Introducton Time - Do you know me?

Hi Anthony, and welcome! :-)

My name is Shirley and I want to thank everyone so much for this valuable information. After getting myself is so much debt with signature loans, payday loans and title loans. I can't pay my utilities, hardly have money for food or anything. I cherish the valuable information of this site.

I'm sure I've talked to most of you through quick reply's and posts but just wanted to formally introduce myself. My name is Kim, I'm 21 going on 22 on Monday. I was promoted about a year ago to management at my work. I guess you can say I'm still young and had a lot to learn. I took out payday loans to try and catch up on student loans and then all of a sudden I had so many out that my whole paycheck was going to the interest. I found this site and with the help from all of you I am on my way to be debt free. I must say this though, I have DEFINITELY learned my lesson about credit cards, payday loans etc etc. I guess sometimes you have to experience it to learn from it. But thanks to all of you I am working on getting back on track.

Hi Shirley and Kim! Nice to meet'cha.

Thanks for the welcome 2nband :)

Hello! I am Leah! I live in OH and work at a childrens hospital. I am currently 7 months pregnant, and have been married for nearly a year. I have three kitty cats and a german shepherd. I am currently in debt with IPDL's but through this site I have learned how to fight back. I have also learned to never ever fall into that trap again!

Aahhh to be 21/22 again! I feel so old!!!!

Hi Leah and welcome! Congrats on the new baby!

If it makes you feel any better........your not old......i'm just young........... lol. That's what I always tell my parents. But i don't really know your age , I just hope that helps. Haha.

Thanks! I am very excited about the baby as I was told by my doctor that I couldn't have them....Opps! Guess he was mistaken lol

Thanks....I am 44, have a son 17/almost 18 and a daughter 14, 3 dogs and a husband!

See! That's not old at all, you got quite a ways before you have to worry about that!

and the funny thing is I bet the husband is more hassel than the rest....LOL

22! :shock: Been a long time since I was that young!Practically just finishing all your teeth at that young tender age.

Hey i'm not 22 yet......stop pushin it. I still have a few days. Oh please, I've had my teeth for years, shush. Lol. Just playin.

Dang this girl wants to be my friend for life! She is really boosting my ego here!!!

As far as the husband goes, when someone asks me how many kids I have, sometimes I say 3! :lol:

Nothing personal to the guys here, but I swear sometimes he acts just like them, (meaning the kids and sometimes I think it is a male thing because so does my boss and the guys I work with) and I want to bop him upside his head! LOL

Well, in case I miss it Monday ~ Happy Early Birthday Kim!!! Hope that it is a good one for you!

Haha, thanks for the early birthday wish. Have a great weekend!

Hi.

My name is Carla and I'm new here.

I hope you guys can help me out. I look forwarding to meeting all of you.

Thanks for this great site.

Hi, I am Jackie and also fairly new here. I just found this thread desperately seeking advice for student debt loan. I will try to keep story as short as possible.

At birth adopted, bio. mother heroin addict from east Texas, bio. father artist from Louisianna. My father would not agree to adoption. So my adoptive parents who could not get approved to adopt through legal channels worked with a well known East TX. Dr. who set-up private and yes illegal adoptions. Adoptive parents father 3rd. grade education...mother 6th grade education. Both had good hearts and loved me but do to an extreme amount of alcohol abuse my childhood was a nightmare.

At 13 molested by man 30 yrs. older and became pregnant. That was in 1970, at that time so-called immoral girls as myself were forced to quit school. My parents refused to help me with keeping the baby. The state refused to help other than forcing me to adopt. So I married my molester to be able to keep my baby. My mother even had to go to mexico with us so that we could get married...it was illegal at my age to marry in TX. My relationship with this man was very abusive, beatings, repeated rapes, guns held to my head, etc...but my parents thought I would be crazy to leave him because he had a lot of money. At 16 I gave birth to another daughter concieved through this same relationship. After reaching legal age of 18 I took my girls,filed for divorce, and trid to escape him. He did however continue to stalk, harrass, and even broke into my apartment once...flying through a window and nearly choked me to death that time. He was arrested but my mother bailed him out of jail and my children once again went into hiding.

