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

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Gail

This is my son's story so I don't have all the facts but I do know enough to know it was one of the factors that drove him to suicide.  He was very depressed because he owed over $200,000 in student loans and saw no end to ever paying them off.  He had consolidated before the interest went way down and when he looked into doing it when interest was good he was told he could only do it once in the life of the loans.  He had gotten his masters degree and had almost completed his PHD.  Because of this hard line rule it became overwhelming.  He committed suicide 9/28/05 and the world lost a beautiful, brilliant person and I lost one of the loves of my life.  I'm not just saying these things because I am his Mother and loved him. 

He was so smart he belonged to Mensa and I am attaching his local obituary.  I keep receiving bills from the student loans even though I have repeatedly returned them to sender with the message that he was deceased.  When they kept coming I added the fact that he was deceased in part because of these bills and when they still kept coming I added that they were rubbing salt in a wound and were breaking my heart and to please cease already.  Michele was 39 and had so much to give. His Father is dying of liver cancer but Michele's death is the tragedy of his life, even more than his own death sentence.  His wife, his parents and brothers are all victims.    I would like to see legislation that protects these students and gives them alternatives if they have a hardship repaying these loans.  

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Temena

I was amazed to see the student loan story on a CBS New show.

I have been suffering through this situation since 1996. I borrowed $26,000 and upon graduation began to pay after the grace period. I paid religiously for years but have had economic issues periodically and so I have deferred them off and on. I now owe nearly $31,000. I recently had them refinanced to Direct Loans from Sallie Mae but the terms have not changed my payment only got reduced. These loan companies are evil. I am a single mother and the rapid increase in principal has caused serious distress and economic difficulty in my life. I continue to seek employment that will aid me in repaying this dept but I am only making 11.25 an hour working for the state.

I have a BA in Criminal Justice and it has done me no good in this competitive market. I really believed when I began college that I would never have to struggle like this. Isn't that why we seek an education? I believe we were lied to!! I was lied to! They are charging 8% interest and won't let me refinance them to a lower rate. Its wrong and I pray every day that an answer appears for me and others in this situation. I will be paying on these loans for the rest of my life. Again I say....they are evil. Please keep me updated on the progress of this fight and let me know if there is anything I can do. Thank you for this opportunity to express this. Good luck to you!

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E.G.

Tonight is 5/07/06.  60 min just reported on student loans. I had loans of about $12,000.00 in 1995.  I am now partially paralyzed due to spinal surgery. Money is taken from my Social Security and now I receive state aid in order to barely exist. What we don't understand is there are legal rules--one may have to divorce in order to buy a home--or not have wages garnished-- and now that I realize illegals have more rights than I do as a person born in the U.S.--I urge people to start young and get about 3 identifications--just in case--if you have a computer go read student loans at 60 min.  About 2 BILLION DOLLARS was given to CONGRESS to enact these collection laws against honest well intentioned folks--pay attention folks--the honest way won't work anymore--I am all for joining.

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Greg

I graduated from College of Pharmacy 1988 at age of 38, with a loan of 21k. Married with two children. We worked very hard to keep our loans down. I subjected my wife and children to much deprivation and hardship. Ronald Reagans' administration eliminated low interest loans, I had to borrow and the going inflated rate 11% & 12%. Wife went to law school, I worked two jobs 8 years to pay for that education and paid minimum on my loan. Wife became clinically depressed, never could practice law, just terrible years. Divorce, we had just bought a fixer-upper and lost it. A family broken. I began working 30 days out of a month to pay bills. To do this I would have to work out of town, that's when "they" sent the letter. I had not made my payment on time I had two weeks to respond to the fines and charges. My loan had increased because of high interest rates to 31k. Now my loan would be 59k with fines. Because I did not respond in the time allowed by lender ( Note: my loans were sold so often I could not keep up with the transactions) the loan was sold back to DOE.

My loan actually doubled. Since 1997 I have paid $420/mo and that only pays interest, my loan is the same today as then. When I asked for assistance I was told none would come. I'm remarried am purchasing a house and it can be taken and sold to pay the big investors. I have paid $39k on a 21k loan and will never be able to pay it off because I can no longer work but two days a week, I'm not completely disabled so no help. "if you trip you will fall". Folks you will become indentured, the constitution of USA says that cannot happen, but big capital says they can. Considered leaving USA.  Good Luck to you all  GW age 56

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Witheld

I am now 53. I was raised in poverty--picking beans and berries at the age of  in order to help put food on the table. I was the only one in the family to graduate from high school, and last year I earned my masters degree. I am more than $80,000 in debt because, being in poverty, and ignorant of the system, I was unable to get the help I needed with money matters (in high school the counselor told me to forget going to college because I would never be smart enough to get through it--only because I was raised on welfare).
I have been unable to find a job in my career, and am now homeless and jobless.
I borrowed money from private institutions who are unwilling to stop the interest from accruing, so even if I do find a job, my wages will be garnished--so why try?

