Sallie Mae Phone Number

Call Sallie Mae customer service faster with GetHuman

  • Calls Sallie Mae's Existing Student Loans department
  • The average hold time is 16m
  • Hours are Mon-Fri 8am-8pm EST
  • The best time to call is 3:45pm
  • Reach a live Sallie Mae agent: Repeat "Agent" until you are transferred.
  • What you hear when you call: For federal student loan payments, press 1.

What to expect when you call

They may ask your reason for calling (instead of a menu)
"Thank you for calling Sallie Mae. Calls may be monitored and or recorded. As part of your experience with us, we will be collecting some of your personal information.
Learn more by accessing our privacy policy at sally may dot com slash legal slash privacy.
In order to assist you, please tell me why you're calling today."
Excerpt from a call with Sallie Mae
Saturday, March 23, 2024 2:50 PM
They may ask you to say or enter information
"You can say things like make a payment or status of an application."
Excerpt from a call with Sallie Mae
Saturday, March 23, 2024 2:50 PM

Calling Sallie Mae Customer Care at 800-472-5543

Jan 30, 2024

I have had a student loan for quite some time, but since I was straight out of college at the time I was able to defer it while I looked for a permanent job. However, I now have a good job and a regular paycheck and it's time to take care of this loan. I have heard about how high-interest fees can get, and I want to get ahead of things the best that I can. Therefore, I figured the best thing I could do was call Sallie Mae and talk to them about what my options are. 

There are a lot of student debt programs, but I've heard that most of them are in lieu so I'm not sure what I'm applicable for right now. That's why talking to someone is probably the best option. Of course, Sallie Mae probably has hundreds of thousands of loans, so I figured that doing it this way would mean that I would have to wait for a while to talk to someone. It did take me about twenty minutes, but it was worth it to talk to someone in person. 

When I first called, an automated agent stated, "Thank you for calling Sallie Mae. Calls may be monitored and recorded. As part of your experience with us, we will be collecting some of your personal information. Learn more by accessing our policy at Sallie Mae/legal/privacy.  To assist you, please tell me why you are calling today. You can say things like make a payment or status of an application."

I responded, "Loan deferral," and then it stated, "To help us locate your loan, please enter your social security number, account number, or administrative ID." I entered my social security number twice, but I think that the system was picking up background noise at the same time which confused it because it couldn't find my account. It ended up saying, "I’m sorry we could not confirm your information. Please wait while we transfer your call."

This wasn't the worst thing, because then I was transferred to the hold line to talk to someone which is what I wanted. As I stated, it was about twenty minutes and then I was able to talk to an agent who was able to find my account and talk about my options. It turned out that I did have a few months left in my deferral which gives me some time to think about the structured payment plan that I want to pick up and to think about my options. The agent was friendly and I would call again if I had any other questions.

Adam has been tirelessly trying to help customers find the best tips and tricks to get through phone trees and writing many guides for prickly customer service problems. He's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inside Edition and Bloomberg.

Sallie Mae Customer Phone Number 800-472-5543 - Stats

Phone number to dial800-472-5543
Call-back availableNO
Call picked up by a real personYES
Department you're callingExisting Student Loans
Call center hoursMon-Fri 8am-8pm EST
Best time to dial3:45pm
Average wait16 minutes
Current wait18 minutes
Rank (among phone numbers)1
Rank (overall)1
Communication channelsphone, web, chat
Quality of communication85%
Quality of help88%
Customer votes590
Information last updatedTue Mar 26 2024 08:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Sallie Mae's Best Toll-Free/800 Customer Phone Number

This is Sallie Mae's best phone number, the real-time current wait on hold and tools for skipping right through those phone lines to get right to a Sallie Mae agent. This phone number is Sallie Mae's Best Phone Number because 4,692 customers like you used this contact information over the last 18 months and gave us feedback. Common problems addressed by the customer care unit that answers calls to 800-472-5543 include and other customer service issues. Rather than trying to call Sallie Mae first, consider describing your issue first; from that we may be able to recommend an optimal way to contact them via phone or web or chat. In total, Sallie Mae has 2 phone numbers. It's not always clear what is the best way to talk to Sallie Mae representatives, so we started compiling this information built from suggestions from the customer community. Please keep sharing your experiences so we can continue to improve this free resource.

What is GetHuman's Relationship to Sallie Mae?

In short, the two companies are not related. GetHuman builds free tools and shares information amongst customers of companies like Sallie Mae. For large companies that includes tools such as our GetHuman Phone, which allows you to call a company but skip the part where you wait on the line listening to their call technology music. We've created these shortcuts and apps to try to help customers like you (and ourselves!) navigate the messy phone menus, hold times, and confusion with customer service, especially with larger companies. And as long as you keep sharing it with your friends and loved ones, we'll keep doing it.

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More Toll-free & Customer Numbers

New Student Loans855-756-5626

Beyond the Phone Number

There are other ways to get in touch with Sallie Mae, including live chat and their website / help desk. Visit our Sallie Mae Customer Service page for more information.
Sallie Mae Customer Service

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