Student Loan Rehabilitation And The Effect On Tradelines

[trix_r_4_kids]

Just wanted to add to the SL Rehab thread ... I made my 9th payment last Friday!  So happy to see the light at the end of the loooonnngg tunnel

As soon as I knew the payment posted, I called my buddy at the CA to see what the next steps were.  He said that the information would be submitted to Nelnet and that I should be all set to transition to a normal repayment program with them.  He didn't seem to know what happened in terms of the CRA reporting.  I couldn't just sit and wait, so I called Nelnet to see what happens next.  I spoke to a very nice person at Nelnet who informed me that once I am back with them, my tradeline would extend back to 2008 (when I first defaulted) and that all of the negative/default marks would be removed.  Essentially, it will look like I was never late or in default ... hopefully.  The Nelnet rep said that they report to the CRAs on the 16th.  I'll keep my fingers crossed and pray that everything works out.

P.S.  Thank you, Ficotron, for starting this thread!  To quote you as an inspiration for others, "Just stick with it and it all pays off."

[Anonymous]

 I'm negotiating with Windham Prof. to rehab my Direct Loan student loan ($118,000).  I'm unemployed.  We have 2 kids.  My husband is working.  Our gross income is about $2,700 a month (take home is about $2,600).  After giving them detailed information about our income and expenses over the phone, they figured out that we have an "extra" $198/mo leftover.  Regardless, the *absolute minimum* Windham is willing to acccept is about $750/mo.  (I think this would cover the interest). 

They've directly threatened to put a judgment lien on my house and told me I wouldn't  be able to rehab the loan ever at that point.  Indirectly they've threatened to call my husband at work (no biggie, except it interrupts his day and adds stress) and garnish HIS wages (can they even do that?).  By indirectly I mean that they never specifically said "We will do this," instead they said, "These are things we are capable of doing."  Oh, they've also called my mom's house a half dozen times trying to get her to give them contact info.  SERIOUSLY?  Leave my elderly mother out of this!!

I've been researching and the law states that the rehab payment must be "affordable and reasonable."   Based on our income $750 is nowhere near affordable!!!  I offered $100 a month and they flat-out refused it.  In fact, they've flat out refused to accept any payment less than $750/mo.  (I take that back, one guy told me I could send in $100/mo, but it wouldn't count toward the rehab, but he said "Something's better than nothing." )  Also, I discovered there's a process for accepting a payment that is less than the monthly interest (show proof of household income, etc).  So it's not a matter of them being unable to accept the payment.  It's a matter of them making very little money (only a small admin fee) off of my loan if they do.

Someone please help me!  I want to rehab my loans.  But they won't work with me.  How do I force them to follow the law, when they could just slap a judgment lien on my house and say "screw you."?

Thanks for reading this.  I really hope someone can help me. 

[trix_r_4_kids]

First of all, Windham "un"Professionals could potentially be in violation the FDCPA if they are:

-- calling your husband at work and he has already told them not to

-- calling your mother if they ask for more than location information, and

-- threatening legal action without intention to act on it.

It sounds like they are just skating on the line of legality.

BTW ... they can garnish your husband's wages -- legally.

My DH has had the distinct pleasure of having WP as the collector of his student loans.  His wages are currently being garnished.  We wanted to rehab his loan.  However, WP still wanted the garnishment payment AND the rehab payment.  There is no way we can afford that.  We tried consolidation, but we were told that he is not eligible.  For now, his wages are still being garnished.  We have found WP to be impossible to work with.  As soon as my loans are all set, I plan on calling the student loan ombudsman to see if they can help with his.

I recommend you contact the student loan ombudsman to see if they can help you.  It sounds like your family is not in a financial position to afford repayment.  You didn't specify if the loan belongs to you our your husband.  If they are yours and you are unemployed, you may qualify for forbearance or deferment.  If they are your husband's loans, he may qualify for consolidation and then IBR.  Here is the site for the ombudsman's office: http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/

[Anonymous]

I found an answer to part of my question (can they garnish my husband's wages?)  Because the debt was occurred prior to marriage, no.  Posting here in case it helps someone else.   

