O.K here we go again. I have a collection with the State of Maryland Central Collection Unit. It's $8000. Sent validation letter. They filled it out and sent a computerized bill from the University of Maryland. Sent validation # 2 told them I was not looking for a computerized bill it does not help me to determine whether I legally incurred this debt. They ignored. They never marked credit report in dispute and they just verified with experian. I need a strategy now. Here is the dilema. I did attend the University of Maryland during the time they are alleging. However, I applied for student loans and Pell Grants for each semester I was there and I was never notified that anything was wrong with the financial aid or that i was incurring a balance with the school. Also, I was allowed to register semester after semester with no blocks to alert me to a problem. So I am a little upset that they want to charge me this money after the fact. If in fact I am at fault, I don't know how I am, I would be willing to pay it off to the school not the collection agency, but I would need a payment plan. I need a quick strategy for deletion though. Pros, aggressors, please help!
I'm not clear on something here. Are these student loans, or some other kind of debt? Or are they saying you simply never payed for services, like a year's tuition or something?
They are saying that I attended the University of Maryland for a year and a half without paying a dime. I don't want to be a pest but this is an 8k debt that I need off ASAP! I'm going for a mortgage in January.
Robin- Did you apply for loans? Or just grants? Did you do a work study? When I went to school I had loans THRU the school, but they were automatically deferred until graduation or until I quit. I had the option thru my work study to have a portion of my pay go to the loans. Did you do any of that? BTW, I was never notified of actually getting the loan, but I know they won't let you start until you have a loan or have paid up front.
And I thought I was the only one. This happened to me, but it was only for one class, and a couple of years ago a good friend of mine became Dean at the school and was able to annul the debt. I had paid when I registered, and the debt didn't show up until a couple of years after I left school. Unfortunately, I don't think that option is open to everyone. It seems to me you should be able to dispute this succesfully as any other debt, and the good thing is that it has an SOL, since it isn't a student loan. That gives you leverage. One warning I can give you is that they will withhold your transcripts, and use threats of withholding, to try to force you to pay.
I applied for loans and grants while I was there. I was never notified that anyhting was wrong or it didn't go through. I only found out when I saw this collection for $8000 on my credit report. Basically if this debt is in fact mine then they let me register every semester for a year and a half intentionally letting me rack up thousands of dollars worth of debt and never once said anything until now. I think it is unfair that they didn't say there was a problem from the very beginning and what about blocking my registration. They could have done many things to alert me to the problem but they did nothing. The point is they did not mark the account in dispute, they just verified with equifax and I need this off ASAP! I'm afraid to sue though because I think they will countersue and wind up getting a judgement against me which will hurt more. It doesnt help that it is the state of Maryland Central Collection Unit and I will have to file in Maryland. Also, how do I find out if they are licensed to collect in New York and how does this help me if they are not? Again I need strategies and I don't care how extreme I just need help.
There is no SOL for student loans, which are guaranteed by the federal government. But if I understand Robin correctly, her "lender" in this case is the school itself, not the government. As far as I know, the only organizations exempt from SOL on debt is the IRS and the fed. Universities aren't so lucky. I can speak from experience and say that I still owe a few hundred dollars to my university that they loaned directly to me, which I haven't paid off, yet it does not show up on my credit report, and the last time a CA called me about it, maybe a year ago, I made some rude comments to him, told him the SOL was expired, and he hung up, never to try again. I will settle eventually because A) it really is my debt; and B) I'm thinking about an MBA and need my transcripts released. But I feel no urgency about it. As for Robin, you said you want an aggressive strategy, but you don't want lawsuits involved. That's going to be tough. Can they prove that you took the classes but never paid for them? If they can, what happened to your loan money? They always took my tuition directly out of the loan checks, so I never saw most of that money. Do you have records showing what happened to the loan money? Receipts for classes?
I will go to court if I have to. But there are two reasons why I don't want to. 1. The collection agency is run by the state of maryland and that is where I will have to file. 2.The school is the most respected and very much prided state school. Very likely a jusge will simply plow right over me. The thing is it could be my debt. But all I am saying is that they were very irresponsible and almost predatory in allowing me to continue to sign up every semester and never alert me that there was a problem. I was never aware that the loans and grants were not credited because the school usually handled everything. I have no documents or anything because everything was done throught the school. However, I am fairly sure that the student loan people would have a record of what happened to the loans. The point is the loans and grants were not credited and I don't think that is my fault. They did violate the FDCPA and I do have proof of that. As I said before I need help but I'm lost. I was thinking of hiring a lawyer on this one but there aren't many consumer law attorney's in New York. The yellow pages only list 2.
