Student Loan in Wage Garnishment

[redsox2011]

Looking for some advice...

I currently have a bad student loan with wage garnishment being collected from Diversifed Collection Agency. The garnishment has been in place since August 2009 and is for roughly $400 a month with 30K left on the balance. I am financially able to live with the garnishment but I don't have the money to pay the loan off entirely. My question is should I just continue on with this garnishment? I could probably afford to add another $100 in payment to this each month but is that worth it? My #1 goal is improving my credit score, and all three scores have been gradually increasing each month as the loan gets older (All three scores are between 600-650, a year ago they were between 550-600, so they are rising about 3-5 pts a month). I have three credit cards paid in full each month which is helping my scores, so the student loan is the only negative on the credit report, but it's still a big negative. I've contacted the CA, but they seem content with the garnishment, and always just say I need to pay the loan off entirely to remove the garnishment. Any advice would be appreciated.

[dharalex]

I would pay as much as you can extra! When they get a judgement and garnish your wages, it includes interest. You are saving yourself money to pay it all as soon as possible. I've had a situation where this happened to me and I paid extra and got them to stop the garnishment early and let me continue payments. Even though they didn't, they are also within their rights to garnish any income tax refunds from you as well as put this on your CR which would be a DISASTER! So again, if you can do it, I would pay as much as possible to satisfy the debt.

[kariered]

I don't know what to tell you. I have been getting garnished now for about 3 years. They just keep taking more and more from me. I am currently in rehabilitation, but I think my CA is being dishonest because all of a suddent they tell me I am not paying enough on top of my garnishment. They get almost $600 from me every month. This would've been my 9th month (and last one) but when I called them to find out the status they said I was only in my 7th month because my employer didn't take enough out of my paycheck. Confusing.

[angelita1212]

I am also getting my wages garnished and have started a rehabilitation program as well. The only difference I can see is that I did not go through the CA to set up a rehab program. My loan was originally from Sallie Mae, then when I defaulted, HESC NY took over the loan and sent it to collections.

I directly called HESC to set up rehab, not the CA which is FAMS. Have you tried calling your lender that sent you to collections?

[kariered]

Just so everyone who reads this thread knows, TG did eventually rehab my student loans. When they initially called me to tell me my loans wouldn't be rehabbed for 3 more months (or something like that), I told them that I was not aware that they had to receive a certain amount each month. A few days later TG called me back and said they would be rehabbing my loans. So on Sept 28th they sold my loans to SunTrust/AES. My loans are now with them and in forebearance until I get teacher loan forgiveness, which they are supposed to allow until then. Concerning my credit report, my account with TG and all the defaulted loans and lates/negatives was erased. The only thing showing was my original lates with Wells Fargo that led up to the default. With just that, my credit score shot up 70 points. I was able to get approved for an FHA mortgage loan and am hoping to close on my house next week! As far as the Wells Fargo lates disappearing from my report, they may have, but I'm not sure as I have not seen my latest credit report since 10/26/11. As soon as I get paid (don't want to touch the bank account as it contains my down payment/closing costs) then I might check it. I think my mortgage lender will probably pull my report one more time before closing, or at least I have heard they now do this. Thanks for all your help with the student loan mess!!