Posted on: August 28, 2008 by Matt
Over the course of the past three years I have been slowly digging my way out of the student loan debt that I have accumulated. As of today I am down to having the final three big creditors to pay off, two of which are in good standing and the last is in collection. I have been unable to work out a rehabilitation agreement with the collection agency.
Posted on: August 28, 2008 by Matt
In addition to having a set of student loans in collections I also had several lenders holding my student loans in default. In order to start cleaning up the defaulted loans I contacted the lending institutions to work out payment plans. I discovered that several federal and state lenders offered rehabilitation programs. By making on time monthly payments for twelve months the loans would be placed back in good standing and the default removed from my credit report. This applied to the Federal Direct Loans as well as state based loans from VSAC (other states may have similar programs).
Posted on: August 28, 2008 by Matt
My struggle to get my finances back in line began with a scary phone call from a debt collector. I was verbally attacked and bullied by the agent (I was not aware of it at the time but he was clearly in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) and he ended the conversation stating that I had to pay $20,000 now or the company was going to take me to court. I panicked. I did not have $1,000 to my name much less the other $19,000 and told them there was no way I could pay that. They suggested that I call friends and family and ask them for the money. My family did not have the money and I was not comfortable asking. At the end of the conversation the collector offered to pay 10% down and then arrange monthly payments. I told him that I would see what I could do and would call him back the next day.
Posted on: August 28, 2008 by Matt
After graduating from college in December of 2001 I moved from northern New York to Denver, Colorado. My girlfriend at the time wanted to go back to school to become a veterinary technician and had been accepted to the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology. We had nothing lined up other than an apartment and just enough cash for the move.
Posted on: August 28, 2008 by Matt
Hello -
Welcome to my first attempt at writing a blog! I am hoping to write about my experience with trying to get my finances back on track and credit recovered after a series of problems with student loans from college. Hopefully I will be able to keep up and tell people the things that I have tried that did work and the things that did not work so they can avoid making the same mistakes.
The past couple of weeks (well most of August 2008) I have been making some significant progress in hopefully getting my life back on track. By tracking my progress and offering my experience I hope to be able to help out any other people struggling with some of their past mistakes and maybe even vent my frustrations a bit.
Check back often as I hope to be updating frequently!
