FED loans

[Waginator]

Dear Calyx and Sabii, 

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through your own struggles nwith your loans.

Going to college was supposed to make my life better, it just made it worse. 

I am stuck with these loans and no education. I still need to go to college.

I don't know if I'm posting in the right place, but here's the update:

I was garnished without notice.

I got a financial disclosure form. 

I actually got notice that i am exempt from being garnished because I am suffering a financial hardship. 

However, the garnishment continues. Why?

I sent another copy of my disclosure paperwork along with the notice of judgement in my favor.

No response. 

I sent another one. 

No response. 

Is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau my next step?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I actually remember you. You mention a judgement? Is that from going to court to fight the garnishment? If I'm not mistaken you can appeal the decision any time after it's made and if you win you will even get back what's garnished.
If you've gone through this process and you're still being garnished, yes I would suggest filing a complaint minimum with the CFPB. But I would strongly suggest you consult an attorney in that case. This is outside of my scope of knowledge but I'm pretty sure garnishing your wages after they've been ordered not to is not legal. Again, you would have to talk with a lawyer. You can probably find resources for free or you could even ask on AVVO.com
Good luck and the more information you provide the better.

As far as going back to school, you will definitely need to check to see first of all if you maxed out your aid already. If you maxed one thing out you'll need to fill out special paperwork to get the rest. But if you still have some left at all, you'll need your account to be out of collections. To rehab I believe that you'll need to stop the wage garnishment first.

[calyx]

I am so sorry you're having to fight this still.

It's definitely CFPB complaint time and I second @Anonymous 's suggestion of seeing if you can find a lawyer you can speak with.

[Waginator]

Thanks Sabii, 

In going back to school, I'm not interested in getting any loans. Only scholarships and credit for what I've already paid for an education. 

[Anonymous]

That also ours you at further risk.
Nowadays a good amount of scholarships are through the FAFSA. You'll have to look up if you can apply at all with a loan in default.
Your loan being in default can also affect transcripts. The school can refuse to release them. You wouldn't get any credit in that situation.

I think this came up before, but there's really no reason to avoid getting the loans out of default with your financial situation. Rehabbing would be a great option for you. It would also eventually stop the garnishment. Other than the CFPB complaint and appeal (if the garnishment decision didn't go the way you need it to), I think that getting it out of default would be an effective option without very much effort.

[Mookey67]

You said they received the paperwork. Was it before or after the deadline and how long was it before they sent the accounts to collections for garnishment? If it was before then that is their error and they should have processed it and pulled your loans back from the collection agency if you were eligible. That to me can be the basis for your complaint. Just for future reference whenever you send in paperwork, I always recommend a follow up a few days later to make sure it was received. It’s suppose to post roughly 23-48 hours after it was received but sometimes it could take longer depending of the volume. Sometimes it is missed and just sits there without being processed. The rep if it was received should have looked back and saw that if that is what happened. I have seen it happen. But Sabii is correct. Rehab would be the way to stop the garnishment and once out of default you will have more options. Good luck!

[Waginator]

Dear Mookey, 

Yes they got it before the deadline. And I know they did because I send this stuff signature required. I sent another copy of everything some time later and still no response.

New development However. I decided to call them a few weeks ago. I called the DOE, and was referred to the collection agency. Now normally I refuse to talk to the collection agency, as legally I don't have to. My beef is with the dept of Ed and my school. However, I decided to try my luck, as I have caught them doing something which is basically illegal. 

To my suprise, It was easier to talk to the collection agency rather than the d.o.e..

The first call, in January, got some progress-- They admitted that there was an error, and said they would stop the garnishment and send out new financial disclosure paperwork. Of course, that didn't happen, but you have to do these things one at a time. These people are incompetent and underqualified, and they are what they are. 

So after three weeks I decided to call again. First I called my employer which referred me to ADP which handles their payroll. 

I told them the story first and they were shocked to hear of the situation. They immediately put me on email notification and told me to keep them updated after I called the collection agency. 

This time I got better confirmation that the garnishment would stop.  Of course both times I called, I wrote down the date, time, names of people I spoke to. 

the good news is, on 2/6 I got my first email notification of the last garnishment. On Feb 13 and 14th, I got Garnishment stop notices.

When I checked my pay stub, I can see that my last pay was not garnished. I thought I would get financial disclosure paperwork, or something else in the mail. 

Now I have to pursue getting my money back. I estimate that I suffered over $2,000 loss from garnishment without cause. I need this money to pay my bills. 

I never got any paperwork or notice before I was garnished, nor any notices that I was actively being garnished.

[Anonymous]

Thats awesome news @Waginator getting the garnishments stopped!

[Waginator]

Well, it's sort of good news, all that happened was that I stopped them from stealing from me. 

All in all, they illegally took over $1600 from me. 

I was told that they would be sending me paperwork, but I haven't received any. I thought they wanted to send me more financial disclosure paperwork. I've called them this week, and they  don't seem to be interested in sewnding me anything, nor will they send me any documentation regarding the illegal garnishment. 

The woman on the phone just kept asking me about making a payment plan. I said there will be no talk of a payment plan until they give me back the money they illegally garnished. 

And I'm not happy about the fact that I never got any notice from them, or my employer about garnishment. 

What do I do about that?

So what's next

[Anonymous]

In order for told to go back to school, you'll need to be able to get your transcripts. 

You're blocked from that. Your loans are in default.