I'll make this as short as possible.

Husband has about $35K in student loans. He got into some financial trouble and couldn't pay. Tried to make the rehab payments and couldn't. The loans are with West Asset Management now. Last year they sent him a letter that they were going to garnish if he didn't pay in full. The other option was to ask for a hearing by sending in a complete financial statement. If they felt it was a hardship, there would be no garnishment.

That was in October. He has received nothing since then. He contacted them in December. "yes, we received your info--it's in review". He called West in March. Got shuffled around but no one knew what was going. Contacted US Dept of Ed who shuffled him back to West. Still nothing from anyone in the mail.

Finally spoke with someone at West again. They said they'd look into it and get back to him. Still haven't heard anything 2 months later.

My husband burried his head in the sand for years about these. Probably b/c at some point someone sent him a letter with a total amount owing of $81K. He never bothered to keep his original loan papers so he didn't even really know how much he borrowed. Going back now to the days when his loans were at Sallie Mae, we know that the original loan amount was only about $35K. He asked the folks at both West and US Dept of Ed to send him copies of everything, they said they would. We've still received nothing.

Is it possible the papers are missing? Perhaps they've discovered an error in the amount they're trying to collect? I would love to get started on repaying these but the minimum they will take is $800/month. It's possible that when we refi my house in the fall we might be able to pay off most of these.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any part of this? Would they settle for less than the original amount? What type of minimum payment is reasonable to expect for $35K in student loans?(about 10yrs old) Thoughts on the lack of contact from the CA?

thanks for the reply!

I'm just surprised that we've heard nothing in all these months. The home is mine but unfortunately it's a community property state. I'd be happy if we could settle for the original loan amount. I think we could swing that when we refi in the fall.

He did contact the Ombudsman. Hopefully that will help. I know it sounds weird to be this worried when they aren't trying to collect right now. I just know that if we don't deal with it now, it'll come back to haunt us later. Frankly, it should've been dealt with eons ago. Unfortunately, they wouldn't budge on a payment he could afford.

Silence is NEVER a good thing when one has been threatened with wage garnishment when it comes to student loans. Your dh needs to stay on top of this, not wait months between calls.

He hasn't been ignoring them. Just waiting to see if they send him anything. He doesn't know if they approved him for financial hardship or what.

My next question is about the 1% guideline.


Is that based on the total with fees included. They're saying that number is $81K. We can't afford $800/mo. We could afford $350/month which is 1% of the original amount. Just trying to figure out what the actual numbers are. No one can seem to come up with the actual original amount owing.

I didn't say he ignored them; I said he needs to stay on top of them. I mean he needs to call daily until he gets an answer. If he doesn't you may find that 10 - 15% of his check has been garnished.

The original figures hold no bearing anymore.

If he wants to see what he borrowed he can log into NSLDS.

thanks--unfortunately, he has never received a PIN for NSLDS so he can't log on.

He can get a pin number online!

should've been more clear about that. he applied last week for a PIN on-line. it was supposed to be e-mailed and he hasn't received it. he tried the loan locator and his loans don't come up with that either.

he just called West Asset while he was at lunch and got the usual routine. We'll check on that and call you back. They really don't know what's going on.

Did he ask to speak with a supervisor in Administrative Wage Garnishment?

My understanding is that he spoke with 4 people. 1 was the person who answered the phone. She looked up his info and transferred him to someone else who is "handling his file". No answer, left message. Called back, explained that he needed to speak with a human, now. Got transferred to the collections department, spoke with someone who transferred him to a supervisor. Supervisor told him that she wasn't able to give him any information at this time. His file had been transferred but she didn't know where. This is what happened when he called in March.

Then try calling the DOE back. Sounds like the DOE might have pulled the account back.

thanks. that's what we figured. when we sent the financial statement it went to DoE not West. We called DoE in March and requested copies of all his paperwork from them as well. Again, haven't received anything from anyone. I guess we'll get on the phone with DoE. West was horrible to deal with. Maybe we can find some way to make this work out.

I will review his paperwork tonight.

However, I think what happened was that we received the paperwork via West on behalf of DoE. I know the "send it to" info was DoE.

We requested the information from both places. In March, West still had the account as far we know. When he called he was transferred to their garnishment department. It was clear that he was still in their system. After weeks of frustration with West, we did some internet research and learned about the Ombudsman, they suggested that we contact DoE directly. DH did that. At that point, he requested info from them. The represetative said that he could provide it. However, that person also said we needed to contact West. He indicated that west was handling the file. We seem to be caught in some vortex between the two.

I'm so confused.