Sallie Mae's Incompetence » Loan Links

Make Micropayments to Sallie Mae: Get Out of Debt

smithj — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:13:01 +0000

I stumbled across the 3 Things About Money blog today and I found the author’s post about how she sends micropayments each Friday to Sallie Mae. These payments are made based on whatever she can pull together.

Pulling together one dollar a month extra (204 dollars total over the life of the loan) and paying it to principal saves me 2 months of payoff, netting a $710.13 savings. Just for squeezing out four quarters a month. Noodling up an extra 50 bucks a month makes a huge difference. I intend to pay this off by September 1, 2008 and the journey so far has been intense. But even if I don’t make it, I will be leaps ahead, and will save thousands of dollars for the effort. Makes doing without take out coffee, selling off old textbooks, and scrounging change worth it.

Check out her site for information on calculators and the decreased life of her loan based on even 1 dollar more per month.

Micropay Your Way To Student Loan Freedom

A recent follow up on Micropayments to Sallie Mae

Ted Kennedy Sullies Sallie Mae’s Rep?

smithj — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:37:14 +0000

Apparently Thomas Fitzpatrick is under the delusional impression that Families and students across America view Sallie Mae as a bastion of hope and a helper of the underdog. He sees Sallie Mae as a helper and a company which gives students a helping hand. This delusion has led him to cry out against Senator Ted Kennedy’s calls for reform and changes in the student loan industry. And seriously why would an industry that gets paid even when students default, hires strong arm collections agents, holds your federal loans hostage, and is being investigated for improper realtions with student financial aid offices need any kind of reform?

Recently Ted Kennedy has began a call for reform in the student loan industry and is pushing for schools to steer students to direct loans which unfortunately for Sallie Mae don’t go towards paying their 3 million dollar CEO salary. Ted Kennedy’s plan is summed up below.

The Massachusetts Democrat — an old liberal lion brought back to committee leadership power in November’s elections — wants to reward colleges for steering more students to direct government loans instead of the government-guaranteed loans that furnish handsome profits for Sallie Mae and the banks.

This no-goodnick is trying to hurt Sallie Mae a company which would never put itself or money or Universities before students. How dare he do this, in fact it seems that he has drawn the attention of Salle Mae CEO Thomas Fitzpatrick.

“Unfortunately, Sen. Kennedy has attempted to smear the integrity of Sallie Mae, the student loan industry, and the financial aid professionals. I’m certainly personally disappointed in his baseless and insulting attacks,” said the Sallie Mae CEO, according to a teleconference transcript.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. hopefully it will favor the students and the millions of college graduates who are currently working as indentured servants for Sallie Mae.

In other news, I should have my own open letter to Thomas Fitzpatrick up next week. Please feel free to share your opinions on this story, Sallie Mae, and student loans in the comments.

AOL News Ted Kennedy Vs. Sallie Mae

Young Democrats HR 5 Student Loan Interest Rate SMS Petition

smithj — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:20:56 +0000

The Young Democrats of America has put together a SMS petition for constituents to show their support for HR 5, the bill to lower interest rates on federal student loans. You can sign the petition by doing the following.

Get your friends to text COLLEGE to 35328 to urge Congress to cut college loan interest rates, increase Pell Grants, end the raid on student aid, and work to make college more affordable.

The Bill passed in the House 356 votes to 71 votes. All of the “nay” votes were cast by Republicans. The bill still needs support to get through the Senate and Signed by the president.

The Young Democrats of America has a good repository of information on Bill HR 5 and the savings it will amount to for students based on their state and their loan year.

Young Democrats of America: The College Student Relief Act of 2007

Sallie Mae 96% Profit Drop in 4th Quarter

smithj — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:23:42 +0000

Sallie Mae recently announced its 4th Quarter results which contain some interesting information. The biggest news is that Sallie Mae had a 96% drop in profits for the fourth quarter. The drop in profits however does not relate to the actual core business which is made up of the loans it manages. The loss was attributed to derivatives and hedging if I am reading the financial data correctly.

The reports also highlight Sallie Mae’s Student Loan holdings. Sallie Mae is currently managing 142 billion dollars in student loans.

Despite the derivatives loss Sallie Mae was able to still turn a profit in the millions of dollars.

For more information on Sallie Mae’s reports check out

Bloomberg: Sallie Mae Fourth Quarter Results