Student Loans

[UpUpUp]

Okay, I'm not sure this one has been covered.  We just pulled my BF's reports yesterday and found that his mother apparently stopped paying his student loans LAST JUNE! Not a single payment after paying on time since 1999. 

So, he's a year in default and had NO idea.  Put a call into mom but haven't heard back yet. Any ideas of where we should start with this one? Is there any hope in getting this back on track and a years worth of baddies removed. We are freaking out. This tanked his scores.

[photography]

Good luck with Sallie Mae, I have attempted GW letter after GW letter trying to get them to remove some lates I had, I have had their service for 9 years and I was 120 days late one time when I was going through a divorce.  I keep getting the same response, they are unwilling to update the lates.

[UpUpUp]

Well that's just GREAT!  I can't for the life of me figure out why she would just suddenly stop paying his student loans and even so, why should wouldn't TELL him. This really sucks.

I'm sorry that they won't forgive your one time late. That's terrible.

[ivyalmighty]

UpUp,

What address did SM have on file for all correspondence? I find it hard to believe that in 12 months, they wouldn't do a search for a better addy if they were getting no response from Mom. If that is truly the case, that all correspondence has always gone to his Mom's house, then you'll have a very good case right there for removing the lates... that they never actually contacted the true owner of the loans to notify them of the status. This isn't a case of GW as much as it is whether or not Sallie Mae made the proper attempts to track down the responsible party for this loan.

But again, it's pretty unusual for SM to not find your DH.

[UpUpUp]

He has moved to two different states in the last 3 years and has not applied for any credit in the last 2 years so his most recent address is not on his reports. Neither is his previous address. Telephone is in my name so if they searched for that, they would not find anything. He's employed as 1099 so no employer information either. Very possible they have not tracked him down. We have not heard a peep from them. Honestly, I don't see how they could have located him.  With no credit apps, no employer information, new cell phone and a home phone in my name, they have nothing...

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 06-17-2008 10:48 PM

[UpUpUp]

Well now I'm really freaked out. I think this may be bigger than we though. I had disputed something on his experian report and when their update came through it also had his entire credit report displayed. The entries were a bit different than how they show up on the myfico reports. This was more detailed and shows that in March the loan was "claim filed to the government". I'm not sure what exactly this means, but I know enough to know this is pretty serious.  Still no word from his Mom which is pretty strange too.  We don't even know where to start now.  Have no clue what the balances are on the loan and what we'll need to come up with. We don't know how much was paid down when she defaulted and when we tried to log in to Sallie Mae they said they have no record of his account. I guess because it's not with them anymore.

Any advice? I'm petrified.

[Wonderin]

---

ivyalmighty wrote:

UpUp,

What address did SM have on file for all correspondence? I find it hard to believe that in 12 months, they wouldn't do a search for a better addy if they were getting no response from Mom. If that is truly the case, that all correspondence has always gone to his Mom's house, then you'll have a very good case right there for removing the lates... that they never actually contacted the true owner of the loans to notify them of the status. This isn't a case of GW as much as it is whether or not Sallie Mae made the proper attempts to track down the responsible party for this loan.

But again, it's pretty unusual for SM to not find your DH.

---

I hate to say this and really do feel for the guy, but I will bet you 100 FICO points that SM will say that it was his responsibility to make sure the account was current, regardless of who was supposed to be paying it.

Which, really, is true (again, I feel for him!!). He SHOULD have made sure Mom was paying the bill if that was their agreement. But yikes! If you can't trust your own mom, who in the *bleep* CAN you trust???!!!

[UpUpUp]

I hear ya. I really do. Of course it's ultimately his reponsibility. But from the get go she has handled the payments, the Sallie Mae account was even linked to her work email address when we tried to log into it. It said the information was being sent to hismom @ herwork.com - hehe.  He's NEVER had anything to do with it, she had always paid it, for YEARS. I'd bet my bottom dollar she even applied for it on his behalf and set up the whole thing. I think it was close to being paid off.  He's always been very close to his Mom and it's just so weird that she just stopped paying. And...okay, let's say she didn't want to pay it anymore. Couldn't she have TOLD him?  I mean this just sucks. If she just said she wouldn't/couldn't pay it, he would have happily taken over. They are small payments and wouldn't have affected us in the slightest. I think combined they are like $70 a month or something.

I'm not worried about Sallie Mae or his credit reports at this point. I'm more concerned about what involvement the government has at this point as we have both separate and joint accounts and I'm thinking of pulling all the money out of the joint account until we get this all figured out. 

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 06-18-2008 11:01 PM

[UpUpUp]

Update:

He spoke to her this morning. She had no explanation for why she stopped paying or why she did not notify him that she wasn't going to continue to pay, so that he could pick up where she left off. She also acknowledged receipt of a few notices by mail, didn't seem to think that was a big deal and only responded with the fact that she didn't recall any notice saying it was going to reach the level of being claimed by the government. She knows exactly what she was doing, she still has a rough idea of what the balance is that is still owed and offered to make a deal to split the balance with him. Aw, that's so sweet. What a nice offer to make after sending the government after your child for their money. Wow. I'm seriously appauled.

Anyone know if once they get this far delinquent if there is any hope of a payment plan?

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 06-19-2008 04:13 PM

[ivyalmighty]

He really, really, really needs to call SM instead of you looking for answers on here. Every day that he hasn't contacted them is another day closer to them seizing his bank accounts or sending it into REAL collections, where there won't be ANY hope of rehabbing.

Please please please have him take over this issue and call ASAP.