I truly believed that if I got an education, I would be able to get out of poverty. With the student loan debt I will never get out of poverty.

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D.S.

Well, different than the other stories on this website, I did everything right.  I don't have any disabilities, or disabled family members, I'm not divorced, or a single parent.  My husband and I own a decent middle class home, and two decent newer cars.  I have been employed almost right out of grad school at a decent income level.  But STILL... I'm in student loan trouble like everyone else here. 

I borrowed $25k from Sallie Mae for my undergrad loans.  Took 3 years off to stay home with my babies, putting my loans in deferment during that time.  Then I took out $40k from Key Bank for grad school.  I knew then that was a lot of money, and a lot of debt, but I figured it was reasonable to pay 1 year salary for your education.  What I didn't know was that with fees, interest and penalties, I would be repaying not only my own education, but also the money I would someday want to save for my children's future education.  Now I currently owe over $175k, and that number will only continue to grow with interest.

1 year into repayment and my new career, I began to fall behind in my payments.  $37k annual salary isn't really that much.  And with the payments they were demanding, I didn't have enough left over to even pay for my kids hot school lunches.  I was not then, nor am I now living extravagantly.  After ending up in default on my grad loans, I am still paying Sallie Mae, and now the people who are collecting on my grad loans.  I pay $700 a month. 

If it weren't for my husband's income, I too would be living on the streets, or at least in a very depressing tiny apartment, trying to scrape together the food and utilities money each month.  I currently save $0 each month. 

I've read other stories here about how this has ruined marriages.  My husband too is upset by the situation.  Upset that I can't contribute even a little to the expense of a family vacation, that I have to ask him for money to fill my gas tank.  And who can blame him?  He entered marriage believing he was gaining a partner, not another dependant.  And it wears on my self esteem. 

I saw the story on 60 Minutes last night. It infuriated me!  I can't believe our government has turned us into a generation of slave labor, intentionally set us up to fail and default.  Now all I want to know is... what can we do about it?  We've all shared our stories about how bad off we are, what i'd like to see is information about what our rights are, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
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Nadia

I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1987. I've been trying to get a job. No one will hire me.

The Student loan ruined my credit and damage me for the rest of my life. Last Fall I got a small job to teach a class at OSU Women Studies. I filed for my income tax. The Student loan garnished it..

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Teague

II accept full responsiblity for incurring student loan debt under Sallie Mae.  However, I discovered upon graduating (A.S. Microelectronics) that employers expect job applicants to have at least 1 year prior work experience for available positions.  I have none.  Therefore even though I made both the Dean's List and the President's List I am working as a toilet cleaner with a student Loan debt totaling $32,000 (including interest).
My interest has been paid off but I still have $141.75 monthly principle payments to make for the next 17 years.
My concern is not exactly with Sallie Mae but the fact that colleges and universities continue to promote various degree programs without mentioning the prerequisites for obtaining a job after graduating (primarily work experience).

If I was employed as an electronics or semiconductor technician at high wages I could afford the $141.75 monthly payment a lot easier.

Well, I geuss I have no one to blame but myself.  I consider my degree as a personal but pyrrhic victory.
I have to embrace my fate along with other debtors who in the aggregate have become indentured servants to Sallie Mae.

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Frelime

My story is not one of default, nor is it of one regarding my own student loans, which are already consolidated under a private lending institution.  I simply wish to tell you what happened to others, for whom I have and am advocating, and my personal dealings with Sallie Mae.

Khalid is a Saudi citizen and permanent resident of the U.S. whom I met approximately 15 years ago as a Portland Community College student.  Over the years of our acquaintance, he eventually transferred to a four year school, Portland State University, where he took an undergraduate degree.  He then enrolled in a graduate program through PSU. He had completed his course work in this program, only needing to complete and defend his master's thesis, when he suddenly got bad news from home.  His family learned that his father was dying, with no more than six months to live.

Unfortunately, these events transpired a mere 6 months after 9/11.  He needed to leave for home as quickly as possible and needed someone to take responsibility for his business affairs--sell his car, handle his bank accounts, begin collecting mail from his post office box, pay his bills, etc.

