Windham Professionls via Ai Tuition

There is no way I would waste 20 minutes of my time listening to some idiot collector yelling at me. I would give him the dial tone in about 10 seconds.

Your scenario is very complicated and a collection agency just won't care. They will insult you, pressure you and try to break you until you send them money. I always like going after the source which in this case is the school. Each time you get a nasty call from a collector you need to turn around and give your advisor or an agent of the school a nasty call. I really think the school did you wrong here but it might not matter based on the paper work you signed. Probably what happend is Sallie May did not come through for the school so the school technically loaned you the money. I would get copies of all the paper worked you signed and review it closely to determine what happens if your loan doesn't come through. I would also probably try to settle the debt with the school and cut the collection agency out. I would send the collection agency a DV letter with a CD attached immediately to stop their calls.

I've tried talking to the school but the person in accounting keeps telling me that everything is irrelevant and that there is nothing they can do for me.

I guess I'm stuck with the collection agency but since it's been awhile since I've talked to the school, do you think maybe it will work if I call them again?

I'll go ahead and write a DV letter and a CD to the collections. I'll more then likely ask them to go ahead and mail me letters if they want contact with me.

I know, I was stupid to listen to the harassment and threats.

The debt is almost 3 years old now. The school probably won't do much for you at this point especially if they sold off the debt. If they still own the debt then there is a slight possibility they might work with you. Schools obviously are not in the creditor or collection business but I have had personal success in settling a school debt for a friend at 50% of face value with the school finance office while bypassing the collector. I would try to get all the paper work from the school or make the collector get it for you as part of validation. I don't know if there is a loop hole in the paper work but it will at least keep the colletor busy and buy you time.

In the mean time, should I keep paying off the debt with the collection agency? They wanted to start me back up on the payment plan but bumped it up to $250 a month, including $138 for the missed month in June. Or should I write a DV letter ASAP and send it to them?

Would that make it so I don't have to pay them?

I feel like I dug myself in a bigger hole every time I think about it :(

The DV letter won't make the debt go away. It will just end the collection calls for a while and force the CA to prove the debt. If you never had an agreement with this CA then I would certainly send them a DV leter before I sent them any money. I would make them give you full documentation on the loan, prove they own it and so forth. After receiving that documentation, which will probably take months, I would get a signed agreement from the CA for whatever you decide on the remaining balance. Do not agree to anything that you can not stick too because if you default then the entire process will start over and the agreement will be void. Basically if you can only afford $50/month then don't agree to $250/month. It will probably take them months to get all this information simply because most CAs employ idiots that are more interested in harrassing people until they pay as opposed to validating and sueing with a strong case.

I have made previous agreements with them on paying the debt (hence the 7k gonig down to about 6k).

Now that I missed a payment they basically said that the I broke the T&A on paying the debt so they want me to do $250/mo including that $138/mo even when I told them that I couldn't do that.

If I said yes previously to a payment plan, then will a DV still work in this case? If I said yes to the payment plan that was presented to me, will a DV still give me time to contact the school?

Do you think I have grounds fore re-negotiating on how to settle the debt if they do own it?


I apologize if I'm reiterating things or re-asking questions that has been answers. I just want to fully understand it...

What should I do if they were only assigned to the debt?

Since you defaulted on an agreement you had with the CA I think that makes the DV letter not very strong. I think You basically validated the debt for them by agreeing to terms and making payments. You could still send it and try to make them validate and then dispute their response if it is unacceptable but if it went to court I think you making an agreement with them might hold as validation.

They are doing exactly what I said they would do in my previous post about defaluting on an agreement. Basically once you default they try to up the payment because their case is stronger. This does not mean you can not renegotiate. You can always renegotiate up until they get a judgment in a court. You will probably have to not pay them for a few months before they are willing to renegotiate much. A CD letter will still work too if you want them to quit calling you. I would make it a partial CD giving them the right to contact you by mail only.

I woudn't worry about a time issue to much. A CA tries to make your debt sound super urgent when it really isn't. Thats why they threaten things like destroying your credit, jail, being downloaded and martians invading. They want you to believe that you need to settle right now or your world is going to end when in reality the only thing they can really do is sue you. It will take them months to years to actually sue you if they ever sue you. Then they have to act on the judgment assuming they get one. Even with the judgment all they can do is garnish a portion of your paycheck unless you own property.

