Anyone done a garnishment appeal?

[TxQuiltGirl]

Without my knowledge, a garnishment order was issued on my SLs. I am sorta po'd because they are 18 months behind on payments, though I HAVE made sporadic payments, and I have known many many people with outstanding SLs much older than mine who are still floating.

 

Anyway, I found out about the garnishment just before it hit (I called to make some arrangements, but it didn't work obviously). I was never told that I could appeal the garnishment decision, but I did some investigating and found out that it my right to appeal. So I put together the paperwork, proceeded to mail it to the DoE and found out last night that was the incorrect place to send it. :evil: But, fortunately, I got a call yesterday on my VM from Texas Guarantee Student Loan Corp about it (apparently DoE forwarded MOST of the paperwork to them).

 

It seems they are asking for some additional paperwork - obviously the paperwork that didn't make it from the DoE to them - and my tax return from last year. I got a pretty good refund last year, but I'm not terribly worried, as I have explained to them a couple of times that I had some credit problems and I'm trying to get it all cleaned up, and I used that refund to pay some debts down (including a small payment of $315 to them in February).

 

In the letter I sent them (and will resend shortly; I'm resending ALL the paperwork!), I told them that I would be able and willing to make payments of $150/month, which is $80 more than I would be paying if I hadn't defaulted. Maybe I should lower that to $100/month, to give me some leeway ... nah, I'll leave it as it is, because I'm not sure what paperwork they received from DoE. :roll:

 

Anyway ... my question is ... has anyone every appealed a garnishment order? Has anyone ever WON the appeal?? I just don't want to get my hopes up if there's no chance of winning, and I thought maybe someone here would have some advice.

 

BTW, if you have a student loan in default, do something about it NOW. I am paying $365/month in garnishment and another $70/month to get it rehabbed and OUT of garnishment. Maybe some folks have that much money to throw down a hole (albeit one I've created) but I don't!

[TxQuiltGirl]

I got the garnishment lifted!! YAY!!!!

 

It wasn't terribly difficult, though I think what did it was that I had made payments for the last couple of months voluntarily. They looked at those as "good will" payments. YAY!!!

 

[ziggypop]

Congrats -- I know this was really stressing you out!!

 

I assume that you are continuing in the rehab? As you know already, make sure you make all of those payments and in just a few months you can put all this behind you!

 

Good luck!

[TxQuiltGirl]

Thanks, Ziggy ... Relieved just doesn't seem to quite capture the way I feel right now. :wink:

 

Yes, I am going to do the rehab thing ... I feel like a junkie now. But seriously, I am only paying $70/month on this thing, so I feel like a new woman. I'm going to have the direct debit set up as soon as I can, and in just four scant months, I can get out of rehab (I think that's what they said) and get this moved back to a regular lender.

 

Oh, and yes, I am DEFINITELY going to make sure the payments get made and made on time. I have been making phone payments for the last couple of months, just to make sure that they are received. It costs $2.50 each time, but you know what? It was money well spent.

 

**still doing a happy dance!**

 

Now, where's my credit report? :wink:

[centex]

I have an appeal pending...had paperwork that led me to believe it was in a forebearance, learned that it was not and on the day I was going to hand-carry a payment to the TG office in Round Rock, I got a phone call from teh person I had been working with saying not to make it since the garnishment process had started...seems that the wage withholding people don't communicate real well with the regular collection end of the process.

 

If you are dealing with TG, I have a contact number for ombudsman who has been extremely helpful in dealing with this mess.

 

The only reason I am appealing it rather than consolidating is that I want to rehab the loans to keep them from lousing up the report longer than necessary...if you don't care about the derogs hanging around for a few years, you can still consolidate while in a garnishment condition.

[TxQuiltGirl]

Thanks, but I'm good now; everything's worked out. My appeal took less than three hours, once they received the paperwork from me, so if you haven't heard anything, you might want to contact the wage withholding dept at TG (which is who I dealt with) to find out what's going on.

 

Let me know if you need their contact info; they were really very good people to deal with and MUCH MUCH nicer than the collections side. :shock:

[centex]

Thanks, but I'm good now; everything's worked out. My appeal took less than three hours, once they received the paperwork from me, so if you haven't heard anything, you might want to contact the wage withholding dept at TG (which is who I dealt with) to find out what's going on.

 

Let me know if you need their contact info; they were really very good people to deal with and MUCH MUCH nicer than the collections side. :shock:

 

glad your deal worked out...

 

I made a good contact with the Ombudsman's office, and I think I got lucky with the person I had over on the collections side- when was the last time you had a collector say *NOT* to send money? It was actually the collections person that told me that the withholding process had already been initiated and that I should hang on to the payment I was going to carry in...

[TxQuiltGirl]

Centex, I would go ahead and make the payment; that way you start your clock for rehab AND it looks better if you're making payments while you appeal. Tom is the one who handles the appeals for TGSLC, and he's very nice and I actually enjoyed working with the Wage Withholding folks. They made an unpleasant situation bearable.

 

Now I'm wondering ... how long will it take for the credit bureaus to update me from "garnishment" status to "rehab" status? I have a garnishment termination letter they sent to my company; I wonder if I submit that to the bureaus if that notation will disappear more quickly?

