Sallie Mae Screw Up

[JaimeDee]

I have a question I was wondering if anyone can help me. It's somewhat a long story but I'll give the nutshell version. I need advice on what my rights and options are and what my next step should be.

I have three loans-one private with Sallie Mae, one unsubsidized and one subsidized federals. There we all given to Sallie Mae (I guess a form of consolidation they do on their own free will? ) to administer the repayments. I had my address change and due to my own negligence I did not have them updated. I was I believe 60 days late on payment. At that time around early summer 2008 I made a payment of $2,000 to not have to worry for a while. I got my address corrected and I was receiving my regular mail from Sallie Mae. I got statements that said my next payment would be December of 2011. Around March/April of 2009 I began receiving calls from collectors, I called them and it was the US Dept. Of Education stating my loan is in default and I had to do a rehabilitation program for 9 months to make it out of default and I had to pay a big amount (I believe $650-$750) right off the bat. Although it was extremely hard for me to come up with that money I did it because I didn't want my wages and taxes to be garnish and to have a defaulted loan.

I had asked them how can Sallie Mae just sell my loans and they told me that they had to have been sending me stuff to pay the loan and it had to have been severely past due (which according to my records, it was not). I called Sallie Mae and spoke to someone who had acknowledged there was a mistake made on my account, that the big payment was not applied to the account as a whole but instead just to the private Sallie Mae loan. I spoke to a few different people they finally told me the issue was fixed and I should stop receiving calls, they would slowly die out. The calls never stopped, I spoke to the US Department of Education and they told me that once it is in the hands of the government there is nothing that can be done and I HAVE to pay them. Just trying to get this headache to go away I paid and followed the rehabilitation program. I know there were huge fees because of this but figured due to the information I found out I just have the worst luck around and have to deal with it since I can not afford to get legal advice. Then the same thing happened with the NJ Higher Education Assistance Authority. Sallie Mae had sold my loans to them and I received collection calls soon after and had to solve it a similar way (my tax refund was garnished- over $2000).

Now I am making my monthly payment but I still have some concerns. Mainly due to the fact that I have been trying to work really hard at my credit (the only negative stuff listed is student loan stuff). I see there are three accounts from Sallie Mae (two which shouldn't be there) and two from USDOE and HESAA. I was never notified that my accounts were being handed over to the USDOE or the HESAA until it was already in collections. Isn't someone supposed to notify me where my loans are?! I had no idea my loans were no longer with Sallie Mae or that they were in default, meanwhile I was receiving my mail from Sallie Mae. The USDOE said they would have to have sent me letters and bills and I received nothing but a statement with the due date of December 2011 (had it posted on my fridge, that's how excited I was to be okay for a while). Also, now my credit score and report is greatly suffering from THEIR mistake that they admitted to. I also have to pay the fees in which were accrued during the time of this "delinquency" and "default".

I need any and all advice. Sallie Mae is a terrible establishment and I feel so helpless. I feel like I was taken advantage of and there's nothing I can do about it. Please help!! THANK YOU!