For as much time as I see people trying to find a \"way out\" of paying for their education, they could be working and actually paying their bills. There are certain circumstances which I can see truely prevent someone from paying on a loan. This would be the loan forgiveness program for CERTIFIED medical conditions that make it impossible for someone to WORK. Unfortunately, a prom note is an agreement to pay. It doesn\'t say \"pay if you have the money\". Also a great number of people are too selfish to live within there means. A $600 car payment along with a streetbike payment of $400 plus cable $200, internet $100, cell phone $250 are luxuries, not necessities. I\'d wager that if at least 3/4 of the people that have posts on here actually re-budgeted their lifestyle, they\'d find the money to pay for their education. People need to accept responsibilty for their choices in life. Career counselors have alot of responsibilty in this dilema too. Many students have poorly planned their careers and have taken out too many loans for fields that don\'t allow salaries to cover their loans and pay for necessities. School tuitions are also through the roof. Shouldn\'t they have some responsibilty too? Before student loans are taken out, students should sit down with a financial planner who will give them an accurate breakdown of how much their education will cost, and the expected income in the career they are obtaining that education for. If your school is going to cost $80,000 and the average salary for that field is $30,000- chances are you\'re not going to be able to afford the payments and other options or careers should be explored.

Find out what you are talking about, before you make blanket statements. Are you that ignorant as to what is going on. Who do you work for? Find out your facts before you speak, otherwise you sound like an ignorant fool.

Stop trying to skate out of your responsibilties. I pay my bills.

By the way, I have 25 years of financial planning and counseling experience. I\'ve dealt for many years with clients who have student loans, and not just through Sallie Mae. I would never release names and locations of clients, but here are some of their general stories and situations. You should know that a former client of mine did mention this site which is how I arrived here. These are the kinds of people that have posts on your site:

1. Female age 25. Student loan debt $42000. Major:mass communications, 4yr accredited school, bachelors degree obtained. Sought financial counseling to relieve debt. Unemployed, living with mother. Collects $800 unemploymnt. Student loan payment $129, car payment $450, street bike payment $350, insurance $250, rent $0, food $0, utilities $0, cable $200, cell $250. Coffee run to Dunkin Donuts 5 days per week $60 monthly. Mother didn\'t have cable and she couldn\'t \"live\" without TV. Went to local charities to help \"pay\" her bills and was \"laughed at\". Advised to sell/trade car and bike for used vehicle- refused because she \"loves them too much\". Advised to limit fast food consumption- eyes rolled and said \"no way\". Asked reason for career choice- \"it was the easiest major to get a degree in, and there were no friday classes so I could party Thursday through Sunday\". File closed due to lack of cooperation and insincerity to fix situation.
2. Male 23 years old. Student loan debt $182000- monthly payment $825. Rent $0, utilities $0, car loan $0, public transportation $100 monthly, child support $450. Income $8 per hour- fast food establishment- cook/grill. Seeking debt relief. Major- culinary arts. Unable to find higher paying job due to lack of choices. Client informed me that higher paying jobs are in \"big cities\" and is too afraid to move away from home. Client happy not having responsibility of running kitchen. Client had no concept of debt to income and not willing to make necessary life changing choices to improve situation. File closed.
3. Female age 24. Unemployed. Receiving state assitance. Has 1 child- no child support. Student loan debt $75000- monthly payment $600. Section 8 housing, food stamps of $620, and cash assitance $300. Utilities included in rent. Obtained bachelors degree in nursing. Obtained masters degree in nursing. Seeking debt relief. Client \"fell\" pregnant 1 week before completing graduate school by unkown father. Has no family for support. Not willing to place child in day care setting in order to become gainfully employed. File closed due to unwillingness to cooperate with advise.

There are hundreds more cases I could get into, but I think these are enough to get my point across. People make bad choices and want someone to blame other than themselves. When given viable suggestions they have some excuse as to why they can\'t possibly change.

Take off the blinders. As flyingclerk said, you\'re making blanket statements. I\'ll be the first to say that the people who talked about in your post are ass-clowns. BIG-TIME ass-clowns.

Yes, there are irresponsible people out there that try getting out of fiscal responsibilities. We all understand that. I pay my bills. My wife and I have a mortgage, auto loan, a few credit cards, gas bill, electric bill, phone bill, cable bill, internet bill, web hosting bills, about 30 domain registrations, and so on. We pay our bills. Sallie Mae is the ONLY company we\'ve ever had a problem with and it was THEIR fault. THEY mis-applied my payments and blamed it on everyone else... including THE GOVERNMENT!!!

Chris

One other thing... My wife and I spoke with a Sales Manager at our bank today about moving our mortgage to them and away from Wells Fargo. Sallie Mae became a short topic of discussion in which he said our complaints are quite common.