StudentLoanJustice.ORG- THANK YOU

Oklahoma

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

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Lisa

I started nursing school in 1984 at NWOSU in Alva, Oklahoma. I was married with a one year old child. I took out my first student loan, thinking, "it's only a $50.00/month payback, I can afford it. I went to school for 2 semesters,then had to sit out a semester because of personal,marital, financial problems. That is when my headache began. 1985. 20 years ago!!!! I moved to Norman,Oklahoma and went to OU for a year, then transferred the next year to Oklahoma City University the following year as I was accepted into their Nursing Program. I had also gotten a divorce in that period of time. I borrowed $6,000.00 a year through a GSL and PLUS loan for a total of 5 years, accumulating $30,000.00 in debt. OCU was a private university with ridiculous tuition, and I needed that extra money on top of my grants. I also worked 2 part time jobs. I remarried after completeing nursing school. I repaid in small amounts, but was CONSTANTLY HARRASSED. I was harrassed for repayment of my loans before I even graduated!! All stemming from the semester that I sat out of school. I then had 2 more children that were born critically ill and my spouse and I accumulated almost $1 million in medical bills. The majority of those medical bills were covered by insurance, but we were also left holding about $40,ooo.00 in medical debt. The last thing on my mind was paying my student loan. I dodged the student loan collectors for awhile, then did a chapter 13 small repayment for awhile. I got another divorce.....who would guess that with all the financial issues!! :-) Student Loan collectors have harrassed me for YEARS. At one time I had a huge grocery bag filled tight with unopened threatening letters, thanks goodness for caller ID...but they were sometimes sneaky in calling me. I have done a little job hopping to avoid the garnishment. They have caught me now. My student loan is over $100,000.00 now, for $30,000.00 in original loan amounts. I feel like an outlaw who is wanted. I am garnished at about $800.00 a month. Almost what my mortgage payment is.

It is a CRIME what has happened to me. I am a very generous, giving,loyal employee and person who makes a salary of $48,000.00 with 2 children in the home. They are taking $8600.00 per year out of my low salary. Not only that, but it is so humiliating when your employer takes you into the office with "THE LETTER" of garnishment. At one job, I saw "THE LETTER" in the CFO's mailbox that I swiped it to see if it was mine....talk about feeling like an outlaw!! The Oklahoma Regents have been the perpetrators of the biggest part of my student loan. There is another agency out of California who still call me, and I was harrassed by a woman with an 8th grade education about "mismanaging" my finances, and critisized the kind of car that I was driving telling me that I should get a car with a cheaper payment. Well, when you have negative student loan credit on your credit report, you are almost always doomed in having to pay a higher interest rate for a house or car, no matter what the rest of your credit might look like. I call it my pay till I die student loan. I have felt depressed and hopeless over it for YEARS!! It will never go away. I guess it is about time to job hop so I can get several monthes respite over having to pay the garnishment! It is a horrible feeling. I am an excellant, often recruited, Registered Nurse, but feel like a have a horrible "little secret" when it comes to these loans. Thank you for letting me share my story on your website. Lisa, Norman, Oklahoma

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Bob

LIke everyone else I borrowed and paid exorbitant Student Loans. My original balance after all was said and done was about $85,000. Once again like other here, they wouldn't work with me at all because, as was said, they really DON'T Want you to be able to pay it off.

They want the virtually unregulated fees and whopping penalties they charge. Student loans, because they have a government stamp on them (though adminstered and profited off of by private companies), are virutally given CARTE BLANCHE to destory families across this Country. It is absolutely a crime what these bastards have gotten away with the last 30 years.

I now supposedly owe $220,000 and have never defaulted. It is another untold, uncared about, Great American Tragedy.

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Michelle

I was never a very good student but decided at age 21 to attend college. I first attended junior college then moved on the University of Oklahoma for a teaching degree. No one in my family had previously attended college and I come from a lower-middle class family. I was the sole responsible party for paying my tuition and I did so mostly through student loans given by OU and later sold to Sallie Mae. Upon graduation I owed approximately $50,000.00 and today that amount has gone up to approximately $63,000.00 I've paid very little on the loans because I do not make enough money to pay my living expenses, medical bills (I had back surgery in 2004) and student loans. I am currently in a state of forebearance and have been for most of the time since graduation. Upon my last check Oklahoma was rated #46th in the nation for teacher pay.