Robin, it does sound like they should have alerted you to the billing problem at the time. Here's my take on this: You acknowledge that you did in fact take classes during this time, even though you thought you had paid for these with student loans. Presumably, since you believed those loans went for tuition, you didn't spend that money on anything else. Are you making payments on those student loans? Is the loan money truly "lost" in the university system somewhere and really just needs to be applied to your debt? Is the student loan money languishing in some bank account they established in your name somewhere? If it's simply a matter of answering a question like, "Why didn't that student loan money pay off the tuition like I thought it did?", then I believe you can straighten this out more easily than you might think. Call the University of Maryland's financial aid office and get some documentation regarding those loans which you thought should automatically be applied to your tuition. Now, as for the matter at hand, do you have them on an FDCPA violation? You probably do! On the other hand, getting a judge to award you the $1000 may be tough. Moreover, university general counsels are notorious for their fearlessness. In other words, win or lose, they could care less and would just as soon see you in court as blink rather than settle if you take an adversarial position with them. Bottom line: 1) What you stand to gain from a legal challenge is questionable at best, since you do acknowledge your enrollment (as opposed to being a victim of identity theft). 2) Since you attended, you owe the money. Here's a suggestion. If in fact you spent the tuition/loan money elsewhere, then a negotiation track may be much more fruitful for you than a legal challenge, especially if you approach the matter with them in good faith. I would call their Bursar's office ("treasurer" in some schools) and plead ignorance and hardship. Explain that you hope to buy a house soon as well. See if you can't trade deletions for a payment plan. Doc
One quick addendum: I did note that you mentioned you were dealing with a collection agency. Some universities and states have their own in-house collection agencies. I wasn't really clear regarding how closely tied the CA was with the OC in this case. In any event, since you have apparently acknowledged your enrollment, the CA will enjoy a terrific advantage against you in any courtroom, I fear. Probably the biggest thing I worry about when I think about your situation is the status of that student loan money which was earmarked for tuition!!! Doc
Robin- If this was in fact a student "loan", then there would be no reason to notify you during the school year provided the loan covered all your "expected" classes. You would only be notified AFTER completion of schooling OR you quit or were discharged for misconduct. How long ago did you go to this school? Student loans are NOT to be repaid until AFTER completion. Did you graduate? Leave? Transfer? When you applied for SL's did you apply with outside banks or the school? Did you receive any grants? I agree with Doc here, the legal counsil for the schools are ruthless, they get paid whether they go to court or not. If you did in fact go to this school then you may have a very hard fight on your hands. Find out who issued the loan and when the school was paid.
I did in fact go to the school. However I never admitted any of this to the ca. The ca is a collector for all state related debts. No particular connection to the school besides that. What I question is two-fold. Where is my student loan money? Why was I never notified that the student loans weren't being applied? Why was I allowed to keep registering without being alerted that there was a problem when their own policy is to block registrations if you owe a balance one semester to the other? When I left that school I transfered to New York University and took out loans and grants with no problem. I never though to check on the status of the student loans because they are deffered whil I am in school. Is there anything I can do to (a) get the ca out of the situation and make them delete since they are the one's listing and then (b) sort something out with the school separately. The main thing is to get the collector to delete and get out of my way.
Robin, you've stumped my panel, lol. I seriously doubt the state CA will delete the delinquent tuition notations despite the violation you mentioned. I still think that your best bet is to begin with the school, get them to pull it back from the CA, and hopefully trade full derog deletions in exchange for a tuition payment plan. (Of course, FIRST, find out what happened to that student loan money.) Said differently, you might consider embracing the school lovingly, dispensing the truth of your situation with them fully, and honoring their previous friendship through a good faith demonstration of timely tuition payments. Doc
Do you think I have a better chance of getting the ca to delete on a payment plan to them, while using the violations as leverage. That way they still get their commission and since the trade;ine belongs to them likely the school will say we can't delete they have to do it.
Did the school ever figure out what happened to the student loans (do they show up anywhere at all?) Often, the school itself is not the lender they use local banks or possibly Sallie Mae. You might find records of disbursements. If the 8,000 was disbursed to the school I would certainly want to know what happened to that money and why it wasn't applied to your account. Or, are you saying that the 8,000 was never disbursed?
I don't know if the money was ever dispursed. I am just now trying to sort this whole mess out. I wonder if the Department of Education or whoever dispurses these student loans would know. But I don't know who the lender was.
Robin, before you default on these mystery loans and incur even more problems, I think you should call the school and have them look up your financial aid history. Doc