At 25 I met and married the wonderful man that I have now...my Angel from God. He literally saved us. And with his help we managed to raise both girls very successfully. My oldest just recieved her Doctorate in english Literature she is 1 of only 35 in the world to have been invited to attend the Round Table at Oxford university manchester England. My youngest is an RN continuing her education striving to obtain her Bachelor's. she is currently charge nurse in a 19 bed ER that does except truama.

Sorry long post but much of my history helps to ecplain how I got into my debt.
After getting girls raised I went back and obtained my GED. Wow...so excited...I could finally go to college. I won't mention any particular names...but it was a community colege located in Maine. My major was Psychology...I wanted to work with abused women. We had very little money and I had to depend on loans to get through school. I did recieve several pell grans and that was of great help. However, they were not enough to even come close to the cost of everything. So I worked with my financial officer and was so ignorant to the entire process....having never been exposed to any High School Counseling concerning college that I trusted this person to point me in the right direction. So I applied for and signed everything that she suggested....I trusted her...I really believed that she was my advocate and not the schools! Although my original major was Psychology (BTW) I worked part time during this time and still had 1 teen living at home. But managed to retain a 3.98 GPA. However, my counselor would continue to come to me and suggest that I change from a particular class that I was enrolled and go into another. This happened to me contiually. I thought they were advising me. well I wound up with a ton of electives and helped save many lectiurer's jobs by filling up their classes, and, this was being paid for by the loans I was told to apply for. This where I also studied some in graphic arts and design..electives of course.

Afetr finally wising up that this school was not helping me I applied and got accepted to the UNT in Denton. I found this to be incredible. And, I was very excited! I only made it through 1 semester before experiencing a very frightening experience which sent me into the ER...I wasn't even sure who I was or where I was.

I was diagnosed with extreme chronic anxiety/panic disorder....along with PTSD! I wasn't able to finish that year and even though I attempted to drop...they still filed incompletes on everything and my GPA went down to 2.0! We moved back to Maine so that I would be near my daughter as I am also Agoraphobic and was finding increasingly hard to leave my home even to go out on my front porch. Also during this period my husband fell off of his trailor and hurt himself very badly. It took surgery and approx. 4 mos. before he could get back to work. We lost everything we owned...including our home. And this is when I also began to get behind in my debt. I was given many forebearances for quite a while and have attempted to get help through disability and also be forgiven for my debts due to the fact that i cannot work. 4 different Dr.s have certified that my condition is chronic,extreme, and that I am 100% disabled. However, it is very difficult for mental health patients to recieve the same type help as someone that has an obvious visual disability. Sometimes my anxiety is so high I cannot even answer the telephone when my own family is calling. So I finally got put into default and at first tried to work with the CA's that were calling me...but some were so very nasty that I would panic and have to dose myself very heavily to keep from having a major panic attack that has in the past resulted in going to an ER.

So now what was originally approx. $17,000 in debt has more than doubled to almost $37,000. I am unable to work and we simply don't have the income to pay what they are demanding. We live very modestly in a 30 yr. old mobile home..(we had a beautiful home in Maine.) and, after my 15 yr. old Honda died...we used the inheritance from My Mother-in-laws death($4000) to purchase a 5 yr. old pick-up.

This site has become a life saver for me. I di get some very excellant advise from 1 of the free counseling services. And, you have all been so supportive. I know I can be difficult at times to deal with...but usually that is because my meds have not kicked in yet and I am easy to anger very quickly...especially concerning student loan deceptive practices. Our current system makes it nearly impossible to pay back your loans if God forbid you do suffer some type of truama. And you are treated as a dead beat who simply just doesn't want to pay. So please forgive me if I get a little heated sometimes concerning the current and latest reforms concerning the BK act 2005.

I hope to continue to learn and I have become an extreme activist for change in our current higher education system.

Thanks so very much for reading such a long post...but, I really feel a need to let the world know that not all students or for that matter intentionally get into debt and can't get out...sometimes...life events that are out of their control make it very difficult if not impossible.

They you all so much for your help and kind words so far. and I have to extend a specail very large TY to cajunbulldog and Mike for being so patient with me and extending tremendous support from technical advice to simply don't get defeated and hang in there advice! TY all very much!!