Digital Dave

Musings on projects, business and life.

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Feb 20, 2009

Ruined Credit… No Hope in Sight

You wouldn’t believe the kind of things that Megan has had to go through a few days ago and is still trying to deal with.

See, there is this mysterious school loan that was overlooked by the one who has been dealing with Megan’s finances while she was at college.  Fair enough, it was overlooked.  Shit happens.

(rough time scale since I’m just trying to recall, but close to being accurate)

6 months had passed after Megan graduated… Repayment of loans began.

15 months had passed after Megan graduated… Mysterious loan, defaulted, turned to creditors…

21 months had passed after Megan graduated… Megan receives a phone call from the creditors. A whole 6 months after they got it, and a whole ~14 months after the first payment was missed while it was at Kansas State University.

So now she has an extra +$1,100 of interest/fees tacked onto the loan.  She also has an obliterated credit history, raised car insurance, and a credit card heading in that direction, despite the fact that she has been rock solid on everything until now.

Oh, did I mention that the university changed who handled the loan midterm, and that could have easily jarred things up?  Oh, but they don’t care.

She’s immediately going to pay back the loan.  So that should help a ‘little’.

We need better consumer protection laws.  There is absolutely no reason why this has to be in the condition that it is.  This isn’t a simple, “Somebody running from bills.”  This is ruining someones entire life.  If you owe me money, you can bet I’m not going to wait years before I call you.

This is far from the first individual that this sort of thing has happened to.  A moment after I posted a tweet on Twitter, I had someone immediately tell me that they were in the same kind of situation.

I would not expect full immunity from the situation.  I would just expect that the other side would lend a hand and find a way to balance the issue. But everybody on the other side has a terrible attitude.

It is a sure fire way to kill alumni relationships.  The university needs money today due to hard times, evidently not in the future.  And this was an act by a university where I thought they absolutely cared about their student base… I guess it’s true. “Nobody cares about you. You just take care of yourself.”

And to think. I just referred somebody to this ‘awesome’ university… Guess it’s time to tell him that the military might be a better option after all.

Category: Life

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  • http://www.trazoi.net David Shaw

    Yikes. That’s a pretty crap situation to be in. I don’t know for sure, but I’d suspect in Australia we’d have someone to go to in situations like this; we’ve got a Banking Ombudsman for example to go to when financial institutions screw you over. I don’t know if the U.S. has the same. I’ve a feeling your consumer protections and regulations are quite as conprehensive as they are here.

    University administration almost ruined my life once, although it wasn’t anywhere as near as severe as this. They forgot to send me notice to pay a service fee at the start of the year; apparently two departments each thought it was the other one’s responsibility for my particular course. I clean forgot I had to pay this over the break, and the only reminder I got was the final demand, which arrived two weeks late, *on the day the bill was due*; penalty for not paying, get booted from university. That was not a pleasant day.

    But at least I caught it in time before the admin bungle did serious damage, and it wasn’t as if my credit rating was tanked because of it. Hope Megan’s able to recover and fix this.

  • http://www.trazoi.net David Shaw

    Yikes. That’s a pretty crap situation to be in. I don’t know for sure, but I’d suspect in Australia we’d have someone to go to in situations like this; we’ve got a Banking Ombudsman for example to go to when financial institutions screw you over. I don’t know if the U.S. has the same. I’ve a feeling your consumer protections and regulations are quite as conprehensive as they are here.

    University administration almost ruined my life once, although it wasn’t anywhere as near as severe as this. They forgot to send me notice to pay a service fee at the start of the year; apparently two departments each thought it was the other one’s responsibility for my particular course. I clean forgot I had to pay this over the break, and the only reminder I got was the final demand, which arrived two weeks late, *on the day the bill was due*; penalty for not paying, get booted from university. That was not a pleasant day.

    But at least I caught it in time before the admin bungle did serious damage, and it wasn’t as if my credit rating was tanked because of it. Hope Megan’s able to recover and fix this.

  • http://www.david-mcgraw.com david.mcgraw

    Wow, that sucks. I’m not aware of our regulations, which is a good reason why we need to find a good lawyer to help us.

  • http://www.david-mcgraw.com david.mcgraw

    Wow, that sucks. I’m not aware of our regulations, which is a good reason why we need to find a good lawyer to help us.

David McGraw

Founder of iGotIt Games. Trader. Runner. Warrior. Motivator.