One of my student loans has gone to collections invalidly. Should I get a lawyer?
I graduated from a small, private institution in April 2007. I started receiving payment demands from my loan lenders in June. Come to find out, my institution had my graduation date as being in January 2007 which put me past my grace period INCORRECTLY for all of my loans. I was able to get through to 2 of my 3 lenders and, for the most part, fix the issue. But one lender, EFP/ACS, failed to process repeated requests with at least 2 of their employees for over 3 months. My grace period ended end of October. Repayment should have begun beginning of Nov. but I applied for forbearance with other lenders. EFP/ACS, for unknown reasons, failed to process my claims and attempts to comply nor did they respond to my requests for forbearance applications to be sent to me. They have a “convenient” online option that always gives me an error message. Now I have collections calling saying my payments are 120 days passed due and I believe this to be invalid. What do I do to not be in default?
First, go to www.nslds.ed.gov and verify what status they are in. Second, go to their website and apply for deferment. If that does not work then call FAFSA at 1-800-4-FED-AID they are open late and can help you with your options. Tell them exactly what you put here so that they don’t tell you to talk to the lender. If you do talk to the lender, I’d ask for a supervisor.
