It has been an on-going pain in my ass! The harrassing phone calls got so bad that I had to change all of my contact numbers to my cell and then never carry it. They were 6~8 times per day! Each time they were rude and promised that if I spoke to them, I would get a 2wk respite. Rarely did that actually occur & it was never 2 weeks - more like 3 or 4 days.
I am sure their “unsatisfying” interactions with me were documented in my file as they called with angst and loaded for bear. I have wished gonorrhea onto all of their CS reps!
I can’t believe how much harassment you are getting, and you are PAYING!!! I think one of the greatest steps in technology is the caller ID feature…if I don’t know who is calling, I’ll just disconnect them when telemarketers, etc. I think they are getting the idea.
Keep up the fight!
I had heard rumors about sallie mae being difficult and now it seems true.
Guess I’d better rethink waiting to finish my PhD in residency and put the combined program back on the table since it would be free.
I have a few undergrad loans through Sallie Mae and they are horrific. I didn’t even think that my med. school loans would probably go through them…sigh the price one will pay for their dream. Oh well, I’m willing to deal with it. I’ll just give them a fake number! 
See I didn’t notice anything too terrible w/ my Sally Mae. I got it paid off relatively quickly the first time (less than ten years) and that was that. Let me rephrase, hubby got it paid off. I was a stay at home mom lol.
All of my prior loans - to Party Univ and to RT school - were totally paid off and well before any deadlines. Sallie Mae is just an incompetent bitch with piss-poor business accumen and no concept of customer service. One of my future, get-rich, concepts would be to position competitor to the Sallie Mae monopoly that was efficient and truly customer service oriented. It would rack up!
Well, isn’t that part of why they are requesting bail out money? That incompetance part will push any organization to piss poor customer service. lol
- BOOBS Said:
Well, isn't that part of why they are requesting bail out money? That incompetance part will push any organization to piss poor customer service. lol
Of course the problem is that you could get a company far worse than Sallie Mae to deal with.
It’s already happening - the credit union industry is jumping on this opportunity.
- 3rdtimer Said:
It's already happening - the credit union industry is jumping on this opportunity.
I haven't had a single issue dealing with credit unions unless I'm misunderstanding what you're referring to.
Dave -
I hear you! I am still paying off my undergrad and fighting almost 20K of capitaized interest that was incorrectly applied to the loan. They are massive boneheads.
However, there is a silver lining. Student loan interest is tax deductible, and at least they got that right. Not that long ago, it was capped.
I am just starting this process, if I toss in my current loan balance, I am looking at 200K easy. I have…or had, great cash flow over the past 5 years as a consultant, my refund was well over 20k this year and my cash flow was not all that great…e.g. about 130k last year.
If I capitalize that 20k at 8%, I derive 250,000.
A decent tax refund could about just debt service my med school loans, so I’m not too freaked out about it.
This might not be prudent advice…but if most of you can manage decent cash flow, and I think even GP’s can manage mid to high 100’s, borrow the money, then find every last tax credit you can.
I would also offer this piece of advice. Those of you who do get out with high loans and need a roof over your head, get yourself into a duplex or 4-family building, and you double your your tax credit dollar, e.g. mortgage interest and repairs.
Duplexes/4 families are much easier to secure financing on…and work with a local bank!
I have done several renovations on these types of buildings over the past 10 years, and the tax refunds are amazing.
PLEASE READ–
There is some majorly dated information above. Medical school debt repayment DEFERRAL no longer exists, per the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (Pub.L.110-84) of July 1, 2008. The old debt-to-income ratio, for which almost all medical residents qualified is no longer in effect, as of July 2009.
It has been replaced with a income-sensitive repayment sliding scale. Explained plainly here:
http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/educ /ed0004.h…
http://www.amsa.org/student/debtfactsheet .cfm