Hi, my student loan (previously held by American Student Assistance) is under wage garnishment. I called the collection agency a couple times. They requested that I send them an itemized list of monthly bills, but have not heard back from them and the garnishment started this week. I continue to call but they do not return my phone call. What can I do to have the Wage Garnishment removed? What are my options? Is there another company out there that can assist me with improving this situation.
thanks

[Alex_Zee]

Miguel

Try to figure out some other contact number for them. You can search BBB and check if they have any additional address or not. Also try to contact your lender, if they can help you get an address. If all fails, contact ED's Administrative Wage Garnishment Branch (AWG).

Also go through this page to know your options and rights with wage garnishment http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/awg.html
Try to get your loan rehabilitated; this is good for your credit too.

[stanley]

They requested that I send them an itemized list of monthly bills

Have you sent what they requested? It seems they tried to figure out your monthly expenses.

Your creditor is required to send you a notice about the garnishment and you have an option to dispute it with US Department of Education as well. Once you place the dispute, garnishment cannot take place. See the post made by becky here-

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com...ditcorp-2.html

Once you can contact the collection agency, ask for Rehabilitation as alex has said above. Rehabilitation could be helpful for you. Keep us posted.

[Jedi Mistress Ari]

Miguel,

For you to get out of wage garnishment and back on your feet, talk to the agency that is holding your loan. They will help you figure something out. You could pay the balance in full in 1 to 6 payments, or settle for principle and half interest in 1 to 3 payments, or rehabilitate your loan. In order for you to get out of garnishment with a rehabiliatation, you may have to tighten your belt for a six months, because that's how long it will take for the garnishment to life if you choose to rehabilitate. There is a topic about loan rehabiliatation in this forum that you should read up on. It's the best remedy for you credit. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help you out.

[PDLFREE]

Tax Offset and Wage Garnishment
If you default on your loan, the U.S. Department of Education has the authority to deduct money from your income. This may happen through tax offset or wage garnishment (or both).

Tax Offset. The Department of Education may offset, or withhold, money from your federal income tax refunds to collect on defaulted federal student loans.

If the offset of your federal tax refund creates a severe hardship for you, it is possible to request a refund. Examples of extreme hardship include very high medical expenses or the threat of eviction from your home. To request a refund, you will need an explanation of why the offset is causing an extreme hardship, a copy of your income tax form and other proof of income, copies of your monthly bills, and, if possible, copies of the bills that represent your case for extreme hardship. Send this information to your guaranty agency.

Wage Garnishment. If you are in default on your student loan, federal regulations and law allow your guaranty agency to garnish up to 10% of your disposable income, or the U.S. Department of Education to garnish up to 15% of your disposable income for repayment of your student loan.

[dmack]

I had my wages garnished for 6 months and made no headway with the CA. they did not care. I finally requested a hearing with Dept of Education in writing. They sent a copy of everything I sent them to the CA. The CA came back and told me too bad, but the Dept of Ed held the hearing and decided I should not have been garnished. They sent a stop order! I then consolidated my loans directly with Dept of Ed. the CA told me too bad I was not able to do that. My loans were consolidated and the payment was reasonable - much better than the garnishment. Point is know your rights because the CA's just want to make money.

[WHEREAMI?]

That is good news dmack! Others will benefit from this! How long did the process take with the Dept. Of Ed.?

[dmack]

From the time I sent the request to Dept. of Ed until I was notified that a hearing had been held and that my garnishment would be stopped was only a month. The loan rehab program is not for everyone. once my loans were cosolidated they showed as "paid" on my credit reports and I now have so much flexibility. The only thing I didn't know was that the hearing would be held without me. So the more informationyou send the beteer. You have several options, you cannot be garnished if you are unemployed, or were unemployed within 12 months preceeding the garnishment. The CA's will not tell you any of this! I bought a book about managing student loan debt and there was a wealth of info. in there. If I had bought the book first I would not have gone the rehab route. The payments were way too high and the CA was very unpleasant. They found me by pretending to be doing a reunion for my college.....I learned a great deal in this process.

it is my understanding that if you as little as 50.00 a month/ every month that they can not garnish your wages.

If you don't mind me asking, were you not paying anything at all and it went into default? Is that why they are garnishing your wages?