One of my business responsibilities for Khalid,  was to consolidate the student loans of my friend who had taken them out under four separate lending institutions.  Because my loans are consolidated with Citibank, I was familiar with the process.  We, therefore, chose to go with that institution. One of the lenders was Sallie Mae.  We kept the forebearances/deferrments going until the consolidation was finally complete.  My job was not easy and very time-consuming because I was repeatedly relapsing with multiple sclerosis, I had no power-of-attorney over this person (the girlfriend who did have that legal status flaked on us--I  believe partially out of fear of surveillance), and I was doing this for a person over-seas by whom I mainly communicated by e-mail. There were forms I needed to get to him through the Acrobat Reader or J-peg, but for whatever reason, it was impossible for him to download from his internet service provider in Saudi Arabia. I won't elaborate upon all the problems with faxing, delays with the postal service, confidentiality issues, etc.

Two summers ago, when it finally apppeared that the job was done--the consolidation application form was done with all the lenders, loan amounts and interest rates listed and signature--Sallie Mae flatly refused to RELEASE their loans he had with them.  They blatantly lied to me, claiming that the loans were not eligible for consolidation because he had his loans with them as the single lender.  Citibank, by the rules, could only leave that loan application pending for a limited amount of time without having to void it out. Because Sallie Mae loans were included with the bunch, we seemed to be left with no alternatives.

I desperately called the Oregon Student Assistance Commission (OSAC) because by this point his forbearances were expiring, and there was the impending danger of default.  OSAC went into their data base where they had listed all his student loans.  They told me that what Sallie Mae was telling me simply was not true.  When I asked, "But why?", I was told, "Because they want to force you to consolidate under them!"  In the meantime, we were being bombarded with Sallie Mae advertisements coming through the mail. These were encouraging us to consolidate with Sallie Mae while the prime interest rate was at it's lowest in forty years!  In the meantime, Citibank just closed out the application.

The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia is incredibly high. My friend was being heavily pressured by his family to remain in Saudi Arabia, where the family was intent upon finding him a wife who could assist in caring for his now widowed mother.  He wanted to marry a Western woman of his choice who also had the ability to speak Arabic to his aging mother, but finding such a woman was impractical.  He also had the pressure of completing a thesis in which he had done half his research at an English library facility in the U.S.  Having to switch over to Arabic resource materials was a nightmare.  He was under tremendous psychological pressure.  In the meantime, I was steadily relapsing and remitting with MS and not clear-headed enough half the time to conduct my own business affairs in a reliable and consistent manner, let alone his.  Because we were desperately attempting to prevent a default, I lent him money I could not afford to lend from my meager Social Security benefits.

In the fall of the same year (summer 2004) that Sallie Mae undermined the Citibank consolidation effort through manipulatiion and lying, he did, that fall, default on a loan upon which he owed approximately $280.  Fortunately, we were free to bundle that defaulted loan with the loans from other institutions, which amounted to $16,000-$18,000.  We were able to pull it back out of default through Wm D. Ford, but only under special repayment conditions which we are still struggling  to meet.  He must now make five on-time payments, regardless of his financial hardships, otherwise the consolidation will be nullified.  He will be eligible for no deferrments, forbearances, or downward adjustments of payment amounts which are in keeping with his income until we meet these specially tailored guidelines, thanks to the dishonesty, delays, and unethical behavior of Sallie Mae.  Needless to say, his credit record has been trashed.

While this unnecessarily long consolidation process was going on, I was being bombarded with phone calls and mail correspondence from lenders and collection agencies.  I was and still am seriously ill.  When Sallie Mae placed calls,  I found them to uncooperative, hostile, beligerent, and deceptive.  When I angrily stated to someone who had placed a menacing call t6o me from Salllie Mae that the acccount would not be delinquent and on the verge of default had they only not stymied our efforts to consolidate under Citibank, this person went so far as to tell me that the reason for their refusal to release his loans to Citibank is that it is unlawful to consolidate federally guaranteed loans under a private financial institution.  Of course, I was left asking why I had been told prior to that that the problem for their failure to release was that they, Sallie Mae, was his single, solitary lender, therefore making consolidation impossible.   Also, how had I managed to so simply consolidate under Citibank? The party with whom I spoke was so beligerent and so quick to present much of what I knew to be misinformation, that I came to the realization, in a stunning way, that the customer service representatives were being TRAINED to engage in this type of unethical behavior.

That's when I contacted Wm Ford.  Whoever I spoke with assured me that  various things I was told by Sallie Mae simply were not true.  She asked if I had considered consolidating under Wm Ford.  I told her that Sallie Mae was my problem, but my friend was flatly refusing to yield by consolidating under them because he realized they were running an unethical business operation.  The service representative assured me that they had ways of getting around Sallie Mae.  She said, "We ARE the government."  My friend just this spring managed to consolidate under the Wm D. Ford Direct Loan Program.

