Excuse me while I rant for a moment.
I've had student loans since I graduated from Framingham State College in 2006, and along with those student loans I've had countless problems from Sallie Mae, the loan company. All my life I was told to go to college and get a job, it's what you're supposed to do. So, I did it. I went to college and got a job, eventually getting the job I wanted, which was to be a teacher. But then it wasn't enough. The state of Massachusetts says you have to go back to school to be a teacher. A bachelor's degree won't cut it, you need a Masters. So, I got one. Even though it's a requirement in the state of Massachusetts though, they don't necessarily help you pay for it. So, I had to take out another student loan, because I couldn't afford to pay the cost of graduate school on my own and my job didn't offer tuition reimbursement. (Here's a fun surprise, a lot of places don't!) It was either take out the loans and get the degree, or find a job that you don't want to do, because you can't afford the state requirements. All the while though, is there any hope that the loans will be forgiven or spread out over a certain amount of years so that you're not loaded down with payments every month? Not a chance. Apparently, you can try to get up to $15,000 worth of loans forgiven, IF you work in the inner city schools, IF you teach ELL or STEM, and only IF you teach for at least 5 years. Even then, you can only APPLY after 5 years, that guarantees nothing. Forget the fact that most loans are way over $15,000 anyways. If you can't meet two of these requirements, 5 years and one of the others, you're S.O.L. Way to set a great precedent Massachusetts. Require teachers to work like Doctors to achieve their goals, but refuse to pay them anywhere near enough to afford the bills that come with it, or offer any sort of plan that will help hard working teachers out.
But enough about Massachusetts, let's discuss Sallie Mae, the bane of my existence. I'm fairly certain that there's a department in the Sallie Mae offices, whose job is solely to hide people's records and send their customers into a tailspin every year. Seriously, it's the only logical explanation at this point. You see, two years ago I applied for an income based repayment plan, which makes your monthly payments lower, based on your income. Oh, don't worry, the full loan is still due, it just takes a bit longer to pay it off. For the first year, the plan worked and it was easy enough. Then it came time to renew, so I sent in my paperwork and never heard anything back. Suddenly my loans went up to $700 a month. Fantastic. Having no idea what just happened, I called up Sallie Mae only to find out that they had been missing some piece of paper from my renewal application, so they hadn't processed my request. Because it was after the time period, I had to pay the full amount of the loan for the next two months while they processed everything. While I was on the phone with an employee, I asked about different repayment plans, ones I wouldn't have to renew yearly. The woman was very nice and told me that I could extend my loans to pay them out over longer periods of times. For instance, I have a ten year loan payment period, but I could change that to a thirty year, making my payments smaller. "Great plan!" I thought, let's do it. So the woman tells me she will update my account to reflect that and I'll see the changes in two weeks. I let the two weeks go by and no changes, so I called back to find out what exactly was happening. After all, I just don't have $700 a month to drop on loans, when I have other bills to pay too. This time though, I got a different customer service rep. I re-explained the whole situation to him and he looked up my information. Then he went on to explain that I actually CAN'T extend my loan re-payment plan into thirty years, because even though my loans COLLECTIVELY are more than $50,000, there is not one INDIVIDUAL loan that is that high, and that's the criteria they use to decide on how many years you get to repay your loans. (WTF??? HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE???) He goes on to tell me that my only options are: repay in full each month, re-apply for the income based repayment plan, or request a forbearance due to hardships. Seriously, those were the ONLY three options I had. Well, I'm certainly not getting a forbearance, and I can't afford to pay the whole payment each month, so I re-applied. When that finally went through, everything was fine for a bit. Until September. Once again, I got the renewal packet. This time, I even faxed it in, making sure it got delivered exactly where it needed to be, in a timely manner. I got the emails stating that my request had been received and then another that my request had been approved. Fantastic! Everything worked out and there's no hassle this year. WRONG.
Today, I got a bill from Sallie Mae, once again stating that my loan is due for next month. Which is understandable, they almost always send the new statement the day after the bill is due. My loans for this month were paid, so I was just waiting for the new statement anyways. Here's the fun part. My statement for next month says I owe them $900 in loans. ARE YOU KIDDING ME SALLIE MAE? After everything I went through with them last year, all the idiotic rules they have about income based repayment, even after I got the confirmation email that my request was APPROVED, they still managed to f* it up and screw me over. Apparently, Sallie Mae and the Department of Ed think that people who take out loans take them out for fun, not because they can't afford to pay college tuition. They also seem to think that their loans are the only place people are spending money. Let me break this down for you, Sallie Mae. I'm a TEACHER. I only get paid the months that I work, due to the way my city pays us. So, instead of getting paid 12 months out of the year, I get paid September through June and then have to hope that money will last me through July and August, or get a second job to pay the bills. On top of that, not only do I have student loans to pay, I also have; rent, car insurance, car payment, utilities, and health insurance, not to mention everyday needs like gas for the car and groceries for the house. In short, there is no way I could afford your $900 all year long, even if I wanted too. Which believe me, I do. There is nothing I want more than to have my stupid loans paid off, but guess what, that's just not a feasible option for me at the moment.
And so, once again, like clockwork, I'll be on the phone with Sallie Mae tomorrow morning, probably being told that sure, we can fix this, only to have it not be fixed two weeks later. Then I'll have to call back, only to have them tell me I have to resend the application, which will take two months to process. Did I mention the best part? Today, even though all my loans have been paid up to date, they all say past due. Awesome. Thanks for everything Sallie Mae.
No comments:
Post a Comment