Re: Bank account question

Posted by Boadicea (66.149.179.202) on August 03, 2004 at 01:10:52:

In Reply to: Re: Bank account question posted by ginger on August 03, 2004 at 00:54:32:

No, you do *not* have to work with the CA. The reason I know this is because several years ago I had several defaulted loans that I consolidated WHILE the CA's had them.

You fill out the Direct consolidation forms, accept the Income Contingent Repayment Plan Consent to Disclosure form, and mail both in with a "reasonable" payment. They will consolidate the loans (not counting the ridiculous interest added by the CA), add some collection fees (max is 18%) and then recalculate your new loan payments based on your income. You pay the income contingent plan for three months, then you are free to change it to any of the other payment plans as you see fit. You can find the forms and instructions here:
http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/forms.shtml

But don't get caught up in the verbiage of the instructions. They're a bit confusing, but I can almost promise you that the Dept of Ed won't turn you down, even if it's only one loan. They want that money and are willing to give you a new loan rather than see it go uncollected (or collected in bits and pieces).

By the way, if you pay the CA $7000, they will just sell the balance to another CA and you'll go through this all over again.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. If I had known how easy it was, and how little I actually had to pay, I would have done it sooner. But I ended up paying someone $150 for information that was free to the public on the Dept. of Ed's site. You just need to be able to decipher it, and I was in too much of a panic to figure my way out of a paper bag.

Good luck! You have have some piece in as little as a month. Tell the CA's to go fish.

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