Thursday, January 20, 2011

Quick links: Our favorite gal, Sallie Mae

For those of you interested in market updates and news-related stories about Sallie Mae, I've decided to post bi-monthly updates of relevant links with annotations. Since we're all big fans of Ms. Mae, she's the first on the list for this new feature at AEM. In the future, I will also post quick links about Mr. Nelnet. If you would like me to feature other lenders, please don't hesitate to submit the names of your favorite companies! After all, we know how much they care about the indentured educated class.

So, without further adieu, let's see all the great and dismal and infuriating things that is in the news about Ms. Mae.

- "Sallie Mae Hints at Dividends," WSJ, January 20, 2011 

SLM may return cash to shareholders. She hasn't done so since 2007. They've made these promises to investors in the past, but then have failed to follow through. The best news in this article? SLM's fourth-quarter earnings are up by 45%! Great news for us, right?

- "Calls from student loan firm aggravate non-borrowers," Chicago Tribune, January 20, 2011

So this story is about a couple with the last name of Collins. It turns out they started receiving calls from Sallie Mae . . .  get this . . . non-stop, even though they were non-borrowers. I know, I know, it's shocking to those of you who are aware of the amazing quality of customer service that Ms. Company Mae possesses. She's a real lady when it comes to phone call etiquette and fair treatment. In any event, the Collins shared the same last name with one of Ms. Mae's debtors (lucky them!). Even though the couple told Sallie to stop calling day in and day out, the very next day - you guessed it - the phone would ring again and again and again and again. You get my point. And of course it would be damned Sallie on the other end of the line wanting to chit-chat. Luckily, there's a happy ending for the couple. As for the debtor, I doubt that's the case for him.

- "Sallie Mae Tops Zacks Estimate," Daily Markets.com, January 20, 2011

"SLM Corp. (SLM: 14.13 +0.31 +2.24%), better known as Sallie Mae, reported fourth quarter 2010 core earnings of $401 million or 75 cents per share, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 72 cents. The results compare favorably with prior-year quarter’s core earnings of $268 million or 44 cents per share. Favorable results were primarily driven by decrease in loan loss provisions and gains from repurchasing debt. During the quarter, the company repurchased $1.3 billion of debt with realized gains of $118 million."



 You can count on us! We are experts in terrorizing and demoralizing the indentured educated class.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cryn, Please shine the spotlight on the greedy folks who run Access Group, including it's CEO, the overly hypocritical Richard Matasar, who also runs an overpriced law school.

Cryn Johannsen said...

I would be happy to do so. I've read about Matasar here and there.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for these updates. I share them as able to those who need to know they are not alone.

Nando said...

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2009/135/645/2009-135645885-05ef0444-9.pdf

Page 16 of New York Law School's 2009 IRS Form 990 - last entry on the page:

Richard Matasar, president of NYLS, "earned" $495,122 in straight salary, i.e. no other compensation. Yes, Matasar made FOUR HUNDRED NINETY FIVE THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO DOLLARS as dean and predident of this TTT - in 2008!!!

Regarding Sallie Mae, a few months ago I was at a party when a local Sallie Mae executive said that they wanted to buy out other lenders, such as Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) and Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA). They will be more aggressive.

gail said...

Sallie mae wants to know exactly where every penny of my big 600. a month income goes! They say they have a right to know exactly what I spend my money on since I owe them and haven't made a pymt in 6 months. HELLO, 600. a month and my payments are 1486.a month, what the hell do they think I spend it on!

gail said...

My nephews loan has been sold many times and ended up with Wells Fargo. Unfortunately, this is the same lender his Mom, who cosigned his loan, has her home mortgage through, again only because it's been sold to them. WF is trying to force my sister to sell her home and pay off her sons loan! They seem to be more aggresive than SM, if that's possible!

Cryn Johannsen said...

Gail, I'd really like to know how many people are in your sister's position. Surely she can't be the only one who has experienced this attempt at seizing/selling her home.

Anonymous said...

After a while it simply becomes a matter of losing faith in the system, and mine is all gone.

Realistically, how far off can seizing a home be by now?

Bankruptcy protections,and very important consumer protections have all been despotically taken away. The debtor gets deeper into debt while the lender gets richer and richer on the taxpayer dollars that back the debt up.

There should have been mass protests when the bankruptcy laws were corrupted, but no one said a word.

I really fear that it is just a matter of time before educated people will be rendered poor and powerless, and then thrown out in the streets, and thereafter hauled off to a debtors prison to work off the debt.

Again, my faith in the system is gone. My education is a cruel joke.

M.Almeida said...

I wouldn't really consider tossing all of us in prison to be a viable option- many states, such as California, are already burdened by an overpopulated prison system, so much that early paroles to anybody NOT sentenced to 25+ year nonsense as a result of our 'war on crime' is becoming a norm. It costs tens of thousands to maintain a prisoner to a state.

Unfortunately, not being able to think about that, does make me ponder the roles of academics, the poor, and outsiders in societies like the USSR, Nazi Germany, and even China, who our country seems to now be working with. But....I have resigned myself to whatever life will throw at me at this point, and will at least try to fight until my dying day. Having outlets like this where our words are visible...helps.

Anonymous said...

Many people would eagerly do prison or hard labor if it finally erased the debt. Instead, banks would rather keep them perpetually owing more rather than find a solution that eventually frees them.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for reminding me about Sallie Mae's return to profitability. Hopefully, I can still buy in before it gets too expensive.

MrsSki said...

Legally, Sallie Mae doesn't have to remove the Collins' phone number from their list. Student loan debt isn't covered by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or the Truth in Lending Act. The Collins' are lucky they were able to get the phone calls to stop. Just don't expect it to last too long....