Taxpayers Fund $454,000 Pay for Collector Chasing Student Loans

Imation may have built an office building or an office park, which got their name. Often, a company will rent out part of their property to other companies. In, for example, a building named after a bank, there may be many non-bank non-financial companies taking up space. I don't know, in this particular instance, exactly which is right, but if the Imation address is listed for the collection folks, that doesn't mean it's the wrong address.

If they are govt secured student loans.  If they are signature loans offered by banks to students.  Not the same.

This guy is obviously a debt collector... many are ignorant of the laws and even more of the specific state law.  You can get an app for your smart phone that will record all calls.  In AZ and many other states, only one party has to be privy to the recording.  In PA, both have to be.  Mine is an AZ number, therefore the ball is in your court to prove I am not within AZ boundries and therefore legally can record.  You want to put a collector's knickers in a twist, when they say they are recording for quality. I reply, I understand and likewise.  I have had them argue with me I couldnt, but they assume their liberal state sets the standard for all states.  Conservative states tend to require only one party to be aware of recording.  Go figure.
   There is a difference between govt secured student loans and private offerred on signature loans.  We never forfit our rights to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act... Even if he were the IRS. They have more claws, but are still held accountable.  Which is a bigger gun the school loans.  They can pursue you through the courts and get moneys and attach, but they have to use the courts... even if its the IRS's own romper room court going through the motions.  
   I had an IRS agent call, speak to my employer, was I hot... when I filed a complaint.  He was apologizing, if he had cost me my job... it would have been an easy lawsuit.  They can call to verify employment, send a garnishment to payroll... but to call and talk smack.  Not.
   One more, if it is past 2 years, deadline to sue has passed in most states to prove the debt.  U need to contest the note from the get go.  If they file suit, respond for it to be thrown out for lacking timeliness, for going over the 2 yr limit.  Also state that you contest it in whole and in part.
   If it has been several years since payment made, the 7 yr expiration is from last activity or payment.  Had a 6 1/2 yr old note, should not have been- which is why no one had made a single call in 6.5 yrs..  An agency bought it.  Tried to get me to pay even a small amt on it.  I refused, I knew that if i paid, it would renew the 7 yr wait.  This guy called neighbors, made threats, talked $hit, I told him I knew it was about to tick the 7 yr away.  He tried lying... shock.  when 7 was done.  Expunged from credit report.
  The preceeding debt collector is going to be pissed and respond with his simple minded rhetoric.  Ck the law for yourself, talk to an attorney or paralegal.  This is not rocket science.

It's easy to avoid creepy debt collectors. If you borrow money, pay it back. That's why they call it a "loan".

If you make a federal government secured loan, the law holds them harmless with respect to whatever they have to do to collect the loan. It is futile to try to avoid them. Yes, the government can take social security money and IRS refunds.

$454k is peanuts compared to the loss if nobody pursued people who try not to pay off their loans. The person upthread who said you are liable for these loans till you die is correct, except your estate is also liable after you die.

Wrong.  Death is one of the only ways to get a student loan forgiven.  Read it at the fed website.  If the owner of the loan dies, it is forgiven with a certified copy of the death certificate.  Student loans CAN be discharged in ch 7 and reset in ch 13 and don't let anyone tell you differently.  In a 7 it is a hardship discharge only and attorneys never mention them because they're a pain in the butt because they have to be done seperately.  Ch 13 is a reorganization of debt and that includes student loans, irs back taxes etc., and gives you protection against garnishments, refund holds, bank account freezes etc.  Plus phone and mail attempts.  People really need to do their research.  All you need to do is a quick search on google for " the truth about student loans and bankruptcy" and research the links provided.

Can you share any info with us on how we would go about doing this? I'm all for suing the collection bureaus that are harassing me over debts that the statute of limitations expired over 20 years ago, but I am unsure how or where to begin. Any help would be appreciated!

If you pay your debts, people won't be calling you trying to collect and the government won't lose the money they loaned you which came out of the taxpayers pockets.

