Misfit1326
07-15-2008, 09:20 PM
Hi,
My name is Juli. The reason why I am writing is because back in September of 2005 I was enrolled at a Univeristy (online) in San Francisco, CA and I had applied for Financial Aid for the Fall Semester but for some reason something happened where I don't think my application fully went through or hey never received it and I was not notified of it. Well, what happened was that when I dropped out in October, a month later I received a letter from the University saying that I owed them $1300 and if it wasn't paid by Dec 29, 2005 it would be sent over to collections. I called them, and I even cried at one point because nor my mom or I had the money -- at the time I was 19 going on 20 and I didn't have a full time job I still lived at home -- I informed the school of this and asked if they would be able to put me on a payment plan or something. They said "NO there is absolutely nothing that we can do, you either pay this or I guess you're out of luck and it will go to collections" yes I am quoting the VERY rude woman who I spoke with in November... I found it very unfair that I barely had 2 months to pay this back and I had even told them my situation multiple times.
Well, December 29th came and I called that day asking if there was at least something that they could do (yes, I asked the same question again) and I was told NO you either pay or it goes to collections. I went into a state of depression soon after that because this was going to be the first negative thing on my credit report. I wasn't contacted by the Collections Agency until lat March 2006 saying that they needed me to start paying and if not they would keep reporting to the Credit Bureau...Apparently they started reporting them since either January or February and mind you I had NO idea where the debt went or with what company. At the time when I speaking to the woman I specifically told her "I am driving right now, I have no pen or paper and I am not at a stop light can we please hang up and you call me right back and leave a voicemail with your name, number, company name, and how much my balance is?" She said "oh of course" so we hung up and she never returned the call. I went back into my phone and looked to see the caller ID but the call came in as "PRIVATE" so now I had no way of getting a hold of her, knowing the company, or my balance (I knew it was 1300 but I didn't know if they had already started charging interest...which Im sure they probably had)
I NEVER heard back again from them until either late JAN or early FEB of....2008!!! Yes, it wasn't until exactly 2 years after this started that I got contacted again...by then my balance was already well $1500...and this time I didn't get contacted by phone, I got contacted by a letter from their ATTORNEYS which if I remember correctly were part of Grant & Weber. I know I have the letter filed, I will find it and post it if anyone needs it to further give me more advise. Pretty much after I read it I was under the impression that I was going to be sued by them if I didn't pay because they had tried "SEVERAL TIMES" to contact me by phone and mail and I had purposely not replied back. 1. that is a lie because like I said I was never contacted except for that one time in 2006 2. I have lived at the same address since before that debt went to collections 3. I've had the same phone number since before I started College
When I called **"Linda"** who I later found out was the SAME lady who I had spoken to 2 years earlier. She was INCREDIBLY rude to me and told me that she had persistently tried to contact me within the past 2 years but got nothing so I told her that that is not true because I never received phone calls or letters she said I had moved and changed my number and thats probably why I didn't get anything. But then when I told her that I had not moved for over 4 years until November of 2007 which is when I got married OR changed my phone number in over 6...she was quiet for a while and didn't say anything except "well, we won't press any charges unless you pay" and I said "ok...well, I can only pay $20 monthly...that is all I can do..." and she said "ok" so now I am on a payment plan with them...
My questions and my need of advice are the following:
- I recently started monitoring my credit and have found that they are reporting this debt as "derogatory" and it shows as "seriously past due/transferred to attorney" -- it doesn't show I am on a payment plan...nothing.. IS IT OK FOR THEM TO DO THAT?
I recently disputed it on both credit companies they reported it to and I got a letter from Grant & Weber stating that they would update me report to "account disputed by client" or something along those lines...but they never stated wether they were going to put on my credit report that I AM making payments.
- They've had this "debt" of mine since Jan of 2006 but yet took them 2 years to contact me -- a second time -- asking for me to pay. Is that legal for them to do that? I had no knowledge of where the University sent it to at the time AND when I called the University in Feb of 2006 asking if they could accept a payment or tell me where it got sent off to the woman I spoke to informed me that that debt was no longer theirs and that they didn't know where it was taken so I'd have to wait until the collections company notified me of it.
I find it incredibly hard to believe that the way this was dealt is in fact LEGAL and that there isn't anything I can do. They lowered my credit score A LOT because I don't have much credit and the little credit I have is hogged up by this stupid debt. I also have a car loan which I have always been current and never late, my student loans which I have never been late, and a credit card which I have never missed a payment and it's currently with a $0 balance...and I barely use it if ever.
So I would appreciate any advice on this matter.