I would absolutely love to be able to pay my loans but I simply cannot do it and survive. I teach in a low income school that I feel should be given some consideration in my loan repayment but Sallie Mae offers no such forgiveness unlike government lenders. I know that often doctors and other professions can get forgiveness for working in such areas but not teachers. I hope to not go into default because if I do my teaching certificate could be taken away from me. I know also that doctor's who go into default are refused payment by Medicare. I do not think it is fair, this is America and we should be given some assistance for the work that we do and if we go into default and are punished for it it can further prevent us from being able to keep current payments. The sad fact is that if I ever want to get out from under these payments I cannot remain a teacher, I simply will never make enough money to pay for myself to live and pay Sallie Mae the amount of money they want on a monthy basis. I will never be able to buy my own home, I will never be able to travel, I am held prisoner unless I choose to stop teaching and go into a field that will give me a significant pay increase. That is sad because I love teaching, I love my students but something's gotta give and evidently the United States government does not place a high value on what I do or they would help me and other's like me to get out from under these giant student loans.

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Trygve

I had $24,000 worth of student loans exiting NSU. I went to graduate school and upon exiting had difficulty obtaining employment. During the past thirteen years I have experienced unemployment three times. Sallie Mae assessed fees for unemployment deferment equal to 75% of my original loan amount skyrocketing the loan principal to $38,000.

I was never informed by financial aid of other loans such as the direct loans. My wife who was an early childhood teacher was never informed of loan forgiveness for teaching at an "at risk" school until after she had consolidated.

I recently received life insurance from my mother and tried to negotiate a settlement with Sallie Mae. I was transferred from India support center, to UK or somewhere moving down the line six levels. I was informed that they would not negotiate a settlement.

Upon watching 60 Minutes on Sallie Mae I am convinced that their monopoly is anti-American. It is a behemoth out of control. I have paid off my student loans, but I feel sincere regret for other students caught in Sallie Mae's corporate web. Please support Rep. Petri's vision to correct this financial travesty.

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Debbie

I went back to school to get a teaching degree. With young children at home, my only choice was a local private college. Each time I took out a loan I asked what the payment would be and I was told 'not to worry'. Finally, I was told 'approx. $50.00 a month for each loan'. What I wasn't told was that even though I signed paperwork once a year I was taking out 4 loans per year!

Upon graduation I had student loan debt of approx. $25K. Working on a beginning teacher's salary I received payment books starting at $300/mo. (Unfortunately, I was also in a two-year window where my state offered no loan forgiveness to teachers - even though I was teaching in a Title I school.) When I called, the friendly people at SLMA told me that to 'help my situation' that I could take forbearances, deferments and that I needed to do them in a particular order to maximize my use of the government's money. Or course, I did just that thinking they wanted to help me repay them but within a year, the interest had skyrocketed - increasing my payment so much each year that I began a viscious cycle that couldn't be broken. WITHIN THREE YEARS MY ORIGINAL LOAN AMOUNT HAD DOUBLEDll!

Now, six years later I beg each year for my $100/mo. payment as Oklahoma is 49th in teacher pay (sometimes 50th). I recently completed a one-year National Board Certification process in hopes of receiving a $5,000 state stipend for 10 yrs. However, even if I achieve the stipend the interest will continue at a rate that giving SLMA 100% of this money won't alleviate the debt I now have of $54,000. I've written to SLMA mgmnt. (yeah, like they care), my state representatives, etc. Basically, no one cares. Sallie Mae is predatory lending and legalized fraud. I'll take my student loan debt to the grave unless my home appreciates 200% to the point I can mortgage it in the near future enough to pay off these con artists.