I was paying 100 per month and the collection agency wanted 15% of my net incime, when they garnished they took 14% of gross

I have been told over and over and over again that if you pay something they will not garnish you. Or that is what Jedi tells me anyway. See, why I have so many questions.

[SOAPLADY]

It is not true that if you pay "something", you will not be garnished. You must have an approved payment plan in place to prevent garnishment.

Rules of AWG...

If you are recommended for garnishment, a 30 day notice is sent out. It explains all your legal rights in detail. You MUST respond IN WRITING within 30 days of the date on the notice with all requested/required documentation. You can call in but the objection or the hearing request must be returned via the mail within the 30 day time frame. Failure to do so will initiate a garnishment. You cannot use the excuse "I didnt receive it cause I moved"....under the terms of your prom note, you agreed to notify your lender of any change of address with 10 days. If your objections are sent in AFTER the expiration of the 30 day notice, the garnishment will start and will not stop until after the hearing.

All the information can be found on this page...the only thing that has not been updated is that the garnishment amount if now 15%.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/awg.html

For the person who is being garnished 14% of gross....that is your employers fault. They are sent calculation worksheets with the formula to calculate garnishments. The guarantor simply sends the order...the employer does the calculations.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/...ers.guide.html

Life is pretty much over for me and this haunting default of college loan. I, uneducated regarding loan disagrees, thought someday someone would have to prove what they are saying I owe and provide copies of the actual checks they say I cashed.

I remember once having a loan check and I did not cash it, I destroyed it, it seemed easier than returning it to the financial office where I picked it up.

Now a decade later my loan has gone from maybe 20K to 60K and I am doomed.

No one has to prove anything, they can ruin me, prevent me from getting a job, lien my property, levy my automobile and garnish my wages.

I do qualify for disability but I keep on working as I prefer to take care of myself and don't want to feel more degraded than I do now.

Is there anyway to dispute and settle on the amount owed or is it true..........we have to pay what they say we owe plus ALL of the puffed up legal fees.

[Bossy4455]

Doomed, you are not better off dead-that's a permanent solution for a temporary problem! Read the posts above yours by Jedimistress Ari-and Dmack-there is some info you might be able to use. Also, you can PM Ari, she has a wealth of experience with student doans she can share. There is a student loan forum also, look through these threads for others experiencewith them--Keep us posted on what happens!..KAren

[SOAPLADY]

Life is pretty much over for me and this haunting default of college loan. I, uneducated regarding loan disagrees, thought someday someone would have to prove what they are saying I owe and provide copies of the actual checks they say I cashed.

I remember once having a loan check and I did not cash it, I destroyed it, it seemed easier than returning it to the financial office where I picked it up.

Generally when you pick up a check from the school, it is the remaining loan balance after they have applied the proceeds to your tuition account.

Now a decade later my loan has gone from maybe 20K to 60K and I am doomed.

If you borrowed $20k, this sounds like multiple loans. Have you checked NSLDS to find out what loans you did originally take out?? If you destroyed a school check for excess funds, the lender might not have been notified. Sounds like you need to start doing some research thru NSLDS (link is in the sticky section) and thru your school directly.

No one has to prove anything, they can ruin me, prevent me from getting a job, lien my property, levy my automobile and garnish my wages.

Actually if you do some legwork, you might be able to figure out what you actually owe. They do have to validate, and if you request copies of checks, they can pull them. However you have to figure out who did what? Was the destroyed check from the lender or from the school?

I do qualify for disability but I keep on working as I prefer to take care of myself and don't want to feel more degraded than I do now.

They can garnish your disability check too so ignoring this is not an option.

Is there anyway to dispute and settle on the amount owed or is it true..........we have to pay what they say we owe plus ALL of the puffed up legal fees.

There probably are no puffed up legal fees....yet. Federal student loans charge collection fees which are mandated by law..up to 25%.

In a nutshell...you need to figure out what you borrowed and how much you actually owe. Destroying the check could end up costing you depending on what type of loan you borrowed. If this was an interest bearing loan and although you didnt cash the check, interest continues to accrue. You didnt follow basic steps to cancel the loan or that portion. Sounds like you left it hanging.

[Leah]

I agree with Bossy....There is always a way to get things straigtened out and taken care of and being dead is never one of them. I sympathize with your situation as I too at one time felt the same way over my financial problems but this site helped me get back on my foot and get the problem resolved....Utilize the valuable informatin in this site and you will find a way to solve this best of luck!