Military Star debt sold to TSI, but yet entire tax refund was taken to pay it?

[Anonymous]

Ive been looking into this hard all day. From what i can tell Transworld Systems Inc (TSI) is not a government agency, they are a normal third party collection agency like every other collection agency. According to the Texas attorney general's website as well as the irs website, my refund cant be taken unless it is to pay a government debt like child support. This debt was sold to TSI, milstar/AAFES has no claim to a single penny of mine any longer right? TSI paid them for the chance to charge crazy interest (18%+ from what ive seen) and hopefully make some decent money off of me when i finally pay my debt. I have no milstar account, trying to check my balance just prompts me to apply for the card again, as if i had never owed them a debt due to that same card. So how can a non government agency take my refund before it gets to me? I understand that they can hit my bank account AFTER i get my refund, but i never got it. I checked the irs refund tracker daily and it went from "should be sent on march 14" to "has been applied to a debt such as unpaid child support, taxes etc.". I called the hotline amd it said something like "money has been taken from your refund to pay army and air force exchange services in the amount of $729" which was my entire refund.
I called my bank at 9am on the 14th, before the refund tracker's status had changed to "we stole your money" and the bank informed me that they had not gotten my refund yet. I have seen reports that TSI tries to confuse things by saying milstar still owns the debt while milstar says they dont own it and have nothing to do with it now. The account in question is around 3 years old, and was sold off at least a year ago. I plan to contact TSI to get a written statement about what i owe, how much has been paid so far, etc. Assuming im right and TSI is BS'ing that milstar owns the debt still so they can easily steal your money, how do i get it back? Ive got a decent job making a few thousand a month so i guess i could afford a lawyer to sue them, but thats throwing more money into this issue in hopes of getting a small amount back. Id probably be in the negative as i doubt the lawyer will be less than $700 by the time everything is done.

[Kforce]

Military Star Debt = Dept to Federal Government
Dept to Federal Government = Input in IRS database with permission to garnish Federal Tax Refund
If you are in the IRS database you are able to have your refund taken from you.
You were in the database for 2018.
Maybe the debt was sold during the year and you will not be removed until 2019.
Maybe once in the system it is never removed until paid in full. ( Don't mess with Feds )
Maybe the collection agency has permission to act on behalf of the original issuer and garnish refunds.
Lots of rules, regulations, and info only the IRS, TSI, and Military Star have.

[Anonymous]

I managed to get some time to call TSI today and was told that they collect the debt, but they dont own it. Milstar still owns the debt, meaning its still a government debt and theres nothing i can do other than pay the rest of it off so this doesn't happen next year, right?

[Kforce]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I managed to get some time to call TSI today and was told that they collect the debt, but they dont own it. Milstar still owns the debt, meaning its still a government debt and theres nothing i can do other than pay the rest of it off so this doesn't happen next year, right?

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I believe you could change your deductions so you owed the IRS instead of getting a refund  !

You are going to have compounding interest applied to your debt every month.

I would work on setting up a way to pay back the debt so your refunds arn't garnished for life.

Collection agency's  next actions might be garnishing wages, lean on property, etc.

If you owe it, why not pay it ?

[Anonymous]

I had a debt with them for years! I ignored it and they took a tax return. Don’t think it gets easier. They will send your work a garnish (happened to me) in which I had it canceled by paying them a lump sum and setting up an autopay in which I paid $150 a month for almost 2 1/2 years. The original amount was like 4 grand but they blew it up to like 9. Got it down to $4600 and called them and offered $2600. They called back and accepted it.

My advise is don’t wait and get it taken care of ASAP! This company is nothing to mess around with. Been a ride for a few years and I would have wished I got it taken care of earlier. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Who did you call to get debt reduced?

I do not mind the pay off, but the interest is crazy?

can they go after VA disability? Social security Disability? or state disability retirement payments?

thank you in advance

[Anonymous]

They did not touch my VA disability but they did garnish my tax refund and put a witholding to my work.  I paid on mine for a few years and finally called the debt collector.   Aafes  will not take back the debt.  Worst debt to have because the interest is nuts. 

[Azuieldrago]

Definitetly pay them back ASAP. Search for some horror stories about them. Very aggresive. Not forgiving. I've read a $1000 debt was over $5k paying their wanted minimum. They act like that because they are backed by the federal government. They are in fact civilian based, but with a governmental contract/protection. I remember when I was in, they did a quick think about replacing them. Nasty nasty.