Many of us with loans through Sallie Mae have nightmarish stories regarding our dealings with the company, but we're hearing word of a new, special kind of financial screwing of which our readers may want to take note. Yesterday a college friend sent me this article, screaming that her FICO score suddenly dropped 120 points overnight. Apparently Sallie Mae switched the way they describe the "status" of loan holders who use the graduated payment plan to report as "arrangements for partial payments." Equifax, one of the three major credit reporters, read this as notice of delinquency and started docking FICO points -- people are reporting anywhere from 30 up to 150 point drops. Naturally, Sallie Mae hasn't bothered to notify anyone affected.

This post on Bankrate.com clears up most of what happened, also stating that Sallie Mae is aware of the situation and is trying to rectify it. Hilariously, their spokeswoman says that "only" 10 percent of their borrowers were affected -- numbering one million people. Of course, to those staring at plummeting credit scores, this could mean weeks before your reports are corrected.

Although the Bankrate.com article is saying that there is no need to pull a credit report since all the corrective action necessary is being taken, we're going to advise you to do it anyway. Especially if you were in the process of doing anything financially -- applying for a mortgage, for instance -- you'll want to make sure to point out the issue to your mortgage company if you've been affected. Moreover, the issue may not be isolated to people on the graduated payment plan (the co-signer on my loan was severely affected, even though I'm on a different plan) and those people may want to call Sallie Mae and make sure their report is corrected, too.