[Cheech]

TxQuiltGirl - I don't have an answer about how long it will take the CRA's to update your status, but I did want to say congrats on your successful garnishment appeal. And thank you very much for sharing your info with this board - this has been a very useful and informative thread.

[noquarter]

TxQuiltGirl,

 

When the paperwork for the garnishment was served on your employer, was it from the CA, or was it from TG? Its an important distinction I'd like to make in relation to my own situation.

 

Thanks!

[TxQuiltGirl]

TxQuiltGirl,

 

When the paperwork for the garnishment was served on your employer, was it from the CA, or was it from TG? Its an important distinction I'd like to make in relation to my own situation.

 

Thanks!

 

In my case, TG IS the CA. You're thinking about this all wrong, actually. But don't freak out; it's a common mistake. A DOE backed loan is going to be collected whether or not your paper is held by the OC, a CA or a guaranty corporation (which is what TG is, basically a glorified CA; they pay the OC when the loan defaults).

 

I strongly suggest you check out this link about garnishment (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/awg.html). Educate yourself and use it to your advantage. But really, the best thing is to call them and make arrangements. Don't think for a minute that a DV letter is going to stop them from garnishing your wages.

 

Check out Ziggy and Cheech's threads about rehab; they are very good. And don't fall for the "down payment" line the CA is going to give you. Decide what you can afford and tell them; stick to it. BUT ... don't expect to tell them that you can afford $50 on a $16k loan and them say OK.

 

Don't screw around with this; it's NOT in your best interest, after all the time that has passed, to let this go any further. I could make a very good case for my garnishment being lifted (it was only 18 months after payments should have began and I had moved twice), but they aren't going to look favorably on someone who has had 16 yrs to start a repayment plan, gets a garnishment notice and STILL doesn't take action.

 

Good luck! Ask questions when you have them.

[noquarter]

TxQuiltGirl,

 

When the paperwork for the garnishment was served on your employer, was it from the CA, or was it from TG? Its an important distinction I'd like to make in relation to my own situation.

 

Thanks!

 

In my case, TG IS the CA. You're thinking about this all wrong, actually. But don't freak out; it's a common mistake. A DOE backed loan is going to be collected whether or not your paper is held by the OC, a CA or a guaranty corporation (which is what TG is, basically a glorified CA; they pay the OC when the loan defaults). My loan was a NY State backed loan, so in my case NYSHESC would be the equivalent to TG. I initially called the DOE and they referred me to NYSHESC because it was backed by NY state.

 

I strongly suggest you check out this link about garnishment (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/awg.html). Educate yourself and use it to your advantage. But really, the best thing is to call them and make arrangements. Don't think for a minute that a DV letter is going to stop them from garnishing your wages. The issue I have is two fold, first, I believe this loan was paid off over 10 years ago, and second, the amount due claimed by the CA is more than the amount due claimed by the OC/NYSHESC. I'm using OC and NYSHESC interchangeably here even if they are technically different. If there is actually a balance due, I need a validated account statement to determine if or where there are payments missing from the account, and to then to figure out what the true amount due is.

 

Check out Ziggy and Cheech's threads about rehab; they are very good. According to the DOE and NYSHESC I'm not eligible for rehab or consolidation; its only the partial balance on one loan and is less than $1000.

 

Don't screw around with this; it's NOT in your best interest, after all the time that has passed, to let this go any further. I could make a very good case for my garnishment being lifted (it was only 18 months after payments should have began and I had moved twice), but they aren't going to look favorably on someone who has had 16 yrs to start a repayment plan, gets a garnishment notice and STILL doesn't take action. Well prior to receiving the garnishment notice I did call NYSHESC and attempt to settle this, and I did request validation of the account from the CA. But why should I pay on an account that I believe was already paid over a decade ago?

 

Well, at the very least I'm going to file an appeal because the amount due is in question, as demonstrated by the two different statements I received in the same month, and they should provide me with a detailed statement so that I can have a reasonable amount of time to research my belief that the account was already paid off when I paid off all of my other student loans.

 

Is there any way you could help answer my specific questions about the source of the garnishment you received? Which entity's name was on the garnishment paperwork?

 

Good luck! Ask questions when you have them. Thanks for your reply!

 

EDIT TO ADD:

 

After reading the link you supplied above, I guess this would be the answer to my main question if this applies to NYSHESC just as it does to DOE:

 

ED starts the garnishment process itself by sending the borrower a Notice of Intent to Garnish (SO2 Letter), which gives the borrower 30 days to file a request for review of objection(s) to the garnishment action and states his rights under the process. If the borrower?s request is filed timely (within 30 days of the date of SO2 Letter), ED suspends further action until ED has considered and ruled on all objection(s). However, if the request is filed untimely, ED does not suspend action while ED considers the objections, and proceeds to issue a garnishment order to the employer. However, if ED has not issued a decision regarding the objections within 60 days of the hearing request, ED will notify the employer to suspend garnishment until ED has issued a decision ruling that garnishment should be pursued to enforce the debt. If ED determines that the objections raised in the request for review are not proven, ED then notifies the employer to resume withholding pursuant to the garnishment order.