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to make a payment on a series of student loans

Michael Agruss

Written and Reviewed by Michael Agruss

  • Managing Partner and Personal Injury Lawyer at Mike Agruss Law.
  • Over 20 years of experience in Personal Injury.
  • Over 8000+ consumer rights cases settled.
  • Graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Juris Doctor, 2004.

On December 20, 2012, I went online to salliemae.com to make a payment on a series of student loans. By clicking the wrong box, I erroneously scheduled the payment to be deducted from a checking account that I no longer use and does not contain sufficient funds to cover the payment. I realized my error as soon as the transaction went through, but Sallie Mae did not provide any option for me to cancel the submitted payment online. Instead, the website informed me that I could only cancel the payment by speaking with the institution that controls the checking account from which I wished to deduct payments. I called my bank and explained the situation to them. They explained that they had no ability to cancel a payment that had not yet posted, but that they could put a stop check request onto a payment if I knew the amount and source. I requested that they put a stop check request on the Sallie Mae payment, which was in the amount of $1200. In order to get around this stop payment request and bill me regardless, rather than simply cancelling the transaction and requesting a new payment from me, Sallie Mae, decided to submit multiple smaller payments that would get around my stop payment request. Since each of these smaller payment is considered a separate request, they each incurred a separate overdraft fee when they were charged against my account, that did not have sufficient funds to handle the payment. As a result of Sallie Mae not having an online system (which every other online bill payment system has) that allows me to cancel an online payment within seconds of submitting it, as well as a Sallie Mae policy that separates rejected transactions into multiple smaller transactions in order to circumvent a request made to my bank, which was only necessary because Sallie Mae lacked the capacity for me to cancel my payment directly, I have incurred $140 in overdraft fees. This is completely unacceptable and constitutes deceptive and underhanded business practices.

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