Not true. They cannot at any times threaten physical harm, call you when you have asked them not to (Cease and Deceast letter), call you at your place of employment when you have asked them not to, and call before the hours of 8am and after 9pm. Even though it is a student loan, they still have to adhere to those rules. Most legit student loan companies or credit agencies that they represent will honor those rules.  People can still be victim to student loan scams. Scam artist would use "student loans" because they know these are not dischargeable, and there are no statue of limitations so it would be easy to con someone. Verify with any collection agency claming to represent a student loan that you owe, to send you something in writing first. They have to even if they are Student Loans, they have to comply with the Fair Debt Act no exceptions. Even as consumers of student loans, you still have rights.

One thing that I find increasingly annoying is the amount of judgment that some people have on here. It is not easy to step out and say you owe money. A lot of people are looking for ways to get assitance to keep their heads above water. They want to pay, but life happens. Seeing things on here like "Pay your debt!" or "You owe the money stupid!" is immature and disrespectful. Ihope some that are on here juding others never have to endure financial hardships or lose everything. However, sometimes it takes humbling experiences such as these for the judgmental people to get it. Just because you owe money to any business does not give them the right to be rude, crass, make threats, or use deceitful practices. NO EXCUSE for it. A lot of times people will pay the money and try or be more willing to make arrangments with someone who is nice, and fair. You catch more flies with honey..remember that saying.

Don I have to respectfully disagree with your post. While student loans are exception to things such as they can garnish without warning, and the debt is not dischargable and there are no statue of limitations, they still have to follow the rules of The Fair Debt Collection Act. Which means they cannot under any circumstances:

1. Call you at work, when you have told them to stop.
2. Continue you to call you if you have sent them in writing requesting them to stop. (They can however contact you one more time to let you know how they will proceed. This does not stop collections, garnishments, etc, the collection process will continue)
3. Call you before the hours of 8am and after the hours of 10pm.
4. Threaten physical harm or make threats of arrest or retribution.
5. Disclose your debt or share personal informaion with anyone who is not on the loan
6. Use deceitful practices or misrepresent themselves to obtain money.

Student loan consumers still have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Act. it does not stop collection activities but it protects consumers. Keep in mind there are a lot of collection scams out there, and student loans are no exception. Scam artist will use these because they know how legit student loans are and will sound real professional. As consumers, if a collection agency calls representing a student loan, you have the right to request that a letter be sent to you verifying the original debt. If you have not recived the letter or they refuse or get agitated that is a red flag that it might be student loan scam and not the actual company that represents student loan companies. Always do your homework before you pay a collection agency. You can always verify with the original debtor (Sallie Mae, Mohela, etc) that they are working with this company. So Don, consumers still have rights.  There is no need to be rude or disrespectful to people on here. While yes, people may owe the money, they still have rights and protection even if they are student loans.

These are the types of comments that I hate to see. First of all, I don't think she needs you to ask her types of personal questions like what she spends her money on, and etc. That is really not your concern. Most of  everyone I know has debt but that does not mean they can't go to a sporting event or etc. That is really judgmental. I pray you never have financial debt and then having someone tell you 'you deserve what you get". Yes, student loans should be paid off and be paid back as it is a loan but it is easy for people to get behind. I pray you never have to deal with debt. And there are other options such as Loan Rehabilitation program that people can try if they are not being garnished yet. That program allows you to make 6-12 payments and then they will take you out of default status, then you can either get a deferment, make a forbearance, or begin to make regular payments. I like to offer helpful advice and not judgmental comments. While yes, if you owe two months rent, you should not be going to Las Vegas, that is obvous but some of these comments from people..so judgmental.

But they still have to follow the guidelines of the Fair Debt Collection. Which means they cannot under any circumstances do the following:

1. Call you at work, when you have asked them to stop.
2. Continue to call you when you have sent them a request in writing requesting you to stop. This does not stop collection procedures but it does stop them from calling you. They are only allowed to call you one more time to let you know how they will proceed.
3. Disclose your personal information to your references, coworkers or anyone not on the account.
4. Refuse to verify the debt is yours in writing if the consumer request so.
5. Threaten violence, harm, or physical retribution if payment is not received.
6. Misrepresent themselves or use deceitful practices ot obtain money.

Easy Pickens, you are correct in they do not have to court to garnish wages or tax refunds, and unlike most other debt, student loans are not dischargeable but student loan consumers are still protected under the Fair Debt Collection Act to avoid scammers, fraud, and identity theft. Just FYI.

