In october the website had a bunch of ads about lowering your rate by .25% if you did online / direct withdrawal .

I took them up on it. Never got the lower rate.

Called last month asking why not. CSR told me it was a mistake on their part, that he fixed it, that i should see a .25% rate decrease soon. i asked about the previous 4 months - i had signed up for auto withdraw a while back and hadn't seen a lowered rate. He told me my account would be creditted retroactively. i asked him to confirm that I would receive a credit for the difference and he confirmed that i would.

Got a letter yesterday saying USA Funds gave no borrower benefits. Went on the website to see if i had missed some fine print. All references to a .25% decrease had been removed from the site. All gone.

Called to ask if the letter was in reference to the .25% decrease or to something else. CSR "Sam" told me it was about something else and that he didn't know why i hadn't gotten the .25% decrease yet. He told me he had just re-sent the lowering. I asked what the letter was talking about. He didn't know. I asked if he was sure the letter wasn't talking about the .25% and that i would get the lowered rate and when. He put me on hold and a few minutes came back and told me the letter WAS to tell me that i wouldn't get a .25% decrease because USA Funds didn't allow those.

I was incensed. "Sam" sent me to a supervisor. She apologized and asked if i wanted to complain about the CSR who told me i would get the .25% decrease and retroactively. I opined that HE was likely the only honest one and that Sallie Mae was obviously pulling a bait and switch con...

I asked her what happened to the .25% rate decrease ads. She told me that everyone saw the same pages and they didn't change my pages... I answered that was great and meant that she could point me to where those .25% decrease ads were now... she took 3 minutes and came back and said she couldn't find them at the moment either and that they probably took them off my pages only because i wasn't eleigible... I pointed out she had told me not 5 minutes earlier that everyone saw the same pages... I stayed angry and told her I would be in touch with legal today...

It sure looks to me like a bait-and-switch... Sallie Mae advertises .25% rate decreasese if people sign up for direct withdrawal or online payment but then doesn't deliver... they keeps stringing people along for months... then the ads dissapear and MOST or ALL of those who took the bait are told that their lender doesn't allow the benefit...

so how many folks here have actually gotten a .25% rate decrease from Sallie Mae for signing up for online payment/direct withdrawal?

Miro