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David John

I AM CRIPPLED BY GILLIAN BARRE', DIABETES, SPINAL DEGENERATION,DIABETES, AND THE DEADLY "NON-HODGKINS LYMPHOMA. I FOR THE MOST PART CAN FUNCTION LESS THAN TWO HOURS PER DAY. MOST DAYS I CAN'T FUNCTION AT ALL I.E., I CANNOT EVEN LEAVE MY BED. MY DOCTORS HAVE FILLED OUT TWO FORMS WITH ONE TOTALLY INGNORED AND THE OTHER CLAIM WAS SUPPOSEDLY FILLED OUT INCORRECTLY. MY DOCTORS WONT EVEN PLAY THEIR GAME ANY LONGER. HOW CAN A FORM WITH ALL THESE DIAGNOSIES BE INSSUFICIENT DATA. THEY (SALLY MAE) HAVE CALLED AT LEAST TEN TIMES PER WEEK, USUALLY 2 TWENTY. I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL, AND THEY THREATENED MY SEVENTEEN YEAR-OLD SON. I AM AT THE VERY LEAST AT MY WITS END. THEY ACT AS IF ONE HAND KNOWS NOTHING OF THE OTHER TEN HANDS ACTIONS. ONE WOMAN DIAGNOSED ME AS COMPLETELY HEALTHY OVER THE PHONE! SHE DIAGNOSED ME AS FINE AND TO QUIT WORRYING ABOUT MY VARIOUS MALADIES. I APPLIED FOR OVER TWO-THOUSAND POSITIONS THAT I WAS OVER QUALIFIED FOR AND ANOTHER THOUSAND THAT WERE STILL BELOW MY MENTAL CAPABILITIES. WHEN EVER I DID GET AN INTERVIEW I WAS QUICKLY DISMISSED AND WITHOUT APOLOLGY OF ANY SORT. MY MAIL BOX IS FULL DAILIY. MOST OF THE TIME EVEN A PHONE CONVERSATION IS BEYOND MY REALM OF PHYSICAL CAPABILITY. THESE PEOPLE ARE TURNING DEAF EAR AND BLIND EYE TO ALL OF MY DOCTOR'S, AND MYSELF. THEY CALL AS LATE AS TEN P.M. AND ON SUNDAYS.

AFTER CHILD SUPPORT AND PERSONAL LIVING EXPENSE I HAVE FIFTY-FOUR TO EIGHTY-FIVE DOLLARS FOR ALL THE FUN FOR THE MONTH TO COME. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? AND/OR WHAT SHOULD I TELL THESE PEOPLE THAT I HAVE NOT SHOWN, AND TOLD THEM OVER ONE-THOUSAND TIMES. THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT WAS IN THE SUM OF THIRTY-SIX TO THIRTY-EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS. I BECAME I'LL DURING MY SECOND M.A. AND WHILST APPLYING TO LAW SCHOOL. I WAS A STOCK BROKER FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS, AND QUIT WORK TO GET AN EDUCATION AFTER CATASTROPHIC FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. I AM TOTALLY UNABLE TO WORK. I HAVE SIX TO EIGHT MEDICAL PROCEDURES PER MONTH, AND THESE TRIPS ARE BY CALL-A-RIDE, PAID FOR BY MY MEDICAID. MY DRUGS ARE TWO DOLLARS PER PRESCRIPTION.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ADVISE, AS TO HOW TO GET THESE PEOPLE TO LEAVE ME AND MY SON ALONE. MY ANGER AND HOPELESS SITUATION WOULD FELL A PERFECTLY HEALTH PERSON, LET ALONE A HELPLESS PERSON. ALONE WOULD LEAVE MOST NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS INCAPABLE OF HOLDING ANY SORT OF EMPLOYMENT. I COULD ONLY HOLD A JOB WHICH INCLUDED SLEEPING AND VOMITING. AND THEY (SALLIE MAE) HAVE FIXED IT TO THE POINT THAT I WOULD HAVE TO MAKE ONE-HUNDRED THOUSAND PLUS TO DO THAT.

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Holli

Like all good Generation X kids, I went to college. That is where this
tale of misery and woe begins. While not a particularly good student, I
did manage to get a BA in political science (minoring in history and English), a paralegal degree from a tech school (completed during an off
year from the university), and finally about half of a master's degree
in accounting. I started in 1988, worked full time for a law firm, went
back to school in 1994 to finish up the BA, had 2 kids in 1994 and 1995,
finally graduated in 1997, did 2 semesters of grad school in 1998 and
ran away screaming from having to rack up so much debt in order to pay for
day care!

I just wanted to be a tax attorney, man, a serious geek, maybe run for City Council. Just a nobody with a huge work ethic. Make a bunch of money and buy a Saab, maybe go to the Bahamas every now and then for a working vacation. Send my kids to good schools. The American dream.

But I was very nervous about the huge amount of debt that was building up
and just didn't have faith that I'd be able to ever get a job that would
allow me to pay my loans off and still make it worth while to let some day
care wage slave raise my 2 kids.

