Monkey On My Back...
By twoey68
@twoey68 (13627)
United States
May 15, 2008 10:33pm CST
Today was a really stressful day for me but it did have a decent ending. It started just before I left for my Mom’s for the day. I went and got the mail and found a letter from Dept. of Education (they have my student loan) stating that they took our $600 rebate this year. I was totally pissed. Not only that but they added Hubby to the account since we got married.
For a little history, the student loan was taken out back in ‘91-’92 and I’ve defaulted on it. I guess I figured that it would go away eventually. I did try a couple of times to get it paid up but problems came up and I wasn’t able to keep it up. Anyways, after I calmed down I tried to decide what to do. My main worry was that they would garnish the bank account and then we’d be up sh*t creek with no paddle…forget the paddle we wouldn’t even have a boat.
Anyways, I finally got home, dug out the last paper and called them. The first woman I talked to entered my Social Security number into the computer, covered the phone part way and started asking everyone to help her. I heard her say “I just put her number in and it started going nuts…I had to laugh…my account sent their system into overload”. She finally got it sorted out and sent me to another number (did I mention that she kept calling me sugar, Hun, sweetie the whole time LOL).
The next guy I talked to was great. He asked me a ton of questions, which started with him verifying my address and then asked me if I had a phone number, I told him yes, but it was private. He said could I have it please? And I said well, not if your going to call and harass me every day. He said no, we just need it for the file. LOL Anyways, he asked me every question possible…I was surprised that he didn’t ask for the color of my panties.
Well, it got worked out. I have it set up on low payments and it turns out that the program that they have me on (I can’t think of the name of it) takes off all the penalties and with the $600 they nabbed I don’t owe too terribly much. I hate messing with it but at least I can get it paid off and get this monkey off my back.
Have you ever owed a student loan? Did you get it paid off? Have you ever had them grab a refund or rebate to pay towards it?
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
10 people like this
32 responses
@Sillychick (3275)
• United States
16 May 08
I have a student loan, and I have defaulted in the past. Currently I am paying it off. I pay more than the minimum every month- even if it's only $5 more, to get it paid off quicker. It is such a relief to me not to have to worry about it anymore like I used to. It is a pain to have to make that payment every month, but it's better than having that worry hanging over my head all the time. I never had it get to the point of having my tax return taken or anything, because I would request a hardship forbearance to get it up to date so it never got that out of control.
1 person likes this
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
16 May 08
When they figured out my payments they said they would be $35 a month...I asked if I couldn't make the payments $50 a month so that I could get them paid off quicker. He also said that after 9 months I'd have the option of switching to another payment setup where I only had to pay like 1% of my balance which would be like $15 and I told them no, I just want to stay with the $50 a month and get it over with...the longer you take the more interest they can squeeze out of you. I guess I know where all my MyLot earnings will be going for the next year 
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
@mikexsandy (22)
• United States
25 Jun 08
Don't use Student Loans, use College government grants. http://financialfreedomexpress.com is what you should use!
@sparkofinsanity (20471)
• Regina, Saskatchewan
16 May 08
No - I've never had a student loan in the sense you mean.
But when I graduated Uni, my 'gift' from my dad was a red leather accout book outlining every penny he's spent on my behalf while I was going to school. I was not allowed to move out of the house until I got a job and paid every penny back.
It was supposed to be a lesson in handling money! LOL Within two years, I had convinced him that the best Christmas present he could give me would be to forgive the rest of the money owed and let me move out. He did. Whew!
1 person likes this
@sparkofinsanity (20471)
• Regina, Saskatchewan
16 May 08
LOL - Actually I still have the book, just not the debt - which did eventually get paid with interest!
@slickcut (8141)
• United States
16 May 08
Oh i am so sorry..Any other debt would be gone within 7 years,but the IRS NEVER...They are the sorriest people i know of really..They NEVER forgive or forget..Anytime you deal with them ,they will get theirs regardless...I would have been upset too..Maybe this will let you see them for how they really are..When my husband and I had a business,they were the worst people to deal with..Oh and also they are NEVER wrong..Lol
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
16 May 08
I never took out a student loan as I had no assurance that after graduating I would be able to get a good job and repay it. I just worked at many jobs and had to drop in and out of college a few times in order to earn the money needed to finish. Hubby never took out a student loan either, but he had me to support him through his first 6 years of graduate school, then he dropped out of the PhD program when he got a good tenure-track teaching position just from his Master's. That made it possible for me to go back to school and get my PhD.
