I've asked my attorney and he doesn't really have an answer...but there are a few possible reasons why. I have been out of school for about 3 years and busted my butt to make payments while in school and after. 6 months after graduation I relocated to another state and had bad luck like everyone else--I was unemployed for over a year. Even with being under deferment or economic hardship, whatever extra money my parents sent to help me with bills I paid towards SLs. Once I finally found work I was out of deferment and the 3 loan companies I had private SLs with did NOT want to work with me. I had my federal and 25k of private loans with Citibank, a perkins with a small bank that my school worked with, and the remainder of private loans with Sallie Mae. Citibank and Sallie Mae ganged up on me raising the interest to 9-16.5%, minimum payments went from $280 a month for all loans to well over $800.
A few weeks before I filed bk, I pulled my federal loans from Citibank with a government consolidation loan to atleast get those back under 5% interest. A month after filing, Sallie Mae folded--I tried to log in to make a payment, but had a message to call in. I called and they said my loans had been "terminated." I let my attorney know and he said that during the process, it's normal for some places to not accept a payment. In December, I received a letter saying my loans with Sallie Mae and for the perkins loan were "discharged." In early January, I received paperwork from Citibank saying the same for my private loans...My attorney and I didn't get it, because we knew the case was still open and I hadn't received a discharge notice yet.
After the actual discharge, my CRs show Sallie Mae as "Paid/Terminated", and my perkins loan and Citibank show "Paid/Satisfied, Included in Bankruptcy...so the only debt I still owe is the 39k federal consolidation.
Here are a few things that stood out in the whole filing process:
Prior to filing I sent numerous letters, emailed, and called the SL lenders for ANY help--interest reduction, smaller payment, graduated payment, extended payment, etc...and even with paying all on time while in school and during deferment they didn't care that I could no longer keep up with the bigger payments. The documents I sent to them and their responses were included in my filing.
2 weeks after filing, somehow Citibank got me garnished (and I was CURRENT). They pulled $603 out of my checks for 3 pay periods, but eventually I received a check back from the bk court for $1800--still no clue where my $9 went.
My 341 meeting (was on 11/19) was longer than most. My trustee asked me in detail about my student loan payments, my previous payment history, length of unemployment. We spoke for about 25 minutes, whereas the people before me were only asked 5-10 questions and were out in 5 minutes or less.
My attorney is apparently the largest bk filer in Georgia, but NEVER had a case where student loans were discharged until now. I'm not disabled. At the time when I was unemployed I was on gov't assistance (food stamps). He doesn't have a real answer other than I'm seriously blessed.
