Sallie Mae is widely considered one of the best private student loan options, particularly for its flexibility in covering up to 100% of school-certified costs for undergraduates, graduates, and career training. It is ideal for borrowers with a strong cosigner, offering competitive rates, no origination fees, and multiple repayment options.
A subsidized loan is your best option. With these loans, the federal government pays the interest charges for you while you're in college.
Parent PLUS Loans offer fixed interest rates and federal protections, while Sallie Mae may offer lower rates (depending on credit) but lacks income-driven repayment and forgiveness options.
Sallie Mae offers a variety of private loan options, including undergraduate student loans, graduate student loans and career training loans. Sallie Mae student loans can cover up to 100 percent of your education costs, while federal loans come with borrowing caps that might not cover all your expenses.
There's no penalty for paying early or paying extra. If you make an additional payment while enrolled in auto debit, it won't change the amount we withdraw.
The "7-year rule" for student loans generally refers to when negative marks, like defaults, are removed from your credit report (around 7 years after the first missed payment or default date for federal loans, 7.5 years for private loans), but the debt itself doesn't disappear and must be paid off; it's also a benchmark in bankruptcy proceedings where federal loans can become dischargeable after 7 years from when payments were due, though proving "undue hardship" is required and difficult.
Sallie Mae (now primarily Navient) faced major controversies for predatory lending, particularly steering vulnerable students into high-risk, high-interest loans from for-profit colleges and misleading servicemembers about interest rate caps, leading to significant lawsuits, government actions, and settlements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and unfair practices against struggling borrowers. The company was accused of prioritizing profits from "predictably uncollectible" loans by leveraging deals with schools, then failing to help borrowers find affordable income-driven repayment plans.
A $20,000 loan over 5 years (60 months) costs roughly $2,600 to over $7,000 in interest, with monthly payments varying significantly by Annual Percentage Rate (APR), such as around $377 at 5% APR or $445 at 12% APR, meaning total repayment could range from approximately $22,600 to over $26,700.
Lenders use your FICO® Score to estimate your credit risk—how likely you are to pay your credit obligations as agreed. It also helps you get credit based on your actual borrowing and repayment history. If you have a Sallie Mae private student loan, you may have access to your monthly FICO® Score for free 1.
The best way to pay off student loans involves a combination of strategies: pay more than the minimum, use the avalanche method (highest interest first) for savings or snowball method (smallest balance first) for motivation, automate payments to save on interest, consider refinancing for lower rates (federal loans lose benefits), and explore federal income-driven plans (IDRs) or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) if eligible. Budgeting, increasing income, and tackling extra payments with bonuses or refunds also significantly speed up repayment.
50% of your budget goes to necessities: rent, utilities, transportation, insurance, groceries, etc. 30% goes to wants: dining out, shopping, gym membership, entertainment, etc. 20% goes towards savings and debt repayment: student loans, auto loans, credit cards, emergency savings, etc.
Credible takeaways
Sallie Mae used to be a federal student loan servicer, but in 2014, it split into two companies. Today, Sallie Mae exclusively offers and services private student loans. The company offers many different types of private student loans, even for career training and professional degrees.
Plan 2 refers to a student loan taken out from September 2012 onwards, in England or Wales. Older loans (from England or Wales) and loans taken out in Northern Ireland, are called plan 1 loans.