My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: I live in Florida. The loan was taken out in Illinois.
I used Sallie Mae as my lender for all of my college loans. My mother was my co-signer on my loans. Upon graduating in 2006 I learned that one of my loans through Sallie Mae was not in my name but in my mother’s name with me as the co-signer. I was confused so I contacted Sallie Mae by telephone and they told me that it was our fault and nothing could be done. I then was paying the loan that was in my mother’s name because it was meant to be my loan.
Eventually my mother also contacted Sallie Mae because we felt this was not right. Sallie Mae then told her that they changed the loan to her name because my credit was not good enough. We never authorized a change through the application process. They once again told us our only option was to pay the loan. This was still odd to us because all of my loans that surrounded this time frame were in my name with my mother as the co-signer. The loan I took out the semester after is the same kind of loan. They did not switch the borrower six months later.
Currently, I am in school again and my loans are deferred. I cannot defer the loan in my mother’s name because she is not in school. I cannot afford to make the payment and due to the economic crisis my mother cannot assist me. I looked into this issue further through our on-line Sallie Mae accounts and realized that Sallie Mae has a graduation date for my mother, who never attended college. The date is just a few days away from my graduation date. Sallie Mae also does not include this loan I “co-signed” on my account. My mother has never been a college student and we cannot figure out how she got her own student loan. Sallie Mae has refused to help us fix the problem that is blatantly their error.
Currently the loan is 3 days past due and there are no options for us because we cannot even afford to put this in forbearance because of the Sallie Mae fees. If Sallie Mae had gotten this right the loan would be in deferment because I am a student.
I filed a complaint with the Department of Education. What else can I do?

