JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Shaun Willie is like many others his age, buried in debt and all too familiar with the nation’s largest private student-loan provider, Sallie Mae.
"Frustrating, very, very frustrating. I wouldn't recommend them to anybody,” Willie said.
In the last six years, he's battled paying off his debt. At this time, he’s been slapped with a $50 forbearance fee. This is a fee Sallie Mae requires unemployed people who can’t afford their monthly payments to pay to temporarily suspend them.
The catch – it’s never refunded and doesn’t go toward paying off your debt.
"It was not paying down my loan. I don't know where it was going actually,” Willie said.
He’s not the only one who’s frustrated. This week thousands like him went to the website Change.org to sign an online petition asking Sallie Mae to “stop double-dipping.”
And it worked. The same day the petition was delivered, the company changed their policy. Now, Sallie Mae will stop pocketing the fee and apply it to the customer’s balance as long as they “resume a track record of on-time payments.”
"You could write a letter to Congress, but you seem to get more heard if you complain on your Facebook,” said local social media expert, Sonja Dyess.
Score two for “Occupy Online.”
Three months ago, an online petition got Bank of America to back off charging customers a $5 monthly debit card fee.
"In the younger generation that is how they're doing it and that is how they're getting things accomplished,” Dyess said.
Willie just hopes the accomplishments last.
"I think it will. I think they might change, maybe, “he said.
To read either of the two petitions or learn how to start one of your own go to: http://www.change.org/
