My son has some Sallie Mae student loans. He is behind but has not defaulted. He pays sporadically. They called me to verify his address and phone number. I gave it to them because I know he is not hiding. After that, they did not atteempt to contact him. Now, they are sending a form letter to my relatives, asking his address, phone number, employers name and phone number, banking information, and other stuff. It does not say he is behind or that they are collecting, but the implication is there. He has had the same phone number for a long time now, so there is no problem calling him. Since they have not tried to contact him after I verified his name and address, I look at this as harrassment. Can they do this? If not, what is the remedy?
The remedy is the kid needs to pay his bills. Jeez Thomas, how do you know he's not avoiding them? What if he isn't answering the phone or, returning phone calls? Were I you, I'd be chewing on this kids a$$ about embarrassing himself and his family by making someone hunt him down.
When you apply for a student loan you are required to provide the name/address/tel # of 3 references - just for this type situation. I would bet these are the relatives they are contacting.
Keepmine while I agree with you I think that you were a bit harsh. He was asking if it was illegal for them to do the things that they are doing. I do not know the answer to this, but I am sure that he is aware that his son should pay his bills. I think that it all depends on what was said to the people they were collecting information from. How did they get all these induviduals telephone numbers anyway?
Its not illegal for the creditor to ask anyone for "information" as long as they don't disclose anything about his debt.
That's the idea behind making those phone calls. When I first had problems with my student loans (and it wasn't even my fault, although that's another story), they pulled this stunt, even though they had correct contact information for me, and I was in the process of rectifying the situation. It's highly embarrassing, and it should be illegal, as far as I'm concerned. They shouldn't be able to contact your references until they make reasonable efforts to contact you directly -- like call the number you put on the application as your own, which in my case,they never did.
