Strayer University

[Repo-ed]

This is not a student loan, but a collections notice from the above University.

My employer provides tuition assistance (paid up front or you can submit for reimbursement, in the traditional sense) and I enrolled into Stayer 4 years ago.

Short of the long.  I dropped the class after about 2 classes, as not all of the text books were available for one course and the other course was using a 3rd party site to administer homework, but was not without it's bugs.

As the classes are $1500 EACH, I was not about to risk failing, so I dropped both.  I was immediately notified by the in-school finance advising that i needed to pay for the class time I was present in, at which time I told them to pound sand.  I simply was not going to pay for a poorly put together course(s).

A short while later I reached out to a person that was a sort of liaison between my company and the school and explained the issue(s) via work email.  He offered to keep the account from going to collections, if I agreed to enroll the following semester.  Do to my work schedule changing, I advised that I couldn't, but would the semester thereafter.

He went onto say (and I haven't read the email in 4 years, but kept them in a outlook folder) he wouldn't keep the account from going to collections then. I thanked him for his attempt at extortion and that I would be involving my HR, as I don't believe a multi-billion dollar company should be doing business with the likes of this for-profit college.

Well, here it is 4 years later and I have a collections notice from Williams & Fudge for $487.60

Simply put, I don't know what to do. I'm not sure I have a leg to stand on with regards to the validity of the debt and I certainly do NOT want this on my CRs.  The notice says I have 30 days to respond to the letter or they will assume the debt is valid.

Any suggestions?  I really don't feel this is a valid debt, but I don't know if I have a valid argument to support that...

[laz98]

To me, it does sound like a valid debt.  My university will also charge you for the time you were in class.

[Repo-ed]

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@laz98 wrote:

To me, it does sound like a valid debt.  My university will also charge you for the time you were in class.

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I agree with you, but I dropped the classes (along with others in the class) for valid reasons.  Those reasons may or may not make the difference though.

I'm going to contact my HR director, to then contact the school, and see if they can put a stop to this.

If not, what do I do?  Do I call them and veryify the debt and state I'll PIF only if they send a statement advising they WON'T report to the 3 CRAs? 

[IOBA]

Repo-ed - Go back and read your enrollment papers.   It would state the costs related to drop out dates.  Some schools do not charge if you drop out within a certain time period.

[Repo-ed]

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@IOBA wrote:

Repo-ed - Go back and read your enrollment papers.   It would state the costs related to drop out dates.  Some schools do not charge if you drop out within a certain time period.

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Correct. State/non-profit schools have a standard drop/add date.  You can pretty much go the first month, and then drop with refund.

For-profit schools saw a way to make even MORE money by insuring you pay if you do not drop after the first class.  That's the jam I am in. I think I went a total of 3 classes.

[Repo-ed]

Update: My HR director that I asked to get involved with this situation 3 years ago, remembers it and kept the emails from the school.  I faxed her the collections notice, and she said she will try to get some resolution while I'm on my cruise this week.

That being said; I'm planning for worst case scenario.

If they tell her that they will not retract it, how should I go about taking care of the CN?  Do I request for it to be verified. Then wait for it to hit my CRs, THEN hope for a PFD. Or, do I ask for verification of the debt. Then tell them I'll PIF, if they send a letter head stating it will not be reported to the CRAs upon receipt of BIF?

[Jazzzy]

I would recommend that you post this on the Rebuilding Your Credit thread, as this does not have to do with a school loan. The folks over thre are very experienced with this scenario.

I wish you luck. It's too bad this wasn't resolved one way or the other at the time. Maybe they'll take an offer for a lower amount and agree not to do damage to your credit history.