Sallie Mae and Allied Interstate

[scarsunseen]

Hello,

 

I'm new here and I hope I'm posting in the right section. I graduated college in 2009 and starting making payments like normal after 6 months on my private loan through Sallie Mae. I paid $280 every month until I lost my job in May 2012 and was found ineligible to collect unemployment compensation. It took me about 6 months to find a new job. During my period of unemployment, I could not pay Sallie anything whatsoever. I was living on my savings only. I'm so glad I was able to find a new job in December.

 

Shortly after I lost my job in May '12, Sallie Mae upped my monthly payments to $480 a month. I couldn't afford to pay them a dime. They would not negotiate a thing with me whatsoever. Then the repetitive, harassing phone calls began around September, while I was still unemployed. When I got a job in December, I was planning on making normal payments to Sallie Mae again, but they were still unwilling to budge from their $480/mo, so I paid them what I could.

 

Then on January 10, 2013, my roommate committed suicide and I found him. (This is not a joke post whatsoever. I'm very serious about this.) I won't get too into the details. He was my only roommate, and also a good friend. Within a week or so of that, I informed Sallie Mae about what happened and I had to go back to paying them nothing because my bills doubled and I had to find a new place to live, which I did in mid-February. They did not offer me ANY options during that time. I was forced to continue missing my monthly payments of $480. I am now living in a new apartment with my girlfriend and also a mutual friend (which is what we wanted anyway, but not under these particular circumstances). Before moving, I had to use almost ALL my remaining money to pay for moving, a new security deposit + 1st month rent, etc. By the time I was done moving, I only had about $100 in my bank account. I'm just about to start repaying Sallie Mae, now that I have more money and a "decent" safety net.

 

Over the past 2 months, I've been getting voicemessages from a company called Allied Interstate. I never answer because they never say who they represent in their voicemessages. However, I googled their phone number recently and they are a debt collections agency who represents Sallie Mae. The strangest thing happened today.

 

This Allied Interstate place called one of my friends (from 8664530229) and disguised themselves as a potential employer who is looking to hire me. They told my friend that I used him as a reference, and that they had an incorrect phone number for me. I guess this is one of their tactics to track down people? I wish my friend could have recorded it. He said they've been calling him for a month and he's going to try to record it next time. This can not be legal at all!

 

Any opinions? I think I'm just going to ignore this Allied Interstate and go back to making normal payments through Sallie Mae.

 

Thanks,

ScarsUnseen

[LynnInMN]

You have defaulted on the loan. AI cannot say on a voicemail who the represent.....that would be a violation of the FDCPA.

 

Since you failed to answer them, the next step is to skip trace you. My suggestion is to stay on their good side. Sallie Mae can and will sue on defaulted private loans, regardless of whether or not you are paying them. As for private loans, they do not offer payments you can afford or deferments due to hardship.

[nekom]

They are allowed to contact third parties ONLY to obtain updated location information. However, I seem to recall something about pretexting (that is lying, i.e. pretending to be a potential employer) being a violation of the FDCPA, but I wouldn't swear to it. I get calls for my ex-wife all the time for student loans and other miscellaneous stuff. They tell me she listed me as a reference, and I tell them to stop lying, and absolutely NEVER attempt to contact me again.