Interesting...

So, talked with good ol' Barry yesterday, the Veep from Sallie Mae. He is willing to look at consolidating the loan, lowering my interest rate substantially (his words), and extending the loan out as far as possible to get the payments down to a reasonable level.

I'm to hear from a financial person today about what the terms would be. I'm going to ask for them in writing before I agree with them, and if they aren't reasonable, then I will tell them so.

I brought up the last 2 loans that were taken out, 6 months AFTER I was finished with school - he didn't know what they were, and said he would look into them. Since they were each over two grand, I feel they're significant enough, and I at least deserve an explaination of what the @#$%#$ it is - and if they can't give me one, then they need to remove them. Period. End of story.

Upshot of the discussion is that if I continue to have issues with the loan, I can call him directly.

~M

Awaiting yet another call...

I have been going back and forth for a week or more now with the PR people at Sallie Mae. Seems that the interview I did with Business Week has perked some interest there. I got this email from Mary Fetter, the person I'd been speaking with, regarding contact with Barry Feierstein (the SM rep that Ben Elgin interviewed in the same interview):

I wanted to let you know that Barry Feierstein will be calling you this Monday, June 4. Barry is a senior executive at Sallie Mae and looks forward to talking to you in more detail about your student loan situation. He will call you on the cell
number you provided. Enjoy your weekend.

Sincerely,
Mary

I also got a voicemail from Mr Feierstein, letting me know he was looking over my information, and looked forward to working with me to "come to better terms" with the loan...

Meanwhile, I've sent out all of my paperwork that I've ever gotten from Sallie Mae over to James, Hoyer PA, the law firm in FL doing a fairly high profile fraud class action lawsuit against Sallie Mae. They were apparently intrigued by my story, and wanted to see the paperwork I had. I'm supposed to hear back from them sometime soon as well.

We shall see what happens on both fronts.

~M