I'm human. I cracked. I did what any sane person would do, drop out and just raise the kids, working at a bookstore part time (about $4.50 per hour at the time). I got my first student loan bill and it was over $800 -- I'd have to make over $20 per hour just to pay that loan and the daycare, payroll taxes, and have ANYTHING left over to buy food and pay for dry cleaning bills that such a job would have required.

Not being in such a situation I just kept putting them into any kind of
deferment I could wrangle.

At no time (despite attempting a MACC) was I ever informed, EVER, of
the possibility of a government direct loan. Also, nobody EVER, EVER
advised me about the follies of 1) a BA in political science ("want fries with that?") and 2) racking up such a huge debt load. Never did a single
person look at my numbers and warn me about it. I was young and desperate
and had bought lock, stock, and barrel into the notion that you just had
to go to college to get anywhere in life.

I have nearly every piece of paper any of those guys have ever sent me,
and quite a few journal entries that document the phone calls I have had.
I didn't get that paralegal degree for nothing.

My loans were consolidated about 4 years ago when I asked one loan
company (who had sent me an otherwise junk mail) to find out if my interest
rate would go up, or go down. They sent me a form and told me that I had to sign it so they could access my accounts.

My tale goes from bad to nightmare here.

Sallie Mae had told me that I would be able to lump the loans into a
few consolidations so that I could defer three and pay on one. It was the
only way I could afford to tackle them. This other loan company, whose
paperwork I have, taped the call where they told me 1) I could consolidate
that way and 2) I would definitely have the option of declining their offer if my interest rate was going to go up (it did). The customer service manager told me that they should still have a copy of the recording. The new paperwork had four loan amounts on it,like we had discussed, and I didn't double check the amounts (which seemed grotesquely over inflated) because it was only supposed to be an estimate, that I would fill out official paperwork later.

Time passed and I had not heard from them. When I called the new
company after a month or so to find out what my interest rate would be, they told me they had sold my paperwork. Sallie Mae had processed a payoff. My paperwork reappeared about 6 months later at a third company, southwest student loans, whose employees insisted that of course the amount was correct. When I asked for a copy of my original loan documents (I told them they had been destroyed in the May tornado) they faxed me a copy of the single paper I had signed for my alleged estimate.

That was in about 2001. I have been looking for an attorney to handle
this since then, and also sending faxes (which are confirmed as received
by my fax log, which I printed out) trying to explain the situation and
asking over and over for their legal department to contact me. I called
in a few times to try to get someone to understand but they literally
laughed at me. One guy even told me smugly that it didn't matter if I
defaulted or not because the government would just pay whatever I owed
minus a small servicing charge.

In 2004(?) my loan was sold again to Sallie Mae. I called them
immediately upon receiving the new payment booklet and informed them
that they should just accelerate my loans into default because I wasn't
going to be paying on them. Ever. The India call center person didn't understand what I was telling them and that was the last time I have tried to contact them by phone. I will NOT speak to flunkies especially those who are stealing American jobs. I asked to be transferred to an American, in the legal department, or at least a supervisor. I kept on going right up the chain until I finally got someone who spoke English.

I did ask that person who was in charge of this company and what the gronk had happened, and she wouldn't tell me anyone's names, claiming ignorance.

When I got a letter stating that my payoff was going to be well over a
QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS, for my original borrowed amount of
$55,000, I figured the only way for that to happen was to win the lottery. Our state didn't have a lottery until 2006 (and I don't play).

It was my intention several years ago to allow my loans to default but
I wanted a small business loan, so I had to defer them again in order to
have everything current. Because of my exhorbitant debt load, I only
got a $5000 small business loan (I requested $15,000), and tried to make a
go of it anyway, but being underfunded got me off to a very bad start and,
although I drew no paycheck during this time, my small business failed
after 3 years. By "no paycheck" I mean NO paycheck. I was literally
paying to go to work (my husband's income was partly subsidizing the
business).

I cannot get our income tax refund for the past 3 years (said small
business, and 2 children, offset my husband's income to the point that
almost all of his withholdings should have come back to us). Not being
able to use the money for desperately needed home repairs (our roof
leaks) or to buy another used clunker (our cars are 1985 and 1991 model
sedans, neither of which is a Saab). The money I believe would be garnished by the student loan corporation so it's just sitting there at the IRS and the state tax division.