Thanks again,
Juliana
**I changed the name of the lady for privacy purposes**
My name is Juli. The reason why I am writing is because back in September of 2005 I was enrolled at a Univeristy (online) in San Francisco, CA and I had applied for Financial Aid for the Fall Semester but for some reason something happened where I don't think my application fully went through or hey never received it and I was not notified of it. Well, what happened was that when I dropped out in October, a month later I received a letter from the University saying that I owed them $1300 and if it wasn't paid by Dec 29, 2005 it would be sent over to collections. I called them, and I even cried at one point because nor my mom or I had the money -- at the time I was 19 going on 20 and I didn't have a full time job I still lived at home -- I informed the school of this and asked if they would be able to put me on a payment plan or something. They said "NO there is absolutely nothing that we can do, you either pay this or I guess you're out of luck and it will go to collections" yes I am quoting the VERY rude woman who I spoke with in November... I found it very unfair that I barely had 2 months to pay this back and I had even told them my situation multiple times.
Well, December 29th came and I called that day asking if there was at least something that they could do (yes, I asked the same question again) and I was told NO you either pay or it goes to collections. I went into a state of depression soon after that because this was going to be the first negative thing on my credit report. I wasn't contacted by the Collections Agency until lat March 2006 saying that they needed me to start paying and if not they would keep reporting to the Credit Bureau...Apparently they started reporting them since either January or February and mind you I had NO idea where the debt went or with what company. At the time when I speaking to the woman I specifically told her "I am driving right now, I have no pen or paper and I am not at a stop light can we please hang up and you call me right back and leave a voicemail with your name, number, company name, and how much my balance is?" She said "oh of course" so we hung up and she never returned the call. I went back into my phone and looked to see the caller ID but the call came in as "PRIVATE" so now I had no way of getting a hold of her, knowing the company, or my balance (I knew it was 1300 but I didn't know if they had already started charging interest...which Im sure they probably had)
I NEVER heard back again from them until either late JAN or early FEB of....2008!!! Yes, it wasn't until exactly 2 years after this started that I got contacted again...by then my balance was already well $1500...and this time I didn't get contacted by phone, I got contacted by a letter from their ATTORNEYS which if I remember correctly were part of Grant & Weber. I know I have the letter filed, I will find it and post it if anyone needs it to further give me more advise. Pretty much after I read it I was under the impression that I was going to be sued by them if I didn't pay because they had tried "SEVERAL TIMES" to contact me by phone and mail and I had purposely not replied back. 1. that is a lie because like I said I was never contacted except for that one time in 2006 2. I have lived at the same address since before that debt went to collections 3. I've had the same phone number since before I started College
When I called **"Linda"** who I later found out was the SAME lady who I had spoken to 2 years earlier. She was INCREDIBLY rude to me and told me that she had persistently tried to contact me within the past 2 years but got nothing so I told her that that is not true because I never received phone calls or letters she said I had moved and changed my number and thats probably why I didn't get anything. But then when I told her that I had not moved for over 4 years until November of 2007 which is when I got married OR changed my phone number in over 6...she was quiet for a while and didn't say anything except "well, we won't press any charges unless you pay" and I said "ok...well, I can only pay $20 monthly...that is all I can do..." and she said "ok" so now I am on a payment plan with them...
My questions and my need of advice are the following:
- I recently started monitoring my credit and have found that they are reporting this debt as "derogatory" and it shows as "seriously past due/transferred to attorney" -- it doesn't show I am on a payment plan...nothing.. IS IT OK FOR THEM TO DO THAT?
I recently disputed it on both credit companies they reported it to and I got a letter from Grant & Weber stating that they would update me report to "account disputed by client" or something along those lines...but they never stated wether they were going to put on my credit report that I AM making payments.
- They've had this "debt" of mine since Jan of 2006 but yet took them 2 years to contact me -- a second time -- asking for me to pay. Is that legal for them to do that? I had no knowledge of where the University sent it to at the time AND when I called the University in Feb of 2006 asking if they could accept a payment or tell me where it got sent off to the woman I spoke to informed me that that debt was no longer theirs and that they didn't know where it was taken so I'd have to wait until the collections company notified me of it.
I find it incredibly hard to believe that the way this was dealt is in fact LEGAL and that there isn't anything I can do. They lowered my credit score A LOT because I don't have much credit and the little credit I have is hogged up by this stupid debt. I also have a car loan which I have always been current and never late, my student loans which I have never been late, and a credit card which I have never missed a payment and it's currently with a $0 balance...and I barely use it if ever.
So I would appreciate any advice on this matter.
Thanks again,
Juliana
**I changed the name of the lady for privacy purposes**