There were still unanswered questions in my mind.  Why would the government allow federally guaranteed loans to be handled by such a corrupt organization?  My plate was too full to do any researching or writing of congressmen, but I am so relieved that I just happened to tune in "60 Minutes" the night added insights were given into Sallie Mae and it's operations.  I was fully convinced that, perhaps, not terribly seasoned and sophisticated students were being badly exploited and that there was a need for U.S. Congressional hearings, even, but viewing myself as a potential catalyst was totally unrealistic.  I am relieved to know that others are indeed attempting to do something.

 

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Cynthia

Background....In 1988-90 undergrad loans apx 38K, 1992-94 grad
loans 21K (unfinished due to injuries, no work til 1999-2002).
default in 2000.  Unable to negotiate any fair or reasonable
settlement. Nearly 20K charged in one day by switching to another
collection company. The original amount of about 59K now 220K.

As I explained I am the Plaintiff in a student loan bankruptcy case
trial scheduled for September 15th, defendant Sallie Mae. It is called
an adversarial proceeding.

I am not confident my case is going to be presented properly to the
judge. I am hearing from the attorneys that I may meet two of the so
called three part "Brehner" test ( another case setting some possible
standard ) and that in order to make the third part I may have to be
completely unable to work.

 The whole premise of deciding a case it appears, has to do with
"undo hardship". Common sense would say that original loans of apx 59K
could not possibly be legal to go to apx 220K.

Someone please show me what I signed that said this could happen. I
would not wish this kind of stress on anyone. It's like kicking a down
dog and adding continual insult and injury. It's difficult to admit the
threshold of anxiety this has impressed upon me. Any thoughts of a fair
resolution that I may have had more than ten years ago have slid into
an abyss of hopelessness. One collection rep told me my account had not
been handled properly and that the "mafia" was involved. This was
surely an attempt to put more fear in me.

I burned myself out trying to earn enough money to pay this off,
meanwhile never receiving an accounting of how I got to owe this much.
At every turn a new collection company repeatedly called me with a new
set of "rules" or programs to "help" me which only led to more money
owed.

 Countless times I agreed to be sent literature on the next way to
"save" my credit and start over; ie:" the income contingent program",
(which I fear the judge is favoring and saying we have not explored, he
hasn't a clue!)

How could I sign anything to reaffirm a debt that has added this
much interest, penalty fees, collection fees etc. without even a
statement? One attorney who tried to help me for months quit because of
that unanswered question. He called it "Legalized Financial Slavery."

In 2005 through Oregon representattive Darleen Hooley's office I
attempted to make contact with Sallie Mae and with family help make a
plea to settle this nightmare. More than a year later my current
attorneys are still trying to get an answer.

I sincerely appreciate you listening. The thing is, I as well
as others may have just worried themselves sick. If stress really is a
killer, then Sallie Mae has a license to kill. After all this
"unconscionable", "usury" practice, as yet another attorney called it,
is really an injury to us. Where do we go from here? They are so big
and powerful.

 

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Virginia

I was an "older than average" student, starting higher education at age 40 in 1986. I was also divorced, buying a house and raising two teens.  Former husband was great about getting child support in, but I had other expenses and took out student loans to meet them. First, owed to Student Loan Financing Center in 1986 was listed as $2500 on a subsequent Chapter 13 bankruptcy matrix.  The second ($2342) was to Educational Loan Servicing Center and was taken out in 1990.  I graduated in 1991 with a BS in Management, had a seasonal job with the Forest Service on graduation, and was applying for permanent work after that.  Jobs were sporadic or short term (company went out of business or owner died) and there was nothing consistent to make a definite repayment plan.  I also had a car I was still paying on (used, but reliable) plus mortgage payments and the necessities of life.

When there was the threat of repossessing my car (I lived in an area with no mass transit), I filed under Chapter 13. I was still searching for full-time work but not getting very far.  I do have a small disability pension from the Navy due to MS and was using unemployment income from past work to help keep things paid as best I could.  Then the unemployment ran out.

Next step was filing for hardship discharge of the bankruptcy.  The only one objecting was United Student Aid Funds (somehow they ended up being custodian of the loans) but the judge determined that it was a "no asset situation" so the discharge was granted.

In Sept 1999, I got a written notice from VanRu Credit Corp. (you'll find them on budhibbs.com worst collectors list) listing for USA Services,Inc. loans in the amounts of $1549.58, 1547.73 and 1547.70. I