Hi there,

I was referred to this board by another money board so I am hoping someone might be able to help.

In the late 80's I took out a large student loan - $10,000. Well, I have never made much money and through a combination of being poor and desperate, I got in over my head and couldn't pay my loan along with all my other bills.

Thankfully, the last few years I finally worked out payment plans with credit card companies and my other student loans. Finally (!) things seems to be smoothing over and I felt thrilled that I could try to make good on all my debts.

Until yesterday. A very angry creditor called about my student loan. Come to find out that all my loans were not consolidated afterall. The government loan (the $10,000 one) refused to consolidated with the others and actually sent the money back to SallieMae. I was shocked.

So here's my problem. They are now demanding $1200 down and $255 a month for a year to go into rehab. They said it is the best they could do for me, period.

Honestly, if I could pay that, I would. I told them that if
I was extremely tight with my budget I could give them $50 a month, perhaps $100. He, literally, laughed at that, calling it "utterly, utterly unacceptable."

Now he is saying that one way or the other they are going to get the money. They will sue me, take my car, garnish my wages, take all my taxes, etc....

I'm at such a loss. I was just barely hanging on as it was, trying to pay off all my other lenders and felt good of the progress I had made. But now everything has collapsed on me.

Because if they garnish my wages, it will destroy all the other payment plans I have. If they take my car, I won't be able to go to work. He also said I can't file bankruptcy..that the money is never forgiven. He just kept saying that they will get their money, "one way or the other." Then he hung up on me!

What on earth do you do when you have run out of options??? Before you say it, I already work two jobs. The only asset I have to my name is a car worth about $3000.00. I might have someone I could borrow the $1200 for the downpayment but then I wouldn't be able to pay them back! (Not to mention that I have no idea if I could even pay the $255 monthly that they are demanding).

I'm beyond desperate here. If you have any advice, I would truly appreciate it.

Thank you much,
Jackie

Under rehab guidelines you do not have to make a down payment. You are also entitled to "reasonable and affordable" payments.

This is from the Dept of Ed site...
"All guaranty agencies and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will accept regular monthly payments that are both reasonable to the agency and affordable to you. You should call us at 1-800-621-3115 and one of customer service representatives will assist you with determining a repayment amount that is right for you. "

These are federal regs. Who is the loan holder. Which agency is calling you?? A) they should not be talking to you in an angry tone, and they cannot take your car. Yes they can garnish you and take your taxes.

My advise is that you call the loan holder. (Hopefully it is the department of ed. Collection agencies and the individual collectors are graded on complaints on department of ed contracts) Find out who the agency and loan holders are and I can help you more from there.

It sounds like you did a consolidation at one time but this loan was not included? Do you have the docs from your original consolidation to see what loans were to be included? If you don't have the docs, try the servicer who did your consolidation to see if you can get a copy.

You can log onto the National Student Loan Database site to see who holds this loan. www.NSLDS.ed.gov You need to get a PIN number which can be emailed to you within 72 hours. Get your info first before making a call.

If you feel you are being harassed by all means complain to the Ombudsman's Office at the US Dept of Education. You don't need to listen to a ca fruitcake.
1-877-557-2575.

The student loan CA I've been dealing with has lied through their teeth and continues to call even after various limited C&D letters. Call the Ombudsman's office and ask to have a case file opened. It will take less than 2 weeks for it to be assigned. Do you know the name of the collection agency?

Why is everyone wasting time dealing with the Ombudsmans office when there are clear FDCPA violation?? The Ombudsman simply writes letters back and forth and a hand might get slapped. (Although doubtfully...do you know how many letters I had to answer to during my collection management day? We would send a response and that would be it!!) Get an attorney and sue!! $1000 per FDCPA violation!!!

Emanze,
Don't give them the downpayment!!!
I had two student loans.One is currently paid on time etc... At one point they had someone elses direct deposit paying my account!!! Still don't know where my money went. When I called them to straighten it out the troubles started. They messed up the two accounts and bills and I missed two payments from that mess. I also receive very nasty and threatening phone called saying the same thngs they said to you!!!!
I told them to just fix the payments and I would pay the normal monthly payment. He continued to be beligerant on the phone. I hung up got a lawyer and that was over 3 years ago. My lawyer has even spoken to their lawyer and still nowhere is the end in sight. Stick to your guns and don't let them mess up your plans...
Good Luck

I can't tell you what a relief it is to read that. That's all I want, really. That everyone is treated fairly.



I wish I had the information in front of me but the loan holder is the government. And, unfortunately, I don't know who called me. When I tried to call the govt office they said they referred my account to collections and I should call them. So I suppose it was a collection office of some sort.


TOday I took a phone call from someone who had a "court ordered garnishment" against my wages. I am a receptionist and they didn't know they were speaking to me! I just referred them on to our payroll.

