Cease & Desist w/ Student loan in collection agency in T

I don't think that writing a C&D letter to the collection agency for your student loans will solve the problem. The SOL never expires and you will have to pay it at any period of time. You will have to pay to west asset management if they have your legit details.

Student loans can be garnished and they do not have to take you to court because it is from the Government-all they have to do is get a judgement, send it to your employer and send a copy to you

IMO, sending a CND for a student loan is a great way to get wages garnished. Since you are now dealing with a collection agency, you cannot deal with the DOE, they will send you back to the CA. SOAPLADY will surely come along and give you more advice, in the meantime, I suggest you start reading through her posts.

If you look at my previous posts you will see the entire story. Maybe that will shed some light on the situation. I don't want this debt any more than the next person. I want a fair person to help me out. My debt is my fault, I understand that. At the time, I was going through alot including a pregnancy and a derranged husband. Anyway, please read that.

[quote]About 2 ???? years ago, I went to school but had to leave after a year because I was having a baby. I was never told about a Forbearance upon leaving and being pregnant (the women can vouch for this) you forget a lot of things. After my son was born, we moved twice in a year (short term leases). Now, we are at our third place in the last two years and I started to think about going back to school when it hit me about my student loan out there. I called the DOE who referred me to the default department, who then referred me to west asset management. I ended up speaking with a Kevin (I have his last name but will keep in hidden until the moment hits). He kind of went into some detail about what he needed from me to ???????settle??????? the loan. He told asked for all my information including my expenses, work info (is this legal?) and husband????????s income (again Legal?). He kept saying that he was with the DOE which is federal and I need to abide by these rules. He then gave me the option of putting down a grand and then paying $130/month for 6 months. I told him that a grand was too high, so he brought it down to $800 and still was too high. So, then he said for final offer to split the $800 in two months. I told him I needed to speak with my husband as we all do (with our spouses) and he told me he would be there until 7. He said that with what I make and my husband makes after all our expenses, we would still have a grand left a month. Let me first of all make a correction ???????? no we still have to think about miscellaneous items and childcare and insurance and taxes taken out of the paycheck. I spoke with my husband and we decided to sleep on it. At exactly 7 that same night, Mr. Kevin called my husband????????s phone. How on Earth did he get this number? It????????s unlisted.

The next day I called to speak with Kevin to see about doing some other options as the $400 split was still high. He was not there and so I called back the next day which was a Friday. He was not there again and so I stayed on the line and got redirected with a lady to who told me that he had left for the day. It was only noon! She said he wasn????????t there and I????????d have to wait until Monday. I told her that was unacceptable and demanded to speak with a ???????supervisor.??????? My mistake really because when Touric came on the line he said I was misinformed by Kevin about making payments for 6 consecutive months. Touric told me nine months and then he said he would bring payment to $250 per month no down payment. I told him I still needed to talk to my husband. He said he would give me two hours and then he would put in his notes ???????? ???????Refusal to pay.??????? I called my husband and he told me it was a scare tactic and we could wait on it. Monday rolled around and I received a voicemail at work mind you ???????? I told them not to call me at work on our first conversation. This was from a lady (mean lady) named Ms. Banks. She said my ???????account??????? had reached the wage garnishment department. She said that if I didn????????t make an arrangement to pay that day, she would send a letter to my work to do a wage garnishment.

Was this actually left on a voice mail?? I hope you saved it....huge fdcpa violation! And actually when doing a wage garnishment, the notice gets sent to you first, not the employer.
I live in the state of Texas and I don????????t believe they can do that but not sure about student loans.

Administrative Wage Garnishishment was passed by congress. They can garnish in all 50 states without a court order.
The next few days she kept calling my work asking to speak with my ???????supervisor??????? to get my work address to send this whatever thing it was ???????? a threat?

Not a threat but this is deemed an unfair practice and harrassment. Also you had already told her her not to call you at work.

I know they want their money ???????? more likely they want their commission check. So, the other day I sent a certified cease and desist letter and got a call on my caller ID as being them.


Bad move. The C&D will immediately cause then to initiate garnishment. They wont send it back to the DOE.
I didn????????t answer it though. By now they surely have gotten the letter. It was received and signed as of March 18th 2007 in GA. So, my next step is what? What will happen now? It will go back to the DOE and I will make arrangements with them? That????????s what I would like to do. Can they do a wage garnishment? I know they can take my tax refund. That????????s fine with me even though it????????s a shame. I need to know more of my rights. Please help me. Did I do the right thing? I know basic laws of the Fair Debt Collections Act but need to know more. Thanks so much! [/quote]

The negotiation the CA was doing was correct. They are required to get entire household income..however they should have been dealing with takehome income and should have had you list expenses...rent, utilities, daycare, groceries...etc.

The calling your employer is a violation of FDCPA and were being made to specifically to harass you.
My advise now is to file a complaint with the student loan Ombudsman...the link is in the sticky at the top of the page. The loan will be pulled from West and placed with another CA to do a rehab program, which is what it sounds like West was setting you up for.

Okay, so I made a bad move on sending the letter. What do I do now? I can't afford to have my wages garnished. The other day I found out my husband is leaving me and we are separating. This means my income is going to be slashed in half and I don't make much. I was going by the laws thinking that Sudent Loans have the same/similar effects as credit cards in collections. I was goign by what I was told my other people in this sitaution.

There was no voicemail. What the lady told me was perosnally on the phone. I dont' have a recording devise at work.

Please help me! In need of major advice here!

OK....got to (http://www.westassetmanagement.com/contactus/contactccs.asp) and send them an email. Tell them that there collector/s have violated FPCPA ...
???? 805. Communication in connection with debt collection [15 USC 1692c]
(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt --
(3) at the consumer's place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.
Also...
???? 807. False or misleading representations [15 USC 1692e]
A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:
(2) The false representation of --

(A) the character, amount, or legal status of any debt; or

You stated she said that if you didn????????t make an arrangement to pay that day, she would send a letter to your work to do a wage garnishment. Wrong. You offered a payment and she refused it plus the procedure for AWG requires that you be sent a notice before the employer.

Tell West that you have or will be filling a complaint with the Ombudsman
http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/about/about.html plus sending a written copy to the US Deptarment of Education ( I will find the address for you.)

When filling a complaint with either agency, do not write a sob story. Simply tell them, you are in default and you attempted to set up payments and the CA refused reasonable payments and violated fdcpa.