I paid off my student loans 4 years after graduating. That was a few months after I bought my first home with a 20% down payment. The problem these days is that college costs are rising much faster than the rate of inflation. Studies show that most of that money goes to administration, that is, wasteful bureaucracy.

The government has to stop giving out so much money in loans. That will force colleges to cut back their wasteful ways. Our economy can't grow if so many young people start their working lives massively in debt.

Bud's comment 9/17 are spot-on.

Whether it's student loan debt or other debt, you have to be on top of it in doing letters, faxes or whatever to the debt collector in A TIMELY MANNER.  This is critical whether the debt is valid or not, is SOL or current. Just as the collectors have to abide by the Fair Credit reporting,.....you have to do your part.  That means you send a letter in response to whatever they send you and state that you are asking for validation of the debt from the original creditor with documentation and if it's a debt which is SOL, then state that in your letters. And you USPO mail the letters via certified mail and with a return registered mail card (the green post card) and do this before the 30 day response back due date. This runs under $ 10 to do and is the best $ you'll ever spend BUT you have to do this to maintain your rights.

Then keep and old school file on this (unlike binders of women, it's binders of debt-lmao) so that you can easily track and verify and successfully fight when the debt resurfaces. Which it will - you can't really let up your guard as the debt - even if it's a decade ++ old - will zombie up on you.  Debt from the 1990's will be  bought for pennies on the dollar and they will try to roll them out as new debt, spanky fresh for 2012. You have got to respond to those type of collections so that this doesn't happen to you. And do it over and over each time you get a letter and keep track of all this.  I have 2 old cc accounts from 1999 that have gone through a dz different debt collectors in a 14 years from NCO to MCM to Dynamic Solutions, etc. This comes around about every 6 years and it's time for another runs to the post office. But this is $ well spent at the USPO.The debt is SOL but they look for any way to make it resurface and stick. Not gonna happen.

For student loan debt doing this is super important as this debt can follow you for life (as the law is now) and you have to be able to show that you are attempting to do something about your debt. Personally, I think we are going to see a change in how for-profit colleges can go after student loan debt.  Most of this is just hitting the public & political radar and what is likely to happen is as more and more parents get hit with having the debt on them as co-signers and the kids can't find a job to even cover their debt service, that there will be a change in the law on owing student loans for life but the forgiveness will need documentation that you attempted to pay or do something about your debt. I don't know what is worse: the for-profit college scam or reverse mortgage scam - one targets the young and the other the old and the parents in the middle  get caught in dealing with the fall out either way.

My daughter racked up huge student loans in order to become a MATH TEACHER. I think they were about $55,000.  Now they are like $85,000 because a lot of interest and fees were laid on by these debt collectors. Fees for lawyers and expenses. Finally, she got some kind of forbearance and then the Federal Government took over all the loans.  That was good, but they included all those old interests amounts and fees for when she could not pay and did not understand how to call off the dogs.  So now the Federal Government also is charging interest on the principle, interest owed to the banks back then, and on the lawyers fees of those private companies.  Frankly, it is so complicated that everyone needs a lawyer just to figure out what the heck is going on and what to do.  

This really hurts since I, her father, contributed to her education as much as I could, but could not do it all. In fact I was just finishing paying my own student loans for courses to take after losing my job, and then hers' started and I've had to help her with living expenses.

You have all heard it - WE NEED MORE MATH AND SCIENCE TEACHERS!  BS!  or as Bidden said, "That's a lot of malarky."   If we really cared about that we would not be making them take out loans, fight off debt collectors and end up in a lousy job with lousy pay.  YES - my daughter is a math teacher now with a Masters degree in math education and is trying to teach kids that have not been well taught before. She has 30 in every class of 6th graders and has five classes every day of the week.  Think of teaching 150 kids a day.  Most of us can't put up with one for an hour.  

The pay is about $35,000 per year after taxes.  She works, if she can find it, in the summer months to make up the needed amount to live in an expensive city. Drives old car, not a home owner. What's they point?  I try to encourage her, but never more will I tell her teaching math is a great idea. Maybe, with luck, she can move over to the defense industry, casino accounting, or oil well drilling that is going to start up in this state again, so it is said.