I have searched on the board here but there is so much information it was a bit confusing for me, so I am going to explain my situation and see if I can get some help for my defaulted SL.
34 years ago I took out 2 small student loans. Both original loans totaled about $3,200. I dropped out of college and just did not have the money to pay it back. I left NY state and moved to FL in 1985. I was handed over to a collection agency for the loan very early on after I defaulted. I tried to negotiate with them, but all I could pay was $20 a month and they stated that they had to get $50 a month from me as this was mandated by congress( true?). In 1992 they placed a judgement on my defaulted loan. This lasted for 10 years on my credit report. They have never tried to garnish wages as I have not held a steady job over the years. The judgement is now over and my credit is clean.
Many tax refunds were offset but not all since I am married and husband is the injured spouse, which allowed for him to reclaim his portion of any tax refund. I took the loans out before we were married and he is not obligated for these loans.
I have paid about $4500 back on the original amount of the loan to date from the offsets. I have not received a letter from a collection agency in some years now. The last one stated I owed about 14K.
What portion of the original loan is paid by the tax refund offsets? Does it go to the principal ( I was told this by the collection agency some years back) or to the interest portion?
I want to pay back the loan and stop the accumulation of interest but I was told I do not qualify for any of the programs to bring it out of default. I don't want to pay monthly, I just want to negotiate the balance if it is interest only and pay it in full and close this issue. Can this be negotiated with NYSHESC?