1 person likes this
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
16 May 08
At the time that I got it the guy running the school assured me that it was just a simple loan and that it was easy to pay back blah, blah, blah. If I had any sense at all I would have refused and never got it to start with.
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
@kbourgerie (8780)
• United States
16 May 08
OMG, I can't believe you posted this. Yes, I owe a student loan from over 25 years ago. In fact, they just called me at my job the other day and now I'm afraid my wages are going to be garnished and I won't have any money left at all. I only went to school for one semester and that student loan has turned into over $7,000. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have that kind of money. I'm thinking about asking them if they will take $50 a month. I'm glad you got yours taken care of. Its a pretty scary thing.
1 person likes this
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
16 May 08
I don't know your situation but when they figured out mine my payments were only going to be $35 a month...I asked to raise it to $50 so that I could pay it off quicker. I know I was worried they'd want to much in payments and I just told him that I knew I owed it, that I wanted to get it paid off but that I couldn't afford huge payments. You might call and see what you can work out. Good luck with it.
Tina
@DonnaLawson (4032)
• United States
16 May 08
I have heard horror stories about student loans.. The government will get your money one way or the other.. I hope you didn't give him your phone number just as a matter of principle..But they will call and harass you if you are just a tiny bit late.. I have a niece who didn't get her extra bit from the government because of a student loan.. It is a shame that we have a government that is being run so close to communism.. That is my opinion.. It is not a debate but an opinion..
1 person likes this
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
16 May 08
Yes, I gave him the number but the payments are so low that there is no reason that I can't make them. I could probably even make enough to pay them just from MyLot here. They have been hounding me constantly since '92 so I just want to get them paid off and be done with them.
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
@angelface23 (2494)
• United States
16 May 08
Great discussion cause this is about to happen to me. Back in 03 I took out Sallie Mae loans for my housing and the laptop I was 'required" to buy. Anyways no one ever told me how terrible Sallie Mae was or I never would have taken these loans out. Anyways when it came time to repay the payments were through the roof like $300 a month which at the time I couldn't afford cause I was fresh out of college and didn't have a great job. Partly I guess it was my own fault cause i could have paid them if I really wanted to cause I barely had any bills but I just ignored it too. Well now I am at the point where I had to use my last two months of forbearance time which is going to cost me $196 or something. I still can't afford it- even more now than before. I am trying to pay down my other debt so that we can just focus on paying Sallie Mae. Well I happened to get a repayment shedule in the mail last week and the payments are just going to keep going up until 2022 when it is supposed to be paid off. The principle balance was like $25K and I will end up paying over $40k in interest so my total balance ends up being $63K!!! WTF! This is so freaking ridiculous. It just made me sick to see this. I can't consolidate because my credit is bad so I am basically screwed. We were trying to get out of my grandma's house at some point and buy a house but I am not going to risk losing my house if these loans ever go into default and I am sure at some point they will.
@GardenGerty (160978)
• United States
16 May 08
When I married the current hubby he had a couple, that he did not "remember" I paid them off with money from first hubby's life insurance. All of our student loans are paid off. Mine were paid off a million years ago. Credit card debt is another story, and we fortunately have some offers that are helping us out. Whoa, you just jogged my memory about something. Meanwhile, we are into beginning to owe some big medical bills. Not sure what the problem is yet, but had to have lots of tests run on hubby. I will post about it when we know what IT is.
1 person likes this
@minnie_98214 (10557)
• United States
16 May 08
Good thing you are taking care of it. You dont want them to get into your bank account that is not any fun. I have had this happen to me and it killed us for a bit. They will take every penny out of your account and the bank will charge you a fee to give them all your money its so stupid.
