Hello, I am soon to be a single mom, with basically no assets, that brings home less than $500.00 a month income. I owe (now that the CA has added more fees) about $30,000.00. I now have a collection agency after me for my student loans, I was going to use a company called Default Management Services Inc. Has anyone heard/used them? I have now become concerned because I looked them up on BBB and they have a C rating because they don't know enough about the company yet. Well considering they want me to pay them $100.00/month for the next 5 months I want to be sure I am doing the right thing. I've considered offering the CA 15% of my income, which is what they will get if they take me to court, right? I want to only communicate with them via mail and the first letter I send I plan on having it sent certified mail. I tried contacting the dept of ed via email and they won't deal with me because of the CA. I have not done anything with the CA yet. I would like to get on a payment plan and will allow them to take it directly out of my account once all's in writing with the agreed upon amount and try to just get this to not be a huge stress on me. The Default Mgt Svcs I was talking about earlier has promised me a lot of stuff, including restrucuring the loan, etc. But I am not trusting anyone these days. The Student Loan people have been bullying me for years and have not been willing to work with me in the past. I think maybe I should send a letter with proof of income stating I want to rehabilitate my loan, using 15% of my income. Is that a good option for me? I also saw to call that 1-800-4fedaid on another post, but would they bother with me in my situation?? Please help!!
You mentioned that they've been "bullying you for years". How long ago was the last payment you made on your student loans, and what state are you in? It is possible that you are outside your state's statute of limitations pertaining to debt-related lawsuits. Problem is, I don't know if the same statute applies to student loans as it does to credit card debt; you'll need to do a little homework to see. Give us a little more information, and we'll be happy to offer some suggestions: 1) What state are you in? 2) When was the last payment (month and year)? 3) Is this a federal student loan, or a private loan (like Sallie Mae)? 4) When was the very first time this particular collection agency contacted you, ever?
I am in NM. I sent a payment a couple months ago and they never cashed it. I sent it to the payment center and not to CA maybe that's why. It's through direct loans. A collection agency contacted me years ago and I ignored them and continued to send payments to the paymeny center I had always sent them to. I hadn't heard anything until about a month or 2 ago. I also just posted a letter I am thinking of sending, just FYI. Thank you!
I forgot to say, that it's the dept of ed that's been so terrible to deal with all these years. They've always forced me into payments I couldn't afford and then send threatening letter. I haven't gotten regular bills or statements in years. They maybe once a year send a bill with my last payment on there and saying I need to send them a like $400.00 payment. And I send a much smaller payment and don't hear from them again for like I said months. I gave up trying to communicate with them years ago and just have been sending them what I can afford, when I could afford it.
I doubt I've talked to the ombudsman. It's been years since I've contacted anyone, really. Once in a blue moon I would try to email and they'd never help me.
Get the information for the Ombudsman and call him. See what he can do to advise you. If it's a federally-guaranteed loan they don't even have to take you to court. They can garnish wages, bank accounts, and take tax refunds. There's no Statute of Limitations on these loans, either. It won't go away.
He is right in the fact that they won't go away. I used to work for AFSA Data Corp. in Utica NY. They serviced Direct Loans accounts. I worked in Default Collections. (Actually loans that were about to default) Here is what the op should do. 1) Smack yourself in the head for being an such an idiot. Stupid hurts - as it should! YOU put yourself in this position. You need to look at your life and somehow learn to make better decisions. I'm not being judgmental, I'm being honest. I too was stupid but changed my ways. You can too. I can understand that things happen but defaulting on a Federal Student loan is hard to do if you put the tiniest bit of effort into it. Direct Loans have all sorts of Deferments and Forbearances that you can use. 2) Direct Loans sent your account to the US Debt Collection services in Texas. After that I am not sure what happens. One thing that I do know is that if you make "x" (I believe 6) on time payments you can send it back to Direct Loans. There you can choose a payment plan that fits your budget. Some people choose the Income Contingent Repayment Plan. Under that plan Direct Loans will decide how much you can afford to pay. At your income level it will most likely be $0 to $7 a month. After 26 years they will forgive your loan. 3) If you have not already, call 1 (800) 848-0981. That is the collection department at Direct loans. They can give you another number to call to find out where your account is. They can also give you advice as to how to bring it back to Direct Loans.
To the OP - don't give up. This is a new program for student loans passed by the Obama admin www dot ibrinfo dot org backslash index dot php The board won't allow me to post urls as I am under the number of required posts so that is why I had to type it like that. They base the payments on your income. I think it is set to launch in July and they even have methods for getting your loans forgiven. I don' know all the particulars and I don't know if it can help you, but I think researching it and contacting them is worth a try. Wishing you good luck...
Ombudsman??? - PULease! - The ombudsman is nothing more than a contracted collection firm. They did nothing for me & I had records which proved my dispute. Agreed - though that it's pretty hard to default on a DIRECT loan. - As long as you call & document. I found Wachovia to be a very stable lender. Sallie Mae on the other hand, are unethical IMHO, crooks: they claimed one of my many Wachovia loans. - Impossible since Wachovia never sold any of them - at least they were not aware of it. I had to re-consolidate with DIRECT in order to get them off my back - even a letter from Wachovia didn't stop them. They never once made an effort to speak with me. The worst part of the Ombudsman is that they try to hide who they really are - even using phony names - Legitimate businesses don't need such sneeks - only crooks. BTW - AFSA is now ACS which is Wachovia's servicer which now owned by Wells Fargo - the Other bastion of integrity.. DIRECT is the only lender that, on the record consolidates defaulted loans.
