHING VERY SHADY ABOUT THIS. I SUGGEST THAT SOME KIND CLASS ACTION AGAINST SALLIEMAE, REQUESTING SOME KIND INVESTIGATION. THEIR HAS TO BE SOME KIND OF CONSUMER ADVOCATE WHO IS WILLING TO LISTEN. THIER IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS AND POLITIONS LISTEN TO VOTES.
 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Susan 

I I am neither a typical borrower of Sallie Mae meaning that I have never been in default nor applied for any economic hardship that would have brought about a debt of multiplied initial debt. Nevertheless, SM has grossly inflated and misrepresented my debt, by charging my account with fraudulent loans for which SM could produced no promissory notes to me, by entering loans in my account that were never disbursed to me, and by tinkering with loan documents.  In addition, SM had never issued finance disclosure and repayment schedules to me so that I would understand the total debt and the years of payment I would have been aware of the SM abuses of overcharges. What is more, SM entered me into the first consolidation in 7/2003 for which there was no more debt left over.  SM entered me into the second consolidation in 4/2006 without my consent by fabricating an invalid electronic signature because I refused to sign the promissory note. For this consolidation !
 I never authorized SM to buy Direct student loans from the Education Department because SM had deliberately kept the consolidation interest rate from me, which was against the law.

Having paid off my debt, there was no other loan to consolidate for the 7/2003 consolidation. More outrageous, for the 7/2003 consolidation SM debited my account for $38,000. Alas! As it was, the SM shark would have never stopped devouring my payment-apparently for a never ending life-time entanglement. I was shocked agonizing over the $38,000 consolidation that where did this amount come from? I had to find out the answer, and through only an attorney I got my detailed payment history in 2004 for the first time (before then SM would never provide a detailed account history) that showed loan entries for $18,500 I have never borrowed. Overwhelmingly obscured even for a professional accountant, SM in the payment history made several entries for another $18,500 loan that showed a time period for the disbursement as the fall of 1996 and spring 1997 when I was not even a student and never enrolled in any school, and when there was no loan disbursed to me.

To begin with the SM abuse of my initial debt for $7,250, SM has inflated my initial debt of $7,250 to a debt of $15,550 in 1989 with fictitious loan entries into my account but without promissory notes produced to me to justify this balance. Since then my payment history shows SM has charged me $30,000 for the initial debt of $7,250, and with no history of my being in default and having never applied for economic hardship.  In the absence of promissory notes to justify this initial grossly misrepresented debt, I requested SM furnish me with the promissory notes but SM has never done so despite my several requests.   By 12/ 1996, I had repaid $10,600 for the initial $7,250 initial debt, meaning that by all accounts I owed nothing to SM as of 12/ 1996. In 1996, the only other loan I borrowed through SM was $18,500, and repaid SM $31,000 for this loan as of today.  Since my account was initially conceived in 1982, neither the initial lender Chemical Bank nor SM has issued me d!
 isclosure statements. Deprived of disclosure information, I have had no opportunity to appreciate discrepancies that have occurred in my account in the past several years in order to take necessary action.  Gradually in the recent years I have discovered several discrepancies in my account that have occurred over the years. In spite of large amount of regular monthly payments I have made-and never been in default- a small amount of debt ($7,250) has lingered in my account since 1989 and still not paid off.  Although I have made a total of $31,000 payment for the $7,250 initial debt, SM still showed a $2,500 debt in the year of 2003 in order to enter me in a consolidation.

Being deprived of the promissory notes and finance and repayment schedules I had never received, I never knew the actual amount of debt for the 7/2003 consolidation, which is to say that SM again violated the law for not providing me with the promissory notes, finance disclosure statement and repayment schedule so that SM could conceal outrageous misrepresentation of its overcharges in the multiples of the initial debt blown out of proportions over the years.  For this consolidation SM debited my account for $38,000 in 7/2003 despite the fact that when I must have already paid off my total debt of $25,750 since I had made a total payment of $35,000 to SM by 7/2003. For this amount of debt I have repaid SM $41,000 recorded as of present in my payment history issued by SM.

