Hello,

I posted the other topic on this board "Did I just get scammed?" under the username "Frostee". Unfortunately I forgot my password after about a week so I had to create a new username.

As an update to the previous post, where the SL CA took out $50 twice instead of once, I got the 2nd $50 payment cancelled by my bank before it was completed, and I accepted the story that it was a mistake made because their accountant was sick and the temp ran my info twice that was told to me by the CA, so I let them keep my debit number as the form of payment for future months.

Well low and behold 4 days later, ANOTHER $50 was just taken out this past Saturday , after calling both the CA and the bank several times to get the last charge stopped. Unlike the previous transaction, this one was somehow instant and could not be stopped before it was withdrawn, putting my account in the negative with a NSF fee pending probably, and it also caused a CC payment to be rejected, which may result in fees on that end as well!

I have had it with National Recovery. Either they are scam artists or they are complete idiots. I called my bank and had my debit card cancelled, and disputed all the charges the made over the past week out of anger (even the $50 they were supposed to take) because I didn't know if these people were actually collecting for my SL or just taking $50 whenever it was available in my account.

I would like to know, if you would please help, if there is anything I can file with the Dept. of education against this company and what action can I take. I know that, if they are legitly collecting for my SL, taking back my first payment is going to look bad to the DOE but I can't trust these people any longer. This has caused me a lot of stress. All I want to do is rehab this SL so that my credit will be new again.

Lynn please help!

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=281793

cross reference

Starbucker

When you attempted to login with your Frostee login id there is a "forgotten my password" button to click that will allow you to reset your password. It is a violation of the TOS to have 2 seperates ID's. Please choose one and let admin know by emailing admin at creditboards dot com which id you want and admin will deactivate the other one.


fla-tan

You may well want to contact the ombudsman for the DOE, there is a pinned link to them at the top of the forum, and get them involved.


fla-tan

Will do. I will choose this one and email them soon. thanks.

Yes, I saw that link and I took down the phone number so I will call them on Tues when they are open again, I guess I was just wondering if there was a particular process I could request that would have my account assigned to a different CA. Could I just ask the ombudsman to have account reassigned? I realize this is probably annoying and I am sounding stupid but any advice on how to request this or what you would do in my place would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

Who is the guarantor of this account?? I am looking at the list of DOE collection vendors and I dont see National Recovery Service listed. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/collection.agencies.html

Hey Lynn!

Thanks for responding. For some reason they are listed under another name on that page...

Financial Management Systems
P.O. Box 1423
Elk GroveVillage, IL. 60009-1423
(800) 889-6321

they call themselves National recovery when they contacted me, but that 800 number listed on that page is the one they gave me and I call that number to talk to my account rep.

I know they are probably legitimately contrated by the DOE but I would rather deal with a diff CA if possible. They dont seem like they know what theyre doing. I can not have payments coming out of my account at any given day. I put every extra cent I have to paying down CC debt, trying to improve my fico, so random withdrawls like that would cause a lot of havoc on my checking account.

perhaps I should just take out a loan and pay the full balance instead of rahab. I can do that, but if I pay it off does the 7 year clock start over (its scheduled to come off my CR in 2009)?

If I paid it off and then disputed with the CRAs do you think they would verify or let it be deleted? I'm trying to get this off my CRs so I can get a home loan next year.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

fla-tan

Honestly you need to bombard the CA, DOE and Ombudsman with complaints. I do believe you have an FDCPA violation with them cashing payments.

Ok today I called the CA and W.Ford loans directly and they verified that this was a legit CA. Both CSRs said they have no idea what FDCPA is and they said that there is no process I can use to file a complaint.

Here is the conversation with W.Ford...

"I had all this money taken out last week and it caused havoc in my bank account, so I had to cancel my debit card and dispute the transactions because I have never dealt with a loan company that tried to take out 3 payments instead of one..."

CSR: ::silence:::

"I've been told that this company is in violation of FDCPA and I would like to file a complaint."

CSR: "I have no idea what FDCPA is but the company that took those payments out is the company that is collecting for your student loan."

"Are you saying I cannot file a complaint? Do you see the multiple payments?"

CSR: "Yes, I see that you were charged twice so far. It will only count as one payment. We don't have a department that deals any of that, you have to call the CA and complain to the supervisor"

"Well they don't seem to have it together and I would like to deal with another company to rehab."

CSR: "We can't put you with another company, you have to rehab with them."

"How do I know they won't just take more and more payments out at random times?"

CSR: "Again, you would have to take this up with their management"

"I have talked to their management, he sounds around 20 years old and he even says he has no idea what happened because billing is not his department. They are pretty clueless."

CSR: "Well sir, there is nothing we can do on our end (blah blah blah...went on about how I need to talk to a sup at the CA and tell them to cancel my form of payment (duh- done already) and tell them I will need to send in money orders, but there is nothing you can do about the situation as far as filing complaints." Theyve never heard of it.

So basically I dont think theres anything I can do. I did contact the CA about the NSF fee and he said if I fax it to them they will reimburse me (no telling how long that will take). I had to cancel a debit card and go thru all of this and they still could not tell me why I was charged multiple times and according to them theres nothing I can file to complain....

I guess this about wraps it up. Just a bunch of needless hassle and stress. I did chargebacks on the multiple charges so knowing how crooked this system appears, they will probaby add on a couple hundred for the chargebacks. Defaulted SL is a nightmare.

Once you found out that the CSR at the DOE was cluelesss, you needed to have worked your way up the chain of command. Higher ups with a little bit more knowledge.

Ombudsman...did you call them??

Did you call the CA??

The DOE was probably the least important to call.

Yep, forgot to mention that I called ombudsman first, they were the ones that actually gave me the number to my W. Ford loan peole. She said that W.Ford would have to handle it since it was their loan. She didn't want to seem to bother with me either. Maybe I should call back and talk to her sup?

When this happened to me (and you're lucky - they got over $800 from me!) I was not aware of an ombudsman so I filed a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office in their state - they are not allowed to take more money from your account than you have authorized.