California Family Code:  "911. (a) The earnings of a married person during marriage are not liable for a debt incurred by the person's spouse before marriage. After the earnings of the married person are paid, they remain not liable so long as they are held in a deposit account in which the person's spouse has no right of withdrawal and are uncommingled with other property in the community estate, except property insignificant in amount."

I'll speak to the collection agency later today and then, if they're unwilling to fulfill their legal obligation to work with me based on my income I'll call the ombudsman.

[BrokaToe]

Hi folks, I've read over this entire thread and it's given me some hope for sure.  Thanks FicoTron for starting this thread btw.

So I'm 7 months into my rehab with Windham Professionals on my Direct Loans.  I've actually been logging into the myeddebt.com wesite and can see all my payments have been applied to the Dept. of Education, so that's a lift off my back.  I'm hoping everything will go smoothly for the transition from CA back to original lender.  That's my understanding of the rehab process for Direct Loans.  Has anyone had any successful rehabs with Windham Professionals concerning their Direct Loans?  Also wondering if the Dept of Ed is on schedule with picking these loans back up after the 9 or 10 month mark.  Thanks everyone and GL for All !

[Anonymous]

Broka, I'm in a similar situation - what's myeddebt.com? I tried to go there but got a weird error message......I'm also 7 months into a rehab, through FAMS for my Direct Loans. I'd be interested to the answer to your questions, too. Hoping that the interminable delays are now not happening the way they were this spring.

[BrokaToe]

Heya Invincible....Yah, myeddebt.com is a dept of ed ran website that hold all of you borrower information on you loans.  The site will tell you who currently has your loans and contact info for the CA, will tell you the current balance of your loans and show you any payments that have been applied to your loans through the collection agency etc.  Tons of great information on there.  All you have to do is sign up for a login and you'll have tons of information on you loans at your fingertips.  I've really found the site useful. 

Usually once every week or two the site goes down over the weekend for maintenance, it was down this weekend, that's why you couldn't access it.  But it's back up now, just click on the Borrower link and follow the instructions to sign up for a login.  Here's a excerpt from the website.

This Debt Resolution Web site provides you with an overview of your defaulted federal education debt and options for tracking, managing and resolving your debt. You can make payments online, view payment history and documents related to your debt, download forms, submit requests for review and hearings, submit a dispute, and view information to help you resolve your debt.

[Sassy_Taurus]

I also have Windham. So far the reps that I've spoken with have been really helpful. As a matter of fact after requesting to speak with a manager I was offered an 8 month rehab instead of 9. It's only 1 month sooner but they allowed me to make a second payment this month which is great for me. Hopefully come January when  I make the final payment I can than get approved to buy my 1st home.

[bahbahd]

EDIT:  I'd like to note that my statements below were just opinion and in fact the site myeddebt.com is genuine and seems to be the proper place to track payments made under rehabilitation. ACS, Inc does offer data services to institutional clients, and it seems like the ed.gov is just one of those client using their services to help centralize payment data. I do stand by my stated opinion that I think their site could appear more credible. Good luck to all of you rehabbers. 

I'm sorry but myeddebt.com looks illegitimate as all heck. Their domain whois record shows it's registered anonymous through the domains by proxy service. Most stand up companies do not try to hide this info. Their security certificate points to the site being run by Affiliated Computer Services Inc a subsidiary of Xerox Corp. Their domain name even resolves to Xerox's main website. I would not give these people my social security number.

http://www.acs-inc.com/

http://www.acs-education.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliated_Computer_Services

The only place I would look up all my loan info is here -> The National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) is the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) central database for student aid.  https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/

[Anonymous]

It's referenced on the DOE's website as the site for Default Resolution:

http://ifap.ed.gov/ifap/helpContactInformationDetailedList.jsp?contactname=Default%20Resolution%20Gr...

I did log in, and they had record of all my payments since I started rehab; not sure how anyone else would have gotten that info.