Allied garnished my wages without contacting me!

Do you have outstanding student loans?
Is there a judgement on your credit report?

I am a few months behind on my student loans but I deal directly with Sallie Mae. I never received any notice the account was going to a collection agency but I can understand why. I was under the impression that I had to be notified or taken to court before a company can garnish my wages.

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Also, Federal debtors don't have to take you to court in order to garnish you.

"I was under the impression that I had to be notified or taken to court before a company can garnish my wages"

Yes, this is a government backed loan. No need to go to court. I believe the procedure is called an Administrative Wage Garnishment. You should have been sent a notice, and would have had to reply in a certain amount of time. I do not know what they will do about incorrect contact info. This could be a moot point, as it is considered your obligation to notify all creditors of address changes. I believe the step you should take next would be your Student Loan Ombudsman.

Another thought...if the garnishiment is going to stand, then I think the only other way to stop it is to agree to pay more than what you are being garnished already.

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Contact your student loan obudsman. If they can't help you, you will have to deal with the collection agency. They are contracted to collect on behalf of the Dept. of Education, so no, DOE will not work with you. Perhaps soaplady has different advice or suggestions.

Thank you so much for your time. I'm going to contact my Student Loan Ombudsman and also check back here for any other suggestions.

Student loans are government backed.There is no sol.They can and do garnish at will.They do take tax refunds.If you are unhappy about terms of garnishment,call the dept of education to see if they will let you put loan in rehab.

Go to the local county where this case is filed against you and verify your information with the clerk. Under federal laws, wages are allowed to be garnished up to 25% of your disposable income. Collectors don't have the legal rights to set any amount they want to collect in garnishment process.

Steg,
This is a student loan.Whole new set of rules on that puppy! :D

Steg, student loans are a whole different ballpark. I think that the cap is 15%, and I know that a suit is not required to be filed against the debtor, only some paperwork. IRS refunds can also be garnished, also known as an "intercept"

Edit: Not ganging up on you, I was typing this one up as cajun was...he beat me to the punch

Student loans are 15%, always.

As far as stopping the garnishment by paying more...That may not work, and even if it did the judgement would still be on your credit report, so there is no point in doing that.

I am an HR rep and deal with garnishments daily..It's professional courtesy for your payroll person to give you a copy of the writ prior to deductions taking place. I don't understand why they didn't.

There isn't a judgement though, is there?

yeah, a student loan garnishment is still a nasty spot on your CR..

Administrative wage garnishment was authorized by congress for student loans, thus you can be garnished in all 50 states without a court order. A pre garnishment notice would have been sent to the last address on record. In case of mail return, they will contact references for a place to send the mail. If that letter is not responded to within 30 days the garnishment starts.

If you have not yet called Allied to get details, the student loan ombudsman will not get involved. The ombudsman office expects the borrower to attempt to work out disputes first. Unfortunately, if the garnishment was started legally, the ombudsman cannot intervene.

IF you are able to get the garnishment to stop, I would recommend trying to work with the collection agency for a 'student loan rehabilitation'

I don't remember the name of the collection agency I worked with a couple years ago but it was very simple and the lady who handled it was EXTREMELY NICE. The first question she asked me was how much I could afford per month. Once I made 12 consecutive on-time payments, the default status was taken off my credit report and the file returned to the original SL agency.

Thank you to everyone for all of the replies. I have been out of work on disability for about a month. I had to actually call HR to get the information, but they could have contacted me at home as well.

I'm going to go ahead and contact Student Loan Ombudsman. I know my information at my Local and State City Hall are all correct. Should I contact the City Hall in MN, where ALLIED is based? I've called them three times trying to figure out where the address information they have for me came from. But these people are rude and very hard to deal with. They just keep telling me to get a lawyer.

I guess I would just go with it..I don't know what state you're in, but in many states a max garn period is 90 days. After the 90 days the creditor would re-evaluate the situation and possibly let you begin payment arrangements. Stopping the garnishment will not take the mark off your credit report, and the creditor wouldn't agree to ending it without making larger payments anyway, so there really is no point.

Why would you call City Hall for information?? Local government has no involvement with student loans. You may want to call your student loan guarantor.

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Yes, regarding student loans (and other government loans and taxes), they can garnish, even in states which normally do not allow garnishment. They can even go straight to your employer, bypassing the sheriff's department.