defaulted student loan

I had posted this in the wrong place I think and hopefully now it will show up and someone can help me....Please...I;m a novice at this stuff....




This is a long story so please bear with me...

My deceased first husband and I signed a promisory note to help with the tuition for my son's college in 1994. We happily paid the loan amount...I can even remember the payment amount of $84 per month...

In January of 1996, my husband was diagnosed with a form of Creutzfelt Jakob disease or mad cow and died in July 1996. I sent a copy of his death certificate to all of our lenders and did not recieve coupons for payments to this loan for over a year....I then received a letter in November of 1997 informing me that I still owed money for this loan and the payments were to commence again ASAP...and thank goodness they were the same amount...I faithfully paid these payments until August 2003.

My son and I have had an estranged relationship since his father's death...his partner and I do not see eye to eye and it had caused much tension between my son and I...

In travelling with my job I had the pleasure of meeting and falling in love again with a lovely man from England...he asked me to marry him and I said yes...needless to say...I liquidated my savings and all my finances to go to England debt free save my son's college loan...he and I came to an agreement that he would finish the payments...unfortunately.. in February of 2005 I was informed by a debt collector from Zwicker and Assoc that my son had not paid the debt and I was liable and as I can see from your forum many people have suffered by dealing with Zwicker.....I called my son and in trying to resolve this you can imagine since he reneged on his agreement to pay this debt..the conversation was hardly pleasant...he said they "were coming after him" for the money,etc....since the conversation wasn't very nice...I decided to let him get on with it...and pay the loan.....even tho it meant he was being sued...since he had not been very pleasant...(it's a long story, that would not serve for me to share on this forum) well...I can only say...I feel guilty...but not enough to pay the bill....

On Tuesday, March 27th, I received a call from my daughter that someone was trying to get in touch with me...they had called my former brother in law and he gave them my daughter's number....as is her usual practice she tried to find out who they were but they would not give her any info....so she gave me the number and I called this woman...

She was from a company called Diversified Credit services in California...I will say she was very polite but...forthright in what she wanted...she said she represented a client which was looking to be paid for the student loan which I signed and am obligated to pay from 1994 and wanted to know how we could arrange this....I explained to her that I now live in England...told her that my son had agreed to pay and obviously was not...I told her about Zwicker calling me and she said she knew nothing about that....she was just calling to try and get this paid...the client was demanding payment in full...but she could arrange payments..wanted to know if I was working so we could start rehabbing the loan...I told her no I was not working and that I would have to speak to my current husband to see if he would be willing to pay...I told her I would call her back...my husband was willing to pay...but he wanted proof that we were dealing with a "real" company...especially since this woman said she would take a down payment by credit card over the phone...my husband was definitely not going to do that...so..I called her back...told her he wanted to speak with her but since he was at work in London...our home is in another county....and would not be home and able to speak with her till Friday....

Well...I spoke with her tonite....I explained my husband's concerns...by the way..I requested a copy of the promissory note and she agreed to get that for me and send it to England...told her he wanted to see the agreement and decide from there....she told me her company has been in business for 30 years...gave me websites...etc....if that was not enough than she would have to put my case forward....when I asked what that meant she said I would have to talk to her supervisor....he came on the phone and asked if I was willing to pay this bill...I said yes when I could be sure I was speaking to the correct party and that we definitely would not pay by credit card over the phone....he said than the matter would have to be put forward....when I asked him what that meant..he said he could not jeopardize his company's relationship with government agencies by explaining what that meant and that if I was not going to give them any money tonite than he had nothing more to say....

I am willing to pay this debt...I know that I am responsible...I'm sorry that it had to come to this... I always had a very good credit score in the states...and I have one here in the UK...this whole thing has caused a huge family rift which I'm very sorry will probably never be resolved as well as just bringing up a very hurtful past....I would just like to get it resolved and pay my debt to the correct person....

I'm sorry for the long windedness of my message..believe me...I could have included so much more but the point I am trying to make...what can I do to pay this loan?????

I thank you in advance for your help....