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Sallie Mae provides free FICO credit scores to help customers stay informed of their personal finances
[June 26, 2014]

Sallie Mae provides free FICO credit scores to help customers stay informed of their personal finances


NEWARK, Del. --(Business Wire)--

To better inform customers and help them make responsible financial decisions, Sallie Mae today announced it will offer student borrowers free access to their FICO® Scores. Sallie Mae Smart Option student loan borrowers with loans disbursed in the 2014-15 academic year are eligible and will automatically receive their scores quarterly. The company is the first national private education lender to provide this benefit as part of FICO® Score Open Access.

"By providing our student borrowers with their FICO Scores, we're empowering them to take greater control of their financial wellness," says Charlie Rocha, senior vice president, Sallie Mae. "This is the latest in a series of new tools we're providing our customers to enhance their financial knowledge and empower them to make educated financial decisions."

The FICO® Score is the most commonly used credit score in the United States. Over 90 percent of lending decisions - for everything from a private student loan, to buying a home or car, and opening a credit card - rely on the FICO® Score. The FICO® Score helps lenders assess a person's creditworthiness objectively and scientifically.

Eligible Sallie Mae private student loan customers will receive:

  • Their FICO® Scores quarterly with personalized key factors influencing their scores.
  • Comprehensive credit score education online at SallieMae.com/FICO.
  • Information on how FICO® Scores are calculated and how they work.
  • Frequently asked questions and answers about credit scores.

"We applaud Sallie Mae for its commitment to helping young people become better captains of their financial ship," said Jim Wehmann, executive vice president, Scores at FICO. "It's critical that everyone understands how FICO Scores work and how to demonstrate responsible credit behavior, so they can enjoy all the benefits of having good credit. Just as students learn good study habits early on to be successful, learning good financial habits at this early stage will benefit them for the rest of their lives."

For the upcoming 2014-15 academic year, Sallie Mae will continue to offer the sam highly competitive fixed and variable interest rates, flexible repayment options, and no origination fees or prepayment penalty on its Smart Option Student Loans. New college graduates who maintain their Sallie Mae loan(s) in good standing after graduation may request a one-year interest-only payment period, after a six-month grace period, to help with the transition to full principal and interest payments without extending the length of repayment.



Sallie Mae's Smart Option Student Loan also includes benefits of on-time payment rewards and tuition insurance. Customers taking advantage of the Smart Reward benefit may earn 2 percent of their scheduled monthly payments that are made on time while in school with the Interest or Fixed Repayment Options and have earned more than $5 million cash back into their Upromise by Sallie Mae accounts. Additionally, built-in tuition insurance covers up to $5,000 of tuition, room, board and other fees not refunded by the school if the student is forced to withdraw for eligible medical reasons.

Sallie Mae recently launched Plan for College, a new online college planning resource at SallieMae.com/planforcollege. Plan for College includes interactive tools, calculators and content to help families map out a plan to save and pay for higher education, including the new College Planning Calculator that creates a financial plan for college and the Sallie Mae Scholarship Search that features more than 3 million scholarships offering up to $18 billion in free money.


For more information on the new FICO® Score benefit offered by Sallie Mae, please visit SallieMae.com/FICO.

Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is the nation's No. 1 financial services company specializing in education. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae turns education dreams into reality for American families. With products and services that include Upromise rewards, scholarship search and planning tools, private education loans, insurance, and online banking, Sallie Mae offers solutions that help families save, plan, and pay for college. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.

ABOUT FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) is a leading analytics software company, helping businesses in 90+ countries make better decisions that drive higher levels of growth, profitability and customer satisfaction. The company's groundbreaking use of Big Data and mathematical algorithms to predict consumer behavior has transformed entire industries. FICO provides analytics software and tools used across multiple industries to manage risk, fight fraud, build more profitable customer relationships, optimize operations and meet strict government regulations. Many of our products reach industry-wide adoption. These include the FICO® Score, the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States. FICO solutions leverage open-source standards and cloud computing to maximize flexibility, speed deployment and reduce costs. The company also helps millions of people manage their personal credit health. FICO: Make every decision count™. Learn more at www.fico.com.

FICO and "Make every decision count" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and in other countries.


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