The following are testimonials submitted to this site. To tell your story, please go here.
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Witheld
I am the oldest of seven children from a
one income household. My father told me going to college would make my
life better and I would earn more over my lifetime than with a high school degree.
Boy was he wrong! I took out approximately $70,000 in loans for college
and grad school. I work as a social worker with the elderly and make $30,000
a year. My loans are now $129,000. I have deferred, consolidated
and defaulted for eight years. I have made payments when I could and then
would stop because I couldn't pay what they were asking. They have harassed
me and my family. They have taken my tax refunds for years now.
I was able to work out a payment agreement with Van Ru who holds $110,000 of
my loans which are federal. I am paying $100 a month which won't ever
put a dent in it. The problem is the other $19,000 are private loans held
by OSI. They won't accept reasonable payment arrangements. They
want no less than $2,000 a month which is barely my income for the month.
I have been paying them $50 a month for the past few months but they said they
would still sue me. The worker at OSI was rude and threatening and when
I talked with her "supervisor" he said I could not talk to anyone
else about this and that she was specially trained to do this. If I treated
people the way she treated me I would be fired. I have written them letters
and gotten no response. I got a letter from a lawyer in my area over the
weekend stating that I needed to pay the balance of $19,000 in full or they
would exercise their rights. What about my rights? I also owe the
IRS and have other debts from a failed marriage. I just want to make affordable
payments and live my life. I am only thirty years old and my life is ruined.
Who would want to marry someone with this mess. How can I have kids with
this debt. I will never own a home or a new car. I have a car from
a buy here pay here. I don't keep money in my bank account or have direct
deposit for fear they will seize it. I can't believe they would
sue me when I don't have anything. I am shackled in the poverty that I
grew up in and foolishly thought I could escape. It does make me feel
depressed and like giving up. I want to fight back I just don't know what
to do.
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Brenda
IIn 1981 I was not able to support my children
on a high school education and I went back to school, after my divorce, as the
single custodial parent of two young children. I graduated with honors with
a BA in English and went on to get a Masters in counseling. My total debt was
50K. The first tax year after graduation, my income was 13K. The interest alone
on my student loans was 450.00 a month. After asking for help from the Dept.of
Education in lowering the 8% interest so that I could have a fighting chance,
I was denied any help and stopped paying my loans and they went into default.
A couple of years later, I was contacted by an attorney, J. Christopher McGuirk,
from Newmarket NH, who was representing the Department of Education. He was
very aggressive, bordering on harrassing and added another 20K in collection
fees to my balance after just a few phone calls and a few mailings worth of
work. It seems that collectors must be able to charge a percentage of the total
of the loans for their fees and do so without conscience or any ethical consideration
of what is a fair fee for their work. In this case, for just a few hours work,
he charged $20,000.00.
For a couple of years, I struggled to pay 150.00 per month and eventually stopped
due to the utter hopelessness of the situation. Again the loans went into default.
I was contacted in 2001 by Betty Klesel at a collection agency, Windham Professionals,
in Salem, NH. Again the few calls I received from Betty Klesel at Windham Professionals,
were quite harassing, and included calls at my job. I was told of the William
D. Ford consolidation program, informed that the only way I could get my loans
consolidated through this program was to go through this collection agency and
that this was the only way I could avoid having my wages garnished. After what
I would estimate to be about 2-3 hours work, a $30,000.00 fee was added to my
balance! After consolidating through the Ford program, I was told by Windham
Professionals that I could put my loans into deferrment for three years and
then into forebearance, which I have done. The total is now over $113,000.00
and growing. I remain abl!
e to support my household with no frills but unable to make the sizeable
payments I would have to make to cover the interest alone which remains at 8%.
I have contacted my senators and representatives, numerous attorneys, and the
US Dept.of Education but find there is nothing I can do. I have about ten more
years left in the work force before retirement and this situtation remains hopeless;
this debt is crippling,the financial burden too heavy to bear. Please help the
thousands of people like me who have committed no crime yet are are serving
life sentences.