So, obviously, they are pursuing that. I'm just at a loss at what to do and can't understand why they didn't accept the money from SallieMae when I consilidated my loans.

I'm still reading through all the replies here...it's so wonderful to have all this information.

Thanks much,

Jackie

Yes, that's exactly what happened. Last year I tried to consilidate all my loans under SallieMae. Everyone agreed but this government loan. They rejected the check! Why, I have no idea. But I confirmed this information with SallieMae.



I shall do this. Thank you much.

I wonder if it is too late to go through an Ombudsman since they are going to garnish my wages now???

Unfortunately, I did not get the name of the collection agency because they hung up on me before I could get any information from them.

Today I got the number and name of whoever is doing the garnishment but I don't know if I should really call them back or not. He sounded very friendly but, then again, he didn't know it was me he was talking too.

Emanze.....

Do you not have the name of the collection agency or a phone number??? Are you receiving correspondance from them. You should have received pre administrative wage garnishment paperwork from them, allowing you to appeal. Also, the CA violated the law by telling you(even they didnt know it was you)that they have a court ordered garnishment....email me at Lynninmn@aol.com

I just read your other post...

You do not have time to deal with the Ombudsman. If this is a Department of Education collection agency, you need to be talking to the DOE ASAP. I am looking for numbers....

This is a listing of all of the Department of Ed agencies....is it one of these???

<<Collection agency employees are trained to comply with the terms of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which governs collection practices by debt collectors. When Debt Collection Service is notified in writing of complaints concerning our collection agencies, we review the evidence and take the necessary action to correct the situation.


Aman Collection Service
P. O. Box 1149
Aberdeen, SD 57402-1149
(800) 874-8969 Maximus
P.O. Box 877
Grand Rapids, MI
49588-9877
(800) 863-9025
Diversified Collection Services
P. O. Box 2049
Castro Valley, CA 94556-0049
(888) 335-6267
Account Control Technology
P.O. Box 8026
Canoga Park, CA 91309-8026
Collections: (866) 887-2880
Financial Asset Management Systems
P. O. Box 81401
Atlanta, GA 30341
(888) 668-6920 Progessive Financial Services
P.O. Box 24098
Tempe, AZ 85282
800-253-8167
NCO Group
P.O. Box 41420
Philadelphia, PA 19101-1420
(888) 475-6741 Allied Interstate Credit Corp, Inc.
P. O. Box 813220
Smyrna, GA 30081
(800) 464-2076
Nationwide Credit
P.O. Box 290276
Nashville, TN 37075
(866) 381-5530 Education Credit Services
PO Box 7807
Fredericksburg, VA 22404
(800) 862-2843
Pioneer Credit Recovery
P.O. Box 128
Arcade, NY 14009
(877) 907-1866 National Asset Management Enterprises
PO Box 725109
Atlanta, GA 31139
(800) 470-4720
Van Ru Credit Corp
P.O. Box 1027
Skokie, IL 60076-8027
(888) 337-8331 >>

Bingo! This is the one. Except the address I have is,

NCO Financial Systems, Inc.
in Tuscon, Arizona

Hmm, at least now I know who these people are.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/index.html

I did not read this thread, so sorry if this is a repeat. You don't have to put up with nasty collectors. Read the above link. Also, if the collector will not work with you, you can request an omnibudman (spell) There is more than one way to get this done, and it can be worked out within your budget.

Yeah, I know NCO well. They are scumbags of the Nth degree...

NCO Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCOG)
507 Prudential Rd.
Horsham, PA 19044 (Map)
Phone: 215-441-3000
Fax: 215-441-3929
Toll Free: 800-220-2274

They have been reporting incorrect information to Equifax for well over a year on my account that has been closed since 2003.

[/quote]

Yeah, I know NCO well. They are scumbags of the Nth degree...

NCO Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCOG)
507 Prudential Rd.
Horsham, PA 19044 (Map)
Phone: 215-441-3000
Fax: 215-441-3929
Toll Free: 800-220-2274

They have been reporting incorrect information to Equifax for well over a year on my account that has been closed since 2003.

[/quote]

How horrendous. I'm not surprised after speaking to them, though. The collector I dealt with was borderline abusive.

Hi Kamper,

Thank you, first of all, for the link. I found it very informative.

You were right...they will work within your budget. Today they called me yet again and I actually got someone who was nice. And reasonable! He agreed to waive all the late fee's and penalties and lowered the monthly payment to an amount that was just $15 over what I requested. That means they went down $150 from what they were originally requesting!

I'm quite happy to have been able to find a resonable solution. Last week I got the worst collector I have ever dealt with in my life and today I got the best one. Same agency, just different people. Weird.

Thanks again for your support. That goes to everyone who might be reading this.

Warm wishes!