<p>1) I have a PLUS loan serviced by Sallie Mae and I have never had a problem. They have a fairly efficient system online where it is easy for me to check the balance. I’d add that I’ve never been late with a payment – I have found over the years that there are a lot fewer problems with lenders if you pay on time. 
Paying ahead of time is even better – one “trick” with paying off student loans (or many other loans) is to pay at least one month ahead - they calculate the next due date by how much is owed, but if you keep on making the monthly payment on schedule then you are always “early” with your payment and you never run into any sort of issues with late fees. (Same tactic doesn’t work with credit cards, unfortunately)</p>
<p>2) Its a losing battle to pick a lender based on who services the loan, because the loans get transferred and you can end up with it being serviced by a different agency down the line in any case. My son took subsidized Stafford loans at his first college, serviced by Sallie Mae. After 2 years, he stopped attending college, and started making payments via Sallie Mae. After 3 years he returned to college-- he did not take any more loans, but his original Stafford loans went into remission (or whatever they call it) because he was back in school. Then he graduated – and received notice that his original loan is now being served by a different agency altogether. Meanwhile, my PLUS loan, taken from the same lender at the same time, is still serviced by Sallie Mae. </p>
<p>3) My PLUS loan for my daughter’s college is serviced by MOHELA. I really can’t say there is any difference between one or the other. If anything, Sallie Mae seems more efficient, but its not a significant difference. </p>
<p>4) When my son was first out of college and making payments to Sallie Mae, they kept sending bills to my house and I kept telling my son about them and sending them on to him. They ended up calling a lot and saying his payments were late, and my son gave me some story about not receiving their bills or knowing where to send payment, which interestingly enough seemed to happen with many of his other bills, like credit cards – even though I was sending him emails and also sending him his mail. Hmmmm. I think he did end up paying some late fees to Sallie Mae, but I think a huge part of the problem is that my son did not know to be proactive about paying bills. I think he’s much better these days – he is very proud that his student loans are now paid ahead until sometimes in 2010 – but the point is that you should take those on-line complaints with a grain of salt. You are only hearing one side of the story, and a lot of people don’t think to call their creditors and notify them of a change of address; or go online to check their balances, etc. Then they profess a big surprise later on when it turns out that they are delinquent in payments, and say things like “the bills stopped coming.” With a student loan or any other loan, you owe your monthly payment whether or not you got the bill – so its up to the borrower to make inquiry in those situations.</p>