Since November, 2005 I stopped making monthly payments as SM had taken no action, demanding me to make payments along with late payment charges.  In the present SM is making daily phone calls to my home and sending letters declaring my account is delingquent. So resentful over the SM abuses over the sixteen years that I had made a commitment of repaying my debt, and after a fastidious ritual of monthly payments for sixteen years, I am overwhelmed by the never ending instead grossly growing entanglement with my student loan debt, I feel that I have been grossly abused, bullied and ripped off by SM.

Disgruntled over the recent events of cancelled loans, yet still I have to make my monthly payments while SM has devoured thousands of dollars but never made necessary adjustments and closed my account for the recent cancelled Direct loans, in the present I have made a resolution that I will never pay one more penny to SM, whether or not SM will destroy my credit I have worked all my life to keep in a good stand. I am upset about the SM abuses, because all my life I have exerted a single-minded effort on my student loan debt. I strongly believe I have paid off my debt several years ago already, but grossly mislead by SM about it. As a result, I have overpaid SM for fictitious loans, overcharges for interest payments, and illegal consolidation when I had no debt to consolidate (7/2003 consolidation), and when I had a fraudulent consolidation that SM created by fabricating an invalid electronic signature on an Internet application I left incomplete and then used it as a promis!
 sory not because I had never signed the actual promissory note in an attempt to stop SM entering me into the consolidation of 4/2004 for which never authorized SM to purchase my Direct student loans.

Along with telephone calls in person, a few months ago I sent SM a detailed account of the problems with my account, requested refund and closure of my account but SM has neither provided answers nor solutions to problems I state above. 


My Life in the Present:

In the present I am unemployed with an invalid diploma I have returned to my college and requested refund for the tuition fee, but never received it. I could not talk about this issue in job interviews as I am expected to hold a recent degree, indicating a current training in the field of instructional technology. My course study on the transcript is inconsistent with the instructional technology field I am awarded the degree for, so I can no longer go to job interviews. My college has never paid me back for the tuition fee, nor returned all Direct loans of my account. In other words, my fight with SM is for recovering the tuition fee I have paid over several years with my hard earned money.  I have paid my life fortune to get a good education, but regrettably I am bullied with a bogus diploma, and forced to pay $34,000 more to SM for a fraudulently imposed debt on me. Considering my case, our government, schools, and financial institutions seem to be involved in this crime !
 of shortchanging college students, the workforce of this country. There are three issues in my case: 1) wasted taxpayer dollars on student loans for worthless degrees easy to get but for no jobs exist; 2) a runaway debt multiples of the original debt imposed on students no longer able to repay because of cut and throat repayment practices of loan servicing corporations; 3) legislation that  turn this social issue for college education and professional training of US workforce into a lucrative corporate business in the hands of our law-makers giving a green light to student loan financing corporations who are building fortunes out of misery of financially strapped student borrowers.

I am determent to fight against wasting taxpayers' dollars for bogus degrees, salvaging student borrowers against the abuse of the loan servicing corporations to stop them imposing astronomic finance costs for a life-time involvement of debt repayment, and fighting for legislation that would support financing college education and professional training by guaranteeing financial protection and debt solvency to financially strapped borrowers. Thus, I am very much interested in joining the activists for these causes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kelli 

I The following is a letter I wrote last year. I have refinanced my student loans but at a much higher rate than is available because the rate Sallie Mae locked me in at is the rate I have to pay. The laws are crazy.

My name is Kelli  and I live and work in the Adirondacks of NY.  I chose to become an occupational therapist because I desired a career that allowed me to help people, while earning a paycheck. I returned to college at age thirty and received a Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy to fulfill this aspiration.  For the past four years, I have driven over 500 miles a week to deliver these services to developmentally and learning disabled children that reside in the North Country.  I have also been trying to repay my student loans during this time.

Since last May, I have put my student loans into forbearance. I purchased a new Subaru at that time.  It was