New guy, BIG Problems! (non-fed student loans, $200K, CA's calling...)
Date: Wed, 03/11/2009 - 09:42
New guy, BIG Problems! (non-fed student loans, $200K, CA's calling...)
After graduating I received a job mananging an airport for a city since I was unable to find a job flying right away. I received the first few letters indicating my estimated payment schedule and immediatlly contacted my lenders to discuss lowering the payments to something inside my budget. I was told by AES and KEY not to worry and call back when I received my first acutal bill. I did as instructed and they offered to reduce my payments from $1800 per month to $1600 per month. That did not help at all! I called back, filled out every form I was told to fill out. I finally received a deferment for 6 months and then an additional 6 from Key and AES. During this time I tried to keep up on as much of the payments as I could but juggling the mess caused some credit cards and medical bills/normal debt to get behind. I enrolled with OptionOne (BIG MISTAKE) to try to consolidate/DMP the cc's and other bills. I found out within the first month how I had screwed up and changed over to CCCS. I have not missed a payment with CCCS and will soon have the $10,000 worth of credit card, medical, ect.... debt paid off. (One bright spot)
Now comes 2008. I was able to return to flying and was hired by a large flight training school. I struggled as an instructor for over 1 year and often made less than 700 per month to support my wife and son. Our rent alone was over 800 per month the last two years on our apt so you can imagine our budget = $0
Now I have just been hired (Feb 2009) as my first professional flying job flying as a First Officer for a military contractor. I love the work! I have a clear future to a 6 figure position in about 10 years.
I am finally on my way but now all my student loans have defaulted. I am getting called by CCS (CA for AES) and they are telling me they are going to liquidate my parents home (since they co-signed) take my step fathers retirement and hit our wages. They also said if we do not come up with $94,000 (My loan amount with AES alone) that they could get their lawyers to take my pilots licenese.
I have done nothing but talk until I was blue in the face with these companies trying to establish an income based payment that I can affored. I can affored to pay 10-20% of my paycheck, but they have been wanting over 100% for the last year.
I now make $2400 base and more depending on how much I fly. I am finally in a position to budget something toward my student loans.
What can I expect? How accurate are their threats?
ANY ADVICE??? Please!
(Sorry for the bad spelling and format, I am in a hurry to pick up my wife. I will check back once I am back home shortly)
These could be major violations depending on how the worded them
These could be major violations depending on how the worded them...it they said "they" as in the CA or "I" as in the CA would do it then you have major FDCPA violations. They cannot seize retirement, nor can they take your pilots license. I would be recording any calls from them....and then talk to a consumer attorney.
Private loans...you are not entitled to income based payments. Private loans do not come with these provisions...you can argue until you are blue in the face but this is the reality of private loans.
So the only way I would get an income based payment is if it was
So the only way I would get an income based payment is if it was set by a judge? What about the $50 thing I have been reading on here a lot. If I keep paying at least $50 to all my student loan companies, would it keep them from attaching my wages?
SOAPLADY_ With regards to the wording I think she said they have
SOAPLADY_ With regards to the wording I think she said they have lawyers that would take those actions.
That is the kicker....however the attorneys generally do not liq
That is the kicker....however the attorneys generally do not liquidate homes, they place liens. The cant touch retirements nor can they take your pilots license. So her threats are somewhat grey. Maybe call and take to AES....the collectors are pushing the law.
Is there any help on the Private side?
Sounds like from all the research I have done on here and in the past there is not much help out there for private student loans.
Maybe it is time the students banded together and formed their own company to help each other out.
I had an idea one time, few years ago, that I had discussed with my brother. I would like to get some views from students and mods here to see what they think.
What if a non-profit company was formed as a memebership community of students and graduates currently repaying student loans. One community to pool money together and then distribute the money in a coordinated manner each month.
According to the Census Factfinder they estimate over 54M people in 2007 have obtained a BS degree. I know this is not the exact number of college grads in the US each year, but it gives you an idea of the size of the potential market.
I have read before that there are somewhere around 4 million college grads each year, and also that in 2004 (think this was from a NY Times article) nearly 60 percent of college graduates had unmanageable debt.
Something has to be done. I think we should develop a new way to help ourselves if no one out there is willing to help us. Salaries are not getting much bigger, but the cost to go to school, cost of living, cost of insurance.... they sure are.
My idea was to build a national community of college grads who pay a membership fee each month. All memberships are then pooled together and distributed as a payment toward student loan debt. If the 4M number above is even close to true you could make major strides if you were able to get even 10% of the college grad population in the country paying as little as $1 month.
Imagine having a $400,000 per month bank account to distribute funds from to students in the community.
That was my idea. I am still up for exploring this more if anyone else is interested. I think we would have to have a lawyers help to set it up non-profit and some good software techs to build the databases.
I am just spitballing here.
I wouldnt even bother much thought into it...with the high rate
I wouldnt even bother much thought into it...with the high rate of default you would be broke in a year. Look at problems prosper has had. Plus too many of those college grads are out of work right now.
Banks give good rates to those who have good credit for student loans. But with the economy right now and the rate of default, even they are not lending.