Those who borrowed from Sallie Mae after this 2014 split have private student loans, which aren't eligible for federal forgiveness programs. However, Sallie Mae will discharge debts for borrowers who die or become totally and permanently disabled.
Sallie Mae is a company that currently offers private student loans but it has gone through several shifts. In 1972, Congress created the Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA) as a private, for-profit corporation.
Any loans that are listed on your studentaid.gov account are federal student loans. If any loans on your credit reports are not listed on your studentaid.gov account, they are probably private student loans.
Private student loans are usually only forgiven when the borrower becomes permanently disabled or dies—sometimes not even then. While there are several options for federal student loan cancellation and forgiveness, private programs for cancellation are less common.
Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans are federal student loans offered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to help eligible students cover the cost of higher education at a four-year college or university, community college, or trade, career, or technical school.
After a referral from the CFPB, in 2014, the Department of Justice and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ordered Navient and its predecessor, Sallie Mae, to pay almost $100 million for illegally overcharging nearly 78,000 servicemembers.
Typically, prequalifying for a student loan includes a soft credit check, which does not affect your credit score. Thus, if you apply for a loan with Sallie Mae, a hard credit check will be done, which could temporarily hurt your credit score.
Sallie Mae offers different types of student loans and the eligibility requirements differ for each loan: Private student loans are credit-based, which means the lender will check your credit rating and other info.
Pay Off High-Interest Loans First
With this approach, you pay off your loans from the highest interest rate to the lowest. You make the minimum payments on each balance except the highest-rate loan. You also make an extra monthly payment based on how much you can put toward the debt.
On-campus room and board: These include your dorm expenses and any meal plan you purchase; the school will automatically deduct these from your loan if you've signed up for them. Off-campus housing: If you live off-campus, these eligible expenses can include rent, utilities, and groceries.
Thus, if you ever had a Sallie Mae loan or had Sallie Mae conduct loan servicing, that loan and servicing, likely, was transferred to Navient. Further, Navient then changed its name in 2021 to Aidvantage. See here.
If your loan becomes past due while enrolled in this option, we'll withdraw both the Current Amount Due and the Past Due Amount if that amount is greater than your Designated Amount. There's no penalty for paying early or paying extra.
Any borrower with ED-held loans that have accumulated time in repayment of at least 20 or 25 years will see automatic forgiveness, even if the loans are not currently on an IDR plan. Borrowers with FFELP loans held by commercial lenders or Perkins loans not held by ED can benefit if they consolidate into Direct Loans.
You can't use your Pell Grant to directly pay your student loan. However, if there are any funds left over after your school applies your Pell Grant toward your tuition and fees, those funds are given directly to you, and you then may use them to reduce your loan amount.
For one, you need to be a US citizen or permanent resident or a non-US citizen with a credit-worthy cosigner who is a citizen. Most Sallie Mae private loans do not have income minimums, meaning you don't have to make a certain amount of money to apply.
Under certain federal programs, it's possible to get your student loans forgiven after 20 years of qualified payments. Private student loans, however, typically don't have forgiveness options, regardless of how long you pay them.
Student loans add to your debt-to-income ratio
Student loans increase your DTI, which isn't ideal when applying for mortgages. Most mortgage lenders require your total DTI ratio, including your prospective mortgage payment, to be 45 percent or less, though it's possible to find lenders that will accept a higher DTI.
If you signed up for a Sallie Mae loan when you entered college, you might have a high interest rate because you were a college student with no credit history and no full-time income. You may be eligible for a lower interest rate if you have a stable job and a good credit score.
A subsidized loan is your best option. With these loans, the federal government pays the interest charges for you while you're in college. Here are the types of student loans. (Keep in mind that not all students are eligible for every loan.)
This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.
Lender Sallie Mae used to offer federal student loans, and if you received one, you may be able to qualify for loan forgiveness. But federal student loan forgiveness can be hard to get — and if you have a private student loan through Sallie Mae, federal forgiveness is not available.
One of the primary reasons to prioritize federal student loans is because they tend to have lower interest rates. Right now, the average student loan rates range from 6.53% to 9.08% for federal loans, while their private counterparts range from 3.74% to 17.99%.