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Default isn't a place to stay because you can't pay. At this point the entire amount is due. You are not entitled to a payment plan based on your income. If you would like to be, you need to get your loan out of default. In your situation you will likely be responsible for $0 monthly payments. If you renew your paperwork each year, which can be easily done online, you get a receipt acknowledgement by email. This payment arrangement will be binding. After 20-25 years your loans will be forgiven.
Your are not being harassed, though I understand why you would feel that way. They are just collecting the debt you owe in the legal capacity that you gave them permission to when you signed for the loan(s). You can turn in the paperwork to eliminate the garnishment based on income (if by mail, I would pay the extra money for the proof it got there). However, there is a deadline to this. If you do not meet the deadline, you will be garnished for the full amount they are allowed to.
If you would like to go back to school, in order to receive further federal aid you might be eligible for, you will need to get your loans out of default.
If you would like to have payments halted on loans while you are in school, you will need to get your loan out of default.
My advice remains the same. Turn in the paperwork to prevent the garnishment based in your income. Then get the loan out of default to prevent it from happening again and so you can go back to school.
If you would like to file a complaint about the missing paperwork, you can file one with the student loan Ombudsman or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However these will take time to reach a resolution (which may not be in your favor) and will not hault any action taken against you by the collection agency while you wait.
We can point you to further information, links to paperwork, a rundown of how all this works, etc. What can we do to help you achieve your goal?
Hi Waginator,
As frustrating and wrong as this system may be, unless you are willing to legally challenge it, it's what we have to work in. I *know* your frustrations, I've been there. I'm lucky to have gotten a good paying job, but the system can still work in your favor if you work to get your protections back.
Sabii has been very kind in helping people navigate the system, so please listen to the advice there.
If/when you get your loans successfully rehabbed, you will legally have a lot of protections and options you don't have otherwise, one of which is the ability to have an income based repayment, which could reduce your payments to 0. Even with $0 payments, you would still qualify for forgiveness after years of paying $0.
I know you're frustrated, but we're here to help.
Hi Calyx, thanks for your empathy.
For now, good news. I re-sent the financial disclosure package with a change in the cover letter and I just got a reply back that I will not be garnished.
If I can get a payment plan that has $0 payments, I might go that route.
If they insisted on referring me to the loanholder, thus breaking the rules, I would have had to consider local help or legal help.
I have no interest in further loans. I'll need scholarships or work out something directly with a school.
This is my problem:
I'm upside down with my education and loan. Most people get their education, and then have just the problem of paying off the loan.
I was pressured in going to college at 17, wasn't ready to go, was unhappy there didn't get an education, and still stuck with loans.
In the meantime I have experience in the engineering field but no degree.
I wanted to go to college later but no one will listen to me. They keep telling me I went to college. My cousin, who's a teacher, suggested getting a masters. I'm not ready for a masters, I want to go to college first, and be around kids my own age.
I need to talk to an academic advisor. I'm getting no help from my high school or the colleges I've contacted.
My loans were taken out for me from about 1984 to 1988.
I currently make about $16,500 a year.
I don't want an online program , or work on a master's yet.
I need to go to school as a traditional student.
My nephews are going to school to become engineers, one civil one mechanical.
The civil engineer is getting a lot of help from the school. He just graduated with his masters and will work on his PHD.
Somewhere, some school should help me with my degree because of my engineering experience.
I just saw two links on the professional networking site to apply to colleges so I'll explore that for now.
I am so frustrated with the incompetence of my grad school loans provider, Fed Loans. Everything was fine until I needed to update my direct debit account. I updated my information twice with a representative on the phone - and now this is the third time they've charged my expired account! I don't know what to do anymore except to give up and lose my .25% interest rate reduction. It took 3 business days for a representative to respond to my email telling me what I already know - that, yes, they tried to charge my expired account again. What really angers me is that this email tells me that they are alerting credit agencies to the now, late payment - which the last representative assured me that they didn't do.
+1 from above.
I had the same issue with my servicer when I first started (only it wasn't an expired account, they just weren't pulling payments from the existing account I'd authorized), so I started using my bank's billpay to send to them. I did lose that .25% at first, but it finally got sorted. I kept enough cushion in in my account until I knew the system had sorted out in case there was a double payment.
(And yes, the CSR said they knew about the issue, that it was on their end, and yet, of course it was my responsibility to deal with this issue without them sharing that info... /sigh)