The Student Loan Blues Song Every Borrower Should Listen To

Published

August 6, 2018

Brooke Niemeyer is the former Deputy Managing Editor – Syndication for Credit.com. She writes about a variety of personal finance topics, with work featured on ABC, CBS, TIME, The Huffington Post, MSN, FOX Business, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance and other publications. She has a Master’s degree in Journalism from New York University and was a reporter for NBC before joining the Credit.com team. You can follow her at @RNYBrooke.

It’s getting harder and harder for young Americans to graduate from college and not face a mountain of student loan debt repayments. In fact, a White House report noted that nearly 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with some level of student loan debt.

Krystal Metcalfe, 29, reportedly falls into that category and is dealing with the stress that comes with repaying the student loans that helped her pay for college. After she and her husband were unable to access her mother-in-law’s Netflix account one night (they reportedly couldn’t afford their own), Metcalfe was inspired to put her financial frustrations to music.

And from that came her new song, “Sallie.” This bluesy-ballad is about the pain that comes with having to pay these loans after graduation, a time when you’re supposed to start reaching stability, though many often can’t because a large portion of their new income is going toward paying down an incredible debt.

“If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have taken your grace,” she sings. “Now it’s personal ‘cause you got my parents involved. Sick, stressed out, staying up late trying to help me get you lost … And I hate you ‘cause I can’t seem to get up on my feet. And I hate you for how you jacking a credit. And I hate you ‘cause I’m forever indebted.”

These feelings may be familiar to those estimated 40 million Americans with student loan debt, regardless of who their servicer might be.

Rick Castellano, a spokesperson for Sallie Mae, wrote in an email statement to Credit.com that Metcalfe isn’t a Sallie Mae customer. However, “we certainly empathize with her frustration,” he said. “We also get that our name is part of the pop culture lexicon and frankly it’s probably not as easy to rhyme something with the Department of Education. The reality is more than 90% of loans are made, owned and serviced by the federal government. We are proud that 98% of our private loan customers are successfully managing their loans.”

“Although my loans are indeed Federal Loan Servicing, American Education Services, and Cornerstone … I chose to title the song Sallie, because amongst my peers Sallie is symbolic for all loans regardless of who the loan distributor is,” Metcalfe told Credit.com in an email.

You can stream the full song below.

Repaying Your Student Loans

If you’re in the same boat as Metcalfe and are working on paying back your student loan debt, it’s important you find a workable repayment plan so you don’t default on them. Falling behind on your payments can hurt your credit and may even prompt you to deal with having your wages garnished. If you want to see how your student loans are affecting your credit, you can see see your free credit report summary, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com.