I was required to pay {$25.00} interest each month on my student loan. I missed a payment so was in arrears by {$25.00}. So i logged into the Sallie Mae website and set up an auto debit of {$50.00} per month so that I would clear my arrears and start paying down my loan by more than my minimum. When the auto debit came around instead of taking {$50.00} out of my bank it just took {$25.00} leaving me in arrears. I then got phone calls and messages from Sallie Mae telling me I was in arrears. When I checked the auto debit was still set up for {$50.00} per month but despite that Sallie Mae only took the minimum {$25.00} out. When I phoned up to ask why they told me that that is the way the system works and that I could not set up an auto debit for more than the required minimum. This is despite the fact that there online system allowed me to do this, still reports that I have a {$50.00} per month auto debit and above all else should allow me to pay down my loan faster than the minimum. When I challenged them again they told me that the only way to pay down the loan faster was by one off single payments. 
My frustration was that at no time was I told that I could only pay off the minimum amount of {$25.00} through the auto debit system, and that by not taking out my {$50.00} payment it kept me in arrears unintentionally on my part. 
I should be able to pay down my loans faster if I want though the auto payment system and if this is not possible Sallie Mae should have notified me when I set up the auto debit and not then complain when the arrears payment was not taken out by them. 
For students learning about how to handle financial management the system in place seems to only help Sallie Mae not the student. In helping to keep the student in arrears even when they tried to pay off the loan faster than required. 
Even there new look website is poorly designed mixing interest with payments in the same column so its harder to see how the loan balance is going up or down based upon the loan servicing. Why oh Why does the loan statement not separate additional charges and interest into its own column separate from the payments made to pay down the loan. This would give students a much clearer idea of how there loan is progressing rather than having to read down and across for each number to understand its meaning. Once again a missed opportunity to make it easier for students to service there loan.