27 year old student loan

[Anonymous]

In 1999 try to enrolled at Apex technical school NYC , I filled out all the paper work and was told I was approved for the course a few days latter before starting the course  I had a change of heart and notified the school enrollment and financial departments I was no longer interested in attending  the  school . I was told it was not a problem and that I would be able to enroll at any other time. I never try to re-enrolled or attended the trade school .  Now 27 years latter  my Federal tax return was garnished by the Treasury department  without any prior  notice .my taxes have never been garnished before . Called DOE and was told I had to pay entire balance on two student loans plus interest  from 1999 . and that I qualified for a 5 dollar a month re-payment plan to get off default after a year of timely payments .  Upon research  two  student loans in default show up on my credit report , The school cant find any information on me cancelling my enrollment but knows i never attended .  Anyone here has any knowledge of the student loan forgiveness programs and if so do I qualify .

[RobertEG]

Many federal student loans have specific provisions under the Higher Education Act the exempt them from state SOL, require mandatory reporting of delinquencies, and exclude the delinquencies from the normal credit report exclusion provisions set forth in the FCRA.

Thus, both credit reporting and civil action can occur/continue long after the normal SOL periods under your state law, or the normal 7 year credit report exclusion provisions set forth under the FCRA.

Your issue is likely not one of whether they can continue to report to your credit report, or whether their civil action was within SOL.

It is apparently one of whether the debt is, per se, legit based on your course withdrawal.  That would depend upon how you withdrew,and whether it negated any debt.  Since the school proceeding with obtaining the requested federal loan, you have a legal issue of whether that loan was valid, or whether your cancellation of the course also terminated any debt or loan obligation on your part.

That is a legal issue that will likely require consultation with an attorney.

I would advise you contact an attorney with an eye on challenging the validity of the school having processed the loan after your cancellation of the course, and thus whether the debt per se is valid.

[Anonymous]

I think your main issue is that it's not showing that you cancelled the enrollment. It seems to me that if they can see you didn't attend (hopefully you requested this information in writing), there might be some sort of paper trail that leads to the cancellation. From experience, it can be more difficult to get documentation at this age of the loan because it might be before systems became computer-friendly. Nonetheless if you don't end up getting a lawyer, you'll need to start getting the stuff together for that you can find or request. It may take some time. It might be worth it to get the rehab at least started to begin to get the collections off your credit report.
There is a loan discharge program in which all or a portion of your loans will be forgiven. Most of them payments will be put on hold while it's processes. Here is more information about that:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation

Another option is the borrower defense:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/borrower-defense

[dynamicvb]

Sabii, I'm going to have to disagree about the paying anything. If everything said hr is accurate the loans where never valid and should not have been disbursed. The only thing that may make this true is if the OP received some sort of disbursement which it sounds like never happened.

Paying on the debt would be an admission to the validity of the debt. I would speak to a lawyer before doing anything else.

[Anonymous]

Dynamicvb: My interpretation was that there was a disbursement, to the school, for tuition, fees, etc. owed. In my experience, those things must be paid when they are owed, not after a student starts classes. It could be different in this case.
When the student dropped the classes a few days before they were to start they likely were owed a full or partial refund and the school should have returned those funds. Hence, why the link I provided is for the discharge due to a refund that wasn't issued.
My understanding was also that this was a federal loan, hence why they were able to garnish tax refunds. There is no running from them, you're going to have to pay them unless they decide you don't. They don't need a payment to make them valid. My suggestion was only to rehab to fix their credit report right now, which doesn't take away the ability to have the loan discharged.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In 1999 try to enrolled at Apex technical school NYC , I filled out all the paper work and was told I was approved for the course a few days latter before starting the course  I had a change of heart and notified the school enrollment and financial departments I was no longer interested in attending  the  school . I was told it was not a problem and that I would be able to enroll at any other time. I never try to re-enrolled or attended the trade school .  Now 27 years latter  my Federal tax return was garnished by the Treasury department  without any prior  notice .my taxes have never been garnished before . Called DOE and was told I had to pay entire balance on two student loans plus interest  from 1999 . and that I qualified for a 5 dollar a month re-payment plan to get off default after a year of timely payments .  Upon research  two  student loans in default show up on my credit report , The school cant find any information on me cancelling my enrollment but knows i never attended .  Anyone here has any knowledge of the student loan forgiveness programs and if so do I qualify .

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It really depends on how long you were in the classes. Your post seems to indicate that you never actually attended the course, or that you attended for only a few days. Based on today's Department of Education rules and regulations, you wouldn't have been able to get a loan if you didn't attend (or dropped within a few days).

If you changed your mind mid way through the semester, those loans can't be cancelled or forgiven (to the best of my understanding).