I would still try to contact the school and get all the paper work. I would also try to find out if the school owns the debt or the CA owns the debt. I would go ahead and send a DV and a CD to try and make the CA get you paper work also.

Hey, I just signed up.

Thank you. I'll go ahead and write them a partial CD letter, and get into contact with teh school about the paperwork.

could I still not get information from the CA since it is within my rights to ask for such things? It's probably late in the game for it but are they still required to send it to me if I ask?

I don't own property, and if they do garnish a portion of my paycheck, I will be living on dirt and corm. I can hardly even pay for food.

thank you so much for your help.

Yes the CA should provide you with the information you request about your loan when requested in writing. You can get sample CD and DV letters here which make those requests.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/collection-agencies/state-sol.html

(Previously Alleysrequiem ... my pswrd ws never sent to me so Ican't log in hence me going back to eatpurplecookies).


Wish me luck! I'm sending my first partial CD letter which also includes a renegotiation of monthly payments.

If this is a federal funded student loan,be careful in your dealings with a ca or you could face garnishment. We also have a student loan section on this board.

I don't think the loan was ever fed or state funded which is part of the problem. Basically the OP tried do borrow federal money but was not approved for whatever reason. The problem is the school never mentioned the loan was not approved but let the OP continue with classes. Essentially the school loaned the money by default not any agency or at least thats the way I interpreted the posts. The only way to determine the terms of that loan is to get the paper work.

My guess is there was signed paper work that determined what was to happen if the loan never made it through federal student aid and the loan terms would fall under that signed agreement. Really the OP needs to go down to the school and get all that paper work and review it. That paper work should set forth the loan guide lines. If no paper work exists then I think the OP should not owe for that quarter. Personally I would use that as a bargaining chip and save up like 2,000 and offer it as settled in full.

D&S is right.

It was not a fed or state funded loan (and Sallie Mae is a private lender anyway so that's outta the question).

Mod note...Sallie Mae is a FFELP lender. The bulk of their loans are federlly insured stafford loans.

I'm going to go down there this week and ask the school if they still have paper work. I've also included that bit in the letter as well.

Yeah I think getting the paper work is your best shot to at least figure out what you should owe. I bet you just signed fed and state loan apps that did not get approved and probably signed nothing in terms of the school loaning you money. You might have signed school documents agreeing to pay tuition with no loan agreement attached. Hmm, that would be interesting if you agreed to pay tuition but no terms were set forth on how that should be paid. Maybe you could pay them 1 dollar a day for the next 6,000 days (hehe).

I just looked over the T&A that they have right now, and you are right. Looking at their CURRENT enrollment guidelines, it says that the student may not enroll in the next quarter until they have paid all tuition and fees or approved for an alternate plan.

The first thing it states is that for the first quarter, tuition and fees are due 60 days prior to the beginning of the quarter.

I didn't get approved for the fed/state loan. There is really no loan agreement attached except if I want to attend again.

I moved this to the student loan forum since schools and school debt is completely different than normal consumer debt.

A. It is the student who is responsible for payment of their tuition account. The school has no responsiblity if you FA falls thru. You should have been on them daily for resolution within the early drop withdrawal period.

B. Tuition accounts are never sold. Tuition accounts have no SOL either. They will hire outside CA's to collect the account. When you enroll to attend classes, you enter into a contract, agreeing to all terms set forth in the student handbook. There is always a section on payment of student accounts and past due accounts. Past due tuition accounts is usually subject to collection fees and all legal costs involved in the collection of the money. Fees can fun as high as 50%.

C. debt validation consists of a copy of your student account. You may still have access to that.

D. You cannot "cut out" the CA. Schools hire CA's under contract which includes agreements that all negotiations and payents during that contract time be forwarded to or credit to the CA.

E. I do not understand why you did not qualify for federal aid. Did you do a FAFSA application? Anyone can get unsubsided stafford loan since they are not income based.

A. Students are responsible for the payment of their tuition. if the school has no responsibility if financial aid falls through, then why not just tell them to quit before the bills rack up?

