Entered into contract with Sallie Mae on 1/21/2004 for $4000 to pay tuition at a tech school.
Discovered too late that Sallie Mae was charging me interest all the time I was actually in school - deferred payments, they called it. This drove the repayment PRINCIPLE way up - the "deferred payment" interest was added to the principle amount of the loan, so they could earn more interest money from the original account.
Anyway, here it is 2016 & I still owe over $1100 to these wonderful people with an estimated payoff date in 2018. 14 YEARS to pay off a $4,000 loan!!!!!! I have since bought a house and 4 vehicles (three of which are paid off) & these obnoxious leeches are still finding ways to keep me paying them.
Oh, and just to add insult to injury, it costs MORE to pay off the loan by mail than it does to do it online. After making 12.5% on my money for 14 years, they STILL want me to also pay the postage & processing fees!
NEVER AGAIN, f***ers!
Robert
Irvine,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, August 31, 2016
Your post is a great example of someone who has gone to a real college and gotten a real college education compared to someone who goes to a "tech school". Sure you may be good at your job but you have no legitimate clue of how the world actually works.
First off unless you have an IQ of 500 you aren't getting through any legiitmate school in just a couple of monthsl, and if you had an IQ like that you wouldn't be at a tech school you would be getting a full ride at Yale. So your first claim that it is "12 years and counting" is not exactly telling the full story. As you had it deferred while you were in school, which was probably 2-4 years. So you have only been paying on it for 8-10 years which after it is paid off in 2018 is about standard for Student Loans.
So your complaint is that you weren't aware that they were going to charge you interest on the deferred period. Okay, when you read the loan documents(you did read them..right?) what did it say?
Then who said you are stuck paying the minimum? If you didn't want to be into them for this long why didn't you pay extra? Again not knowing the details, I could just about guarantee that what ever you were paying if you paid just $10/month more you would probably be paid off by now and possibly for quite a while. Don't believe me, go ahead and search for "Amortization Tables" or "Payoff Calculators" putting in your amounts...you may be shocked at how fast something that small adds up.
You say you are stuck with them for another 2 years? Again..WRONG. Since you are so well off why not write them an $1100 check today and be done with them? If you don't have that, then why not go to your bank for a Signature Loan?
A few final items, one thing you failed to mention is your payment history? Have you paid on-time or have you been late? As paying late adds additonal interest and fees and just adds the time it takes to pay it off.
Also, perhaps if you want to get a "life lesson" in Interest you should check out your Car and Mortgage payments. You may be in for a huge shock as to how little of your payment actually goes to the principal, especially in the beginning.