The following are testimonials submitted to this site. To tell your story, please go here.

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Mark

Borrowed about 60,000 through law school. Deafaulted on loans. Was encouraged to consolidate even though I told them I was unemployed. Defaulted again. Current loan balance of $170,000. 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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Witheld

I finished my undergraduate degree in Sociology in 1996 but didn't find a job and so I went to a private school to learn Information Technology.  I  have recently filed bankruptcy.  Unfortunately, this didn't help with my student loans.

My job prospects remain very poor despite having two degrees and so I have a hard time making ends meet and am also worried about my future if Social Security payments can be garnished. 

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Brian

I took out four student loans to attend St. John's University in Collegeville Minnesota in 1979-1982 totaling $6,500.00. Was forced to drop out for lack of funds. I contacted the lender for unemployment deferral or forebearance and was denied. They then demanded payments based on $9,000.00. I had signed a promissory note for an additional $2,500.00 but later declined the loan worried about post graduation debt. This loan remained with the valid loans thru default. The loan due date was adjusted backwards in September of 1982 to April. Sometime after default in February of 1983 the "extra" unfunded loan was removed but the accrued interest remains to this date. Default documents were altered and I have copies. I made voluntary payments for approximatly two years thinking then someone might take me serious and correct the obvious errors. Was informed that by making voluntary payments I was agreeing to the balance due so I discontinued. Have had a dozen tax returns annexed and fees assessed up to 43%. From 1993 until 1997 the promissory amounts were doubled in collection notices. In 1997 Unger and Associates threated to garnish my wages. I sent a review request received "timely" but the garnishment continued. After threatening court action my account was review and found that the promissory amounts had in fact been doubled. During this entire time no verification of my debt was ever presented. Multiple requests for access to account records were summarily denied. After a few more tax off-sets my accounts were transfered to Aman Collection Services Inc. a subsitary of Wells Fargo Financial(look up their web page). They again threatened wage garnishment without verifying the loan. I sued in Conciliation Court and won but the garnishment continued without loan verification. I sued again and lost because their attorney from Faegre & Benson LLP submitted six partial promissory notes at the hearing (I only ever borrowd four loans plus the unfunded loan totals five). This sixth loan has never been identified. I appealed to State District Court only to have their attorney remove my claim to Federal District Court Civil No. 03-6091. Have been in Federal District Court for over three years. Am currently seeking acceptance of my Fifth Amended Complaint and will be Motioning the Court to impose sanctions and reprimands against Erik Girvan, Faegre & Benson Associate and Charles Webber a partner in the firm for knowingly submitting false evidence in this case. I started out suing Aman Collection Services and the Department of Education (DOE). Have since added collectors as personally responsible for violations of my Constitutional rights as well as asking the Court to toll the statutes of limitations arguing that there is continuing wrong and fraudluent concealment. Am seeking similar cases for class action status. Defendants include: the United States of America; the DOE; Secretaries of Education including Rod Paige in his official capacity as Secretary, and individual capacities, and Margaret Spellings in her official capacity as Secretary, and individual capacities, and their successors in office; DOE employees including Tamera Chrisman in her official capacity as Hearing Officer, and individual capacities, and Evelyn Gresham in her official capacity as Loan Analyst, and individual capacities, and Walter Reed in his official capacity as supervisor, and individual capacities; collection companies including Unger and Associates Inc. (Unger) including Diane Flowers in her professional, and individual capacities, and Laura Waterman in her professional, and individual capacities, and Al Francisco in his professional, and individual capacities, and Laurie Edwards in her professional, and individual capacities, and Christy Moriarty in her professional, and individual capacities, as individuals and as employees of Unger and Associates Inc; OSI/A.M. Miller and Associates doing business as OSI Collection Services Inc. (OSI); Diversified Collection Services (DCS); Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc.(Pioneer);Aman Collection Services, (Aman) including Judy Stone in her professional, and individual capacities, Jean Dutt in her professional duties as Collections Manager for Aman, and in her professional duties as Vice-President of Aman, and individual capacities and has employees of Aman Collection Services Inc.
If any of these parties dealt with your loans I would be interested in hearing from you. I am not an attorney so cannot represent you but would be happy to share my complaints and earned experience.

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Witheld

I am not willing to put my name to my story yet, but I consider this a
situation of grave importance, yet I have not seen a single case where the
loan was forgiven, or a program such as Peace Corps was instituted for
humanities PhDs whereby they could pay off some of the loan.

My colleague has a $200,000 bill. She is on social security in-between
teaching as an adjunct and, more recently, as a substitute teacher in a high
school.

I was fortunate to get a full-time tenure track position at age 55. That was
four years ago. I took my loan out of deferment and now I am on income
sensitive payments until spring when I will have to start paying almost $500
a month, which will be impossible.

My loan has jumped from $32,000 to almost $150,000.

The years were complicated by single-parenthood, no work, illness, a
bankruptcy (1997, without student loan forgiveness), limited work, etc.,
over a period of the 9 years it took me to get full-time employment. I am
now 59, do not yet own anything valuable except for my books, let alone a
house.

What would really help is our knowing what we can do legally. Do we lose
social security (my colleague's has not been taken, but she is really
hurting financially, in any case)? What are the ways we can get the loans
forgiven--what about programs similar to ones provided for doctors and high
school teachers? They never came about and have not even been proposed.

Legal advice, such as, would it be better to let the loans default (since we
are going to lose all anyway) and put money--where?

I have written to senators and will look more closely at your website (lest
I be considered unwilling to work at this), but I am not convinced of a
payoff.

One 60 Minutes story is not enough. I would like to know more about how the
legal community is responding to the cause and whether there is a building
up of interest. We are like the Palestinians, no body really cares.