B. When you enroll to attend classes, you do inter into a contract agreeing to the terms set ON the enrollment agreement, not the handbook. There is NOTHING on payments of student accounts or past due accounts on the agreement. Just that it needs to be paid before you can re-register to attend class.

C. I am going to the school for the contract.

D. Even if I can't cut out CA, I'm willing to work it out.

E. I did my FAFSA, and I didn't qualify for it. I didn't qualify for the loan with SM, and the FA didn't tell me that there were more then one company that I can go to for loans. Regardless, even if I nagged them, they said they haven't heard anything yet.

In any case, I've decided to finally just get an attorney.

I suspect there is documentation somewhere that determines what happens if your FA doesn't come in. I think the attorney will just negotiate a settlement for you. I would shoot for 2-3K.

What happens if you financial aid does not come in is that YOU are responsible for the tuition bill. Nowhere is an enrollment document will you find that enrollment is contingent on financial aid.

Why would the school want to a 50% settlement on an account that has no SOL? Generally any settlement on tuition accounts is limited to part or all of the collection fees which leaves you the full tuition to pay. Plus your attornies fees to negotiate that settlement.

I spent 15 years working in student loan collections and as a financial aid officer at a major midwest university. My former office mate is now the head of the collections department for this school and anytime I am not sure, i will IM her.

Educational debt is not anything like normal consumer debt. They are next to impossible to get out of. The OP completed the semester and will ultimately end up paying for it.

I personally settled a student loan debt at 50% with a college financial office. I don't remember the amount or date exactly but it was something like 1999 and the amount due was $1600 and I talked them into taking $800 as settled in full. I still have the signed letter filed away somewhere. This was a private loan similar to the OP were my girlfriend at the time did not get financial aid and ended up owing the bill to the school.

I can only guess as to why the settled but I suspect it had something to do with me telling them they could have $800 immediately or get $1600 in ten years or longer. She had dropped out also which is a bit different then the OP so I used that also. I told them that she had not benefited at all and they were trying to collect money that really should not be owed.

"What happens if you financial aid does not come in is that YOU are responsible for the tuition bill. Nowhere is an enrollment document will you find that enrollment is contingent on financial aid.

Why would the school want to a 50% settlement on an account that has no SOL? Generally any settlement on tuition accounts is limited to part or all of the collection fees which leaves you the full tuition to pay. Plus your attornies fees to negotiate that settlement.

Educational debt is not anything like normal consumer debt. They are next to impossible to get out of. The OP completed the semester and will ultimately end up paying for it."


I don't think the OP completed the semester. It sounded like they wanted her to stop going to her classes because she couldn't pay for them. I've experienced this myself once, where I couldn't get a loan and they told me to keep going to my classes even though they knew that I wouldn't be able to pay for it. I did work it out at the end where I worked in the school.

I can understand how it would be financially up to the student to find out a way to help pay for their own school but it is the FINANCIAL AID'S JOB to help them with that as well. Isn't it their job to help find them scholarships and other loans to pay for school and not leave them in the dark?

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In my case my girlfriend at the time dropped out but still owed the money to the school based on their rules. I felt like she gained nothing but she missed the official drop out day by just a couple days so they were trying to stick her with something like 1/2 of the total tuition bill due in full. It was a fairly small private school so it is not state funded. We had very little money and did not hire a lawyer. I suspect all of that came in to play when the financial advisor decided to settle with us. I talked them into settling the 1/2 at 1/4 which meant we paid roughly $800 on a full tuition bill of $3200 but it was already cut in half due to drop out status if i remember correctly.

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The fixed cost are there regardless and I understand they have cutoff dates which she missed. I was just dissapointed that she missed the cutoff by a couple days and the bill went from 0 to 1600 so I argued with them. I understand the school was just following their guidelines but it was worth disputing those guide lines because it saved us half of the bill. Thats my nature though. On a side note I am sorry to say that if you were unlucky enough to be my financial aid officer I would have probably driven you nuts. :twisted: The school I attended was lucky though because my financial aid came from my parents which I gurantee I drove nuts. :shock: I went to a major midwest university as well. Go Boilers!!!