Sallie Mae

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

Thousands of consumers have complained to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about loan servicing and loan modification problems. Gripes include mistakes by servicers in applying payments, trouble fixing errors, an overabundance of paper work and the inability to find anyone at the servicer to help. Another mortgage mess story? No, this is about private student loans - although the regulator notes that both industries share similar problems. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its annual report on private loans.

Stef Gray launched an online protest against a $50 loan forbearance fee imposed by private student loan giant Sallie Mae. The fee is $50 per loan for a maximum of $150 per three-month reprieve on payments. Gray, who says she hasn't been able to find a full-time job since graduating last year, launched an online campaign against the fee. So far she's collected more than 78,000 signatures in support. Sallie Mae said yesterday it is revising the fee, adding that this was something it had been thinking about for some time.

When borrowers complain about student loan debt it is most likely they are talking about private education loans. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been getting an earful of complaints about these types of loans that don't have the consumer-friendly repayment plans that federal loans do. The CFPB, which has oversight over private student loans, has been collecting comments from borrowers for months for a report to Congress next...

Student loan giant Sallie Mae released some interesting stats from its 2011 study of How America Pays for College. The average amount shelled out for college peaked at $24,097 in 2009-2010 academic year. Families are choosing less expensive schools, such as community colleges, and that figure has dropped to $21,889 for 2010-2011. High-income families reported the biggest reduction in bills, paying $25,760 in the past year, or an 18 percent drop from the year before. Middle-income families saw a slight dip from $22,628 to $21,347.

On May 31, 2008, SALLIE MAE MCMILLAN of McCulloh Street. On Friday, friends may call at HARI P. CLOSE FUNERAL SERVICE, P.A., 5126 Belair Road from 4 to 7 P.M.

Noting turmoil in credit markets, student loan giant Sallie Mae said yesterday that it was suspending its participation in the federal consolidation loan program because it needed to save its resources to make loans to students entering school this fall. Borrowers still will be able to consolidate their loans, most likely through the federal government's direct loan program. Sallie Mae's pullback is the latest - and a significant - indicator of how fallout from the subprime mortgage mess is spreading.

IN A MAJOR victory for young homebuyers, the country's largest student loan company, Sallie Mae, has agreed to resume reporting the credit histories of its 7 million borrowers to all three national credit bureaus. The move has special importance for younger buyers because their on-time student loan repayment histories often have disproportionately large impacts on their credit scores. Those scores, in turn, directly affect the interest rates, loan terms and fees they are quoted when applying for a mortgage to buy a home.

COULD YOUR outstanding debt to Sallie Mae - the largest provider of student loans in the country - cause you to pay more on your home mortgage? Could that be the case even if your payment history with Sallie Mae has been perfect for years? The answer to both questions is a surprising yes. Though the company has not informed its 7 million-plus customers, Sallie Mae confirms that it has stopped reporting borrower loan repayments to two of the three giant national credit repositories. Nonreporting of on-time payment histories, in turn, can lower Sallie Mae borrowers' credit scores - sometimes by enough to render them ineligible for the best-available home loan rate quotes.

Steven A. Lockard, a Frederick County teacher who grew up in Westminster, is one of 100 winners nationwide of the Sallie Mae First-Year Teacher Awards.Mr. Lockard, 23, now lives in Rockville and is in his second year as a fourth-grade teacher at Green Valley Elementary School in Monrovia. He graduated from Westminster High School in 1988 and from Frostburg State University in 1992.His father is Brian Lockard, deputy superintendent of Carroll County schools and a former sixth-grade teacher and principal.

Stef Gray launched an online protest against a $50 loan forbearance fee imposed by private student loan giant Sallie Mae. The fee is $50 per loan for a maximum of $150 per three-month reprieve on payments. Gray, who says she hasn't been able to find a full-time job since graduating last year, launched an online campaign against the fee. So far she's collected more than 78,000 signatures in support. Sallie Mae said yesterday it is revising the fee, adding that this was something it had been thinking about for some time.

Richard and Jan Kost, of Richmond, Va., formerly of Bel Air, have announced the engagement of their son, John "JP" Paul Kost, to Nicole Corrine Stevens, daughter of Roger and Diane Stevens, of Front Royal, Va. Nicole Stevens graduated from Warren County High School in Front Royal in 2002 and from Bridgewater College in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. She was most recently a marketing analyst at Sallie Mae in Reston, Va. The prospective groom is a 1999 graduate of C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air and a 2003 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., with a degree in marine transportation and logistics.

Sam Cameron says high school classmates used to give her "funny looks" when she told them she planned to go to a local community college after graduation instead of some prestigious four-year institution. But the 19-year-old, now in her second year at Montgomery College, says she chose the Rockville school because it offered a strong honors program with small classes — and a full scholarship. "It's a very good school," says Cameron, who lives at home with her parents in Ashton.

Student loan giant Sallie Mae released some interesting stats from its 2011 study of How America Pays for College. The average amount shelled out for college peaked at $24,097 in 2009-2010 academic year. Families are choosing less expensive schools, such as community colleges, and that figure has dropped to $21,889 for 2010-2011. High-income families reported the biggest reduction in bills, paying $25,760 in the past year, or an 18 percent drop from the year before. Middle-income families saw a slight dip from $22,628 to $21,347.

City software firm won't pursue offering Metastorm Inc., a privately held Baltimore software provider, has pulled its public stock offering application. The 12-year-old company said it decided not to pursue the initial public offering due to "market conditions," according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Weak economic conditions have blocked access to capital and credit. Metastorm, which provides software and other products that help businesses improve human and back-end processes and efficiency, had filed a registration statement in May to raise as much as $86 million through the offering.

On May 31, 2008, SALLIE MAE MCMILLAN of McCulloh Street. On Friday, friends may call at HARI P. CLOSE FUNERAL SERVICE, P.A., 5126 Belair Road from 4 to 7 P.M.

Remember the old adage, "You break it, you bought it"? Twice a year, financial aid lines at colleges and universities swell with middle- and lower-income Americans heeding the advice drilled into them from an early age: Go to college, get an education. Unfortunately, these students don't think twice about signing their student loan papers. In fact, most don't even bother to read the fine print - or the bold, for that matter. Most likely, these students will receive their loans from Sallie Mae. In the confusion with Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, most will wrongly assume that Sallie Mae is a government agency.

Sam Cameron says high school classmates used to give her "funny looks" when she told them she planned to go to a local community college after graduation instead of some prestigious four-year institution. But the 19-year-old, now in her second year at Montgomery College, says she chose the Rockville school because it offered a strong honors program with small classes — and a full scholarship. "It's a very good school," says Cameron, who lives at home with her parents in Ashton.

In an effort to head off a threatened crisis in student loan availability, the federal government will buy loans from lenders, double the amount of loans it writes directly and bolster a "lender of last resort" program that helps low-income students finance college. The moves announced yesterday are aimed at reassuring lenders that they will have ready access to cash throughout the 2008-2009 college year, at a time when the financial markets have gone moribund. "We want students to be able to concentrate on their studies rather than worry about disruptions in the student loan market and whether they will be able to obtain federal loans to help pay for school," Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in a statement.

Noting turmoil in credit markets, student loan giant Sallie Mae said yesterday that it was suspending its participation in the federal consolidation loan program because it needed to save its resources to make loans to students entering school this fall. Borrowers still will be able to consolidate their loans, most likely through the federal government's direct loan program. Sallie Mae's pullback is the latest - and a significant - indicator of how fallout from the subprime mortgage mess is spreading.