Submitted: Friday, February 24, 2006
Posted: Friday, February 24, 2006
Sherri
Piedmont
U.S.A.
First of all, if it were a legitimate student loan default, the IRS would do a capture of any income tax refund you have coming until the balance is paid off. You have no legal or moral obligation to ever give a junk debt buyer ANYTHING. They buy information..you have no contractual obligation to them to pay them one thin dime. If you do owe a debt, settle it with the original creditor only. Paying a collection agency/junk debt buyer will hurt your credit far more than it will help.
The main problem is that junk debt buyers are professional liars and will promise you the sun, moon and stars in order to separate you from your money. Dealing with them can hurt your credit even more, as you "reaffirm" a debt that may not even exist, starting the credit reporting and the Statute of Limitations clocks all over again.
CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER IMMEDIATELY..they will go out of their way to clean you out. I would also contact the Department of Education to settle this directly, if it even exists. You also need to send a "cease and desist" letter to this JDB, telling them that you will deal with the original creditor and that they are not to contact you further, except by US Mail, to tell you what further actions they plan to take or to notify you that collection efforts are being terminated. There is a really good one on budhibbs.com that you can use.
Good luck, and please change your bank account number, or you may get a very unpleasant surprise.
Submitted: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Youwantedtoknow
Columbus
U.S.A.
student loans are not sold by our government, GC Services is sub-contracted by the government to collect the debts. as far as taxes being offset, that is done by the irs, but just becuase you owe a student loan, doesn't mean you are certified to have your taxes offset.
Submitted: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Dan
Phoenix
U.S.A.
FYI:
This is from the irs.gov web site.
Your tax refund (state & federal) can be seized to satisfy any state or federal debt including child support.
This is from the ed.gov web site:
Your defaulted loan can be assigned to a private debt collection agency. The Dept of Education has contracted with GC Services (among several others) to collect your debt. As others have suggested on this web site, tell the collector you will only respond to written requests. Others tell you not to give out bank account information or credit card numbers. Pay only with Cashiers Checks or Money Orders. Save the receipts. Keep your bank information private! There is absolutely no reason to place a high priority on a payment. Even the USPS 'snail mail' is efficient enough for bill payments.
Close all your bank accounts and open new accounts at another bank. You don't want to chance that your existing bank will link your old account with your new account. They can do that in case you have an outstanding check on the old account.
Try to find out why the loan wasn't paid. Maybe the amount was so small it was overlooked?
Submitted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Youwantedtoknow
Columbus
U.S.A.
just so you know, when you tie a collection agencies hands by only communicating in writing, expect only a letter that says to remit the full balance of whatever you owe. They are not going to offer a payment arrangement to someone who has the ability to pay the full balance of what they owe...why would they? So, you can take the advise to request only written communication, but I would not expect too much cooperation with regard to a payment arrangement...they are NOT REQUIRED to offer you one, remember, your contract you signed with your original creditor states if you fail to pay them back your balance is due in full. If you have a contract from a creditor that says if you default them they will still offer you a payment arrangement, let me know who the creditor is. Don't be afraid to talk to people, they aren't going to come through the phone & hurt you