1 person likes this
@djmarion (4898)
• Philippines
16 May 08
i haven't incur any load when i was still a student, i am a working student then and i earned what i needed to finish my college. unfortunately the fate twisted upon our family and i found myself indebted to credit cards and different load today, its a mess but i can't help it, its like a family crisis where i have no choice but to take the burden of being a breadwinner at my young age. now my debt is bigger than me and i wish i could win in the lottery to pay them off.
1 person likes this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
16 May 08
I had a student loan and I saved like mad the first year I worked so I could pay it off that year and never have to worry with it again. I am so glad I haven't had that loan hanging over my head for the last 22 years.
1 person likes this
@mummymo (23706)
•
16 May 08
I can understand why you felt a bit miffed about them nabbing the $600 but now that you have sorted out getting it paid off I bet you feel better! Well done you and especially so since it is not much left to pay off - you won't have to worry about it anymore. I worked my way through college and I don't get tax rebates so I haven't had this particular experience! xxx
1 person likes this
@tyc415 (5706)
• United States
16 May 08
What I can't figure out is why are they hitting you up now? Why not sooner since this student loan was from many years back. Oh wait, I think I figured it out, they know that since everything keeps going up daily for us and they know this money might come in handy to put gas in the car or food on the table they decided to hit when people are down?
Glad that you will be able to get this monkey off your back though, it will be a relief to you.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
16 May 08
twoey68 I was forcibly retired two years ago and I had worked
for the library for some twenty odd years so I had a nice
sized nestegg of retirement funds. I was able to pay off
my student loan I had taken out in my fifties which had still some 600$ on it and that was the most wonderful feeling
I have had. after all those years of not being able tro
close that I was able to pay it in full.
1 person likes this
@icyorchid (2564)
• United States
22 Jun 08
I owed a student loan from 20 years ago and I just got it dismissed! YAY!! lol
I did a discussion on it just before I saw this post.
I didn't have a GED or a high school diploma and I found out you can get it dismissed as false certification to benefit from the school :) The Department of Education is not suppose to lend you money if you DO NOT have a GED or a Diploma!
They nabbed hubby's refund last year, we did an injured spouse form and got half his money back. We did the same thing this year as we knew what was going to happen and we didn't get any refund, just half of the stimulus check and they were working on the refund part.
Friday we got checks from the IRS and hubby's full refund from this year was there, last year's half of refund was there, money they took from me that I don't remember them doing was there and we are waiting on a few more checks. lol They said it will take up to 4 - 6 weeks for it all to come in. They owe us an amount of almost $3000 back!
Good Luck in getting your loan paid off. I am glad that they were willing to help you out with smaller payments, that always helps.
~Icy~
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
3 Jun 08
Hopefully you can get it done and over with. I never had a student loan but know alot of people that have had them and it took forever to get them paid off.
@icyorchid (2564)
• United States
23 Jun 08
They were after me for 20 years! Once you owe them, they don't forget about it unfortunately.
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
25 Jun 08
Oh, yeah. I had student loans. I went to college as a "non-traditionally aged student," meaning I was older than everyone else! I paid on my loans forever. My goal was to pay them off before I retired - which I did.
I borrowed the money with the intention of paying it back, so I did. I had some grants and scholarships, small ones, that I didn't have to repay. I was grateful for that.
@rx4life (1930)
• United States
16 May 08
Years ago I had student loans and struggled to get them repaid...It was always a trial for me..but have faith...I paid mine off after many a year and you will too...boy... as I recall it was wonderful feeling to see the balance be zero!!! ( But I also had them "confiscate" my IRS refund one year!!!so I can relate!)
@zigzagbuddha (4601)
• United States
16 May 08
hehehe. I took out a loan from a bank once to buy an old cadillac limo from a friend. I was pretty surprised they gave me the loan to begin with, but the loan officer, who was very anxious to please, called me and wanted to know why I was using a co-signer... that she would be willing to give me the loan without them, so I said ok. I bought the car. Then I don't remember how it happened but I defaulted on the loan, I never even made my first payment. I never heard one word from them though, and eventually they went bankrupt and went out of business. Funny thing though, I've got a bankrupty that comes up under my first name and my daughters last name with my social security number. That's a weird kind of justice!
1 person likes this
