Hi Everyone, I have a question for you. Are student loan guarantors required to validate the debts with the debtor?. The reason I ask this is because I demanded validation from two different guarantors- California Student Aid, and USA. Its been about 30 days and neither has validated anything with me, but had no problem seizing both my state and federal income tax returns. My girlfriend did get a call at our house from USA yesterday threatning to take HER tax returns as well (HILLARIOUS) and garnish my wages. -Sal
Uniondiva, I am so sick of this student loan scam I'm stuck with. It's like everyone involved including the collection agencies are all above the law. -Sal
As I understand it,Federally guaranteed student loans are exempted from the FDCPA and the FCRA,even if turned over to a collection agency.
No, that doesn't make any sense, if that was the case they could come up with any amount they deemed fit and you or I would be completely helpless to defend ourselves.
Absolutely not. When a student loan is submitted for collections, they should send you the 30 day notification to validate notice. If you request validation, they have to send you copies of any signed promissory notes, as well as a statement explaning the principle balance, interest and charges, any payments applied to the account (seized tax refunds, etc). They keep good records, but sometimes it is worth it if you think your school or lender may have committed fraud of some sort- received more money than allowed per student, did not send a refund when you withdrew from the school, etc.
Kit, This is my impression as well. If ANYONE is nailing you to a debt, I'm sure they have to PROVE the debt period. By the way, I am pretty sure the school in question has been involved in fraudulent activity as they have been investigated by the District attorney's office and then subsequently closed. I've been discussing this issue on this board in some earlier threads, and have been in contact with Mozilla.......he is hopefully going to help me get atleast some of this loan discharged. Thanks, Sal
My husband is in a similar situation. We are fighting these with the collection agency and will go to court if we have to. I am guessing your loans were at a vocational/trade school?
they are required to validate the debt, believe me Sal, i have the green cards to prove it. i just got my tu report with usa funds verifying the paid sl collection once again, so i will be adapting the "nutcase letter" to get it removed. Most of my sl have come off by simple disputes, and i cannot really complain about success rate since i started in october 2001.
Uniondiva, Kit, Sounds like we are all fighting the same exact battle. Its so cool to know I'm not the only one going through this... We need to keep updating each other as we progress through kicking these gaurantors sleazy butts. -Sal
