The Chronicle of Higher Education – January 26, 2012

A petition calling on Sallie Mae to stop charging jobless borrowers a $50 fee for forbearance on their private student loans has garnered some 50,000 signatures. Patricia Christel, a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, described the fee as “a good-faith deposit that acknowledges the importance of and commitment to resuming payments in the future.” Roughly 4 percent of the company’s private loans are in forbearance; last year, 3.5 percent of its private loans defaulted.