I can't get a job because they would garnish my wages. My kids are
in middle school now so I have time to work at some wage job like the
bookstore, but I'm not going to allow my wages to be garnished to repay
an illegal loan (we did not have a meeting of the minds for the consolidation contract, so it is not legal). Not until the dollar amount is figured out and adjusted will I consent to pay a single penny.

I keep sending them faxes requesting their legal or accounting department
to "show me the math" and nobody has ever responded. I have also contacted
our state ombudsman's office several times to file a complaint but it just
asks you to leave a message. I do, a polite one, but nobody ever calls
back.

Finally I sent a letter requesting them (Sallie Mae) to fully account for the amount they say I owe versus the amount I borrowed plus fair interest (hey, this isn't a revolving credit account, don't the usury laws state that interest can't exceed 51%?). I said I've been asking for this for 3 years and nobody's paid any attention. I also clearly lined out that this is NOT a legal contract since they basically lied to me, and gave them 10 business days to respond. I said, if they failed to meet the request, then my loans would become null and void.

I wrote it on a deferment form. I said I did NOT want a deferment, I wanted proof that the amount was correct and copies of my original loan applications. Someone would have had to work very hard to read the form through my letter. I wanted to make sure that they got it. The deferment was processed and all I got was a copy of the stupid paper I'd signed for my estimate. (I had specified the ORIGINAL loan documents that were processed through my school.) So, I suppose that this means that my loans are null and void? At least it's in there.

As a final measure, I called the local bank where I had taken my loan
papers (who also failed to advise me of what this huge debt load would
mean), and offered to pay them 8% on the original amount, as a fixed
loan over a 10 year period. My payments would have been huge but my
husband's salary would have nearly covered them, so I could have gotten a job to help out with it. The lady at the bank said that they had no record of it and anyhow weren't interested in making bargains on student loans. I'm sorry, my contract I signed was with THAT BANK, doesn't that mean
anything?

At the time I was going to start dealing blackjack and just sock away
my cash tips (I expected that the small paycheck would just be stolen by
Sallie Mae) and when I had enough I was just going to take in a box of
cash and make the offer again. I went through a lot of expense going
to dealer school. I have documentation. But while I was in training, the casino decided (some IRS law had just gone into effect) that all tips were going to be paid on the check, and taxes taken out, and that would just mean that the loan people would get MORE of my money, and I would not make a single dent in this illegal loan.

As it turned out, I wasn't able to get a job dealing anyhow; my heavy debt load made me a bad risk, someone who (on paper anyway) would be more likely to steal or accept bribes. Casinos don't want to hire people whose credit looks like mine. Overextended to the tune of $250,000, with no full time employment (other than self) for the past 15 years just doesn't look very good to potential employers.

So I've just been deliberately self-unemployed and hoping to make enough money reading tarot cards (which I do, and do well) to pay my monthly
phone bill. My dad had an ad agency and I worked there when I was in high school, so I've fallen back on my graphic art and photography training and do some commercial work now, and I'm working on a documentary film. You can bet that I'm interested in doing something about THIS situation too!

I legally changed my name but then conveniently forgot to advise the social security administration of it, so that I could get a new driver's license and have my bank accounts changed to my new name. I'm not drawing anything or paying into anything and my taxes are only filed with my initials (which
stayed the same). Why should I make it easier for them to find me?

So not only am I NOT working in my field of expertise, I am having to
resort to fortune telling and even crime, if evading these collection bastards is a crime, just to pay some bills. I have even been extremely
careless with my social security number and identity documents, HOPING that someone will steal my identity and maybe make it better! You KNOW you are desperate for some kind of relief when you start that kind of thinking.

I'm just scared to death that something will happen to my husband and that I'll be forced to enter the workforce to support my kids. I know there are a lot of single parents out there dealing with this very situation and I'm just amazed that they can handle it. I'd love to have a real job, and caught myself pondering the other day how to go about getting a new identity, some way to get a new social security number, just so I could work at oh, I dunno, the dollar store or something, work and pay taxes, be legal about that aspect of it anyhow. Contribute toward social security, have a 401k? Right now I don't even have a savings account. Being able to live a normal life is like a fantasy for me.

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Deborah

In 1988, I decided to go back to college. I was 32, single mom to 3 children, and unemployed as a result of a "general headcount reduction". I qualified for several grants and loans. Over the course of 8 and a half years, I borrowed just over $20,000. Part of the time I worked part-time. I carried a full schedule of 12 hours, 6 or 9 hours in the summer.