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Mark
Borrowed about 60,000 through law school. Defaulted on loans.
Was encouraged to consolidate even though I told them I was unemployed. Defaulted
again. Current loan balance of 170000. Was advised to get on income contingent
repayment. Told that if I filed taxes separately, that my wife's income would
not be used to calculate repayments. Found out that is not true. Waiting to
see what my monthly payment will be. I think a lawsuit against Department of
Ed and various credit agencies would be appropriate.
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Pat
After many years as a single parent and
after my children had 'grown and flown,' I made plans to invest in my own future.
I entered a two-year nursing program with the goal of obtaining an RN license.
My years of experience as a medical secretary and medical editor influenced
this decision. I chose a two-year program at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton,
Massachusetts. At this point in my life (1983), I had no savings or assets;
so I borrowed from friends, the federal government, and the Higher Education
Loan Plan (HELP) of Massachusetts--$5,000 from the latter.
After graduation I worked on a hospital
floor for several months until I realized that an old back injury made it very
difficult to do full-time. Since I was a good student, I decided to invest further
in my nursing education and eventually find a job in teaching or administration.
I assumed that my loans would be deferred.
There was no problem with my federal loan, and every semester I filled out their
pink deferment form. Of course, there was no problem with the friends from whom
I had borrowed money. The HELP people, however would not grant a deferment.
They told me I was in default. It was never clear why.
Nursing study is very demanding. Besides
classes it also involved many hours of unpaid physical work and travel to multiple
sites. It was difficult keeping up financially with tuition costs and my own
support, as well as this loan, and from time to time, I fell behind. The HELP
people penalized me and charged extra fees. I tried to make different arrangements
with them, but they were never to my advantage. I was constantly harassed by
around a dozen different credit companies.
While working on my degrees, I maintained a part-time position as a nurse and
also did my earlier freelance editing and indexing to support myself. Although
I kept making payments, the HELP people ruined my credit rating. It became even
more difficult when I could not afford to keep a car on the road. Also, I lost
most of my freelance indexing work as now everyone was using a computer, and
I could not afford one.
Due to a number of family problems, I moved from Bangor to Portland, Maine,
but I finished with a graduate degree in 1996. By that time I had paid over
$11,000 for my $5,000 debt. The Dept. of Education will be quick to tell you
that they did not keep track of my fees and penalties. At graduation, I again
had no savings, no assets, no computer, no car. At that point the HELP people
said I still owed approximately $2,000.
I looked for a position as an advanced practice nurse. My field was in oncology,
and at one point Sloan-Kettering was interested in me. However, I could not
imagine how I could afford to move to a new city. I could barely maintain rental
costs and other monthly bills. I could not afford to file for bankruptcy.
I tried to make an arrangement-a year after graduation and after catching up
with all of the above-to pay the $2,000, but the HELP people insisted that I
now owed much more. I had used this time to participate in a national oncology
program which allowed me a number of opportunities to look for work. My finances,
however, never allowed me to make the necessary leap.
At about this time credit card companies were making a large sales push, and
I was able to obtain one. I was then able to pay back taxes, pay for some dental
work, buy a computer and get caught up on my bills. Except for this so-called
HELP loan I have had no other debt since.
Now in my later 60s, I have been fending
off a number of diagnoses, and have come to rely on Medicare and Social Security
to a great degree. Approximately $150.00 is taken from the latter every month
to pay the interest on this same HELP loan. I still work as a nurse (there is
a nursing shortage, and I work short shifts)-on a per diem basis and I am still
able to do some freelance indexing. However, the HELP people say I now owe @
$11,000 again. The "offset" from my Social Security benefits is not
applied to the principle. There is no way I can ever obtain this amount. In
fact, I expect my income to decline sharply in the years to come.
I plan to write my federal representatives in both Massachusetts (where I lived
when I obtained the loan) and Maine for possible assistance. After years of
anxiety and exhaustion trying to keep up, until I heard about StudentLoanJustice.Org,
I did not think there was any hope.