I posted on here a while back about my student loans with Nelnet, so I'll re-cap first:
-I have a decent trustee who is allowing me to pay my $375.25 student loan payment while in CH 13. It was included in my budget and is being paid outside the plan. Have been 100% on-time with these payments since I filed (and always on time prior to filing as well).
-Nelnet allowed me to pay on-line through the end of November, but I noticed that they were showing "past due" on my payments, even though the electronic bank transfer had been made, for my Sept and Oct payments. Called Nelnet, they agreed they got the $, but said since I filed CH 13, they weren't going to apply the payments until the BK closed, which won't be for another 5 years! I asked if interest would accrue on the entire principal, or on the principal minus the payments, and she indicated that I'd be accruing interest on the balance from the day the BK was filed. I asked why I should bother sending payments then, she had no answer. I asked to be transfered to someone who specializes in BK, she said she couldn't because she only knew how to contact them by inter-office e-mail, not by phone! I hung up in frustration.
-Went back to website a few days later to show husband (we have a joint consolidation loan) that Nelnet wasn't applying the payments, but Nelnet had cancelled our web-access to the account, apparently right after I called and expressed my displeasure at the idea that I'd be making payments that wouldn't be applied until 5 years later (while they earned interest on the $ and at the same time kept charging me interest on the full balance). Husband called Nelnet, but now they told him they were applying the payments to the account, to just keep sending payments, but that they couldn't send us payment coupons or statements because that would be violating the automtic stay of the CH 13. Had no explaination for why we couldn't get access on-line anymore, made it sound like we were just entering our password incorrectly or something. So we made the December payment by check (since they cancelled on-line access that we used to use for bill-pay), they cashed it on the 9th of January. I didn't know whether to trust them that they were applying the payments to the balance or just holding the money in a separate account, but no real way to assess what they were doing either since we were getting conflicting info from them and could no longer look at our account info.
-Fast forward to today, when I decided to call Nelnet to find out how much interest we had paid last year since that was the only piece of tax info we are missing at the moment to file. They tell me we defaulted on the loan (we never missed a payment!) and that the Guarenteeor paid the entire amount (51K) and that I needed to contact them for any loan information, as my student loan debt is now owned by Education Credit Management Corporation. I aksed when ECMC paid Nelnet my balance, they said mid-December, yet they cashed my check in January. When I pointed that out, they said they forwarded the payment to ECMC, but at no point did Nelnet or ECMC tell me what was going on, so if I hadn't called today to get my tax info, I'd still be in the dark about this.
Anyhow, so I called ECMC, and they told me that as long as I was in CH 13, they'd consider any payments to them as "voluntary" and that they couldn't send me a coupon book or try to collect, that it was up to me to remember to pay, but that it'd be in my best interest to keep paying so my loan doesn't balloon up while in CH 13. And they are going to report my student loan as defaulted until after I get out of CH 13, at which point I can redeem the loan (I guess they'll remove the default status marking after I make 12 payments on-time). They aren't going to count any of the payments I make for the next 5 years as part of those on-time payments though, so won't remove the default off the credit report until a year after I get out of CH 13, even though I've never made a late payment on my student loans ever!
I'm so frustrated by all of this sometimes, and I still have 55 months to go! I try to do the right thing, I've never made late payments on anything other than the credit cards, and that was only for the couple months between when I decided to file and when I did file, and now the student loans are putting a derogatory report on me when I never missed or was even late on them. Sorry, just needed to vent! I know I should be counting my blessings that my trustee will even allow these payments as part of my budget, that my interest rate on the student loans is still fixed at 5.75% (I asked), etc. Oh well... I guess what makes me mad is that they will report the default for 7 years, so if I don't go through their redemption procedure (I'm not sure what all it involves other than the 12 on-time payments, they said I couldn't even apply for it it until my BK is discharged so didn't give me all the terms) I will have that black mark on my credit for 7 years from the date of the discharge, so my CH 13 could potentially be killing my credit for 12 years instead of 7 since it caused the default!
-I have a decent trustee who is allowing me to pay my $375.25 student loan payment while in CH 13. It was included in my budget and is being paid outside the plan. Have been 100% on-time with these payments since I filed (and always on time prior to filing as well).
-Nelnet allowed me to pay on-line through the end of November, but I noticed that they were showing "past due" on my payments, even though the electronic bank transfer had been made, for my Sept and Oct payments. Called Nelnet, they agreed they got the $, but said since I filed CH 13, they weren't going to apply the payments until the BK closed, which won't be for another 5 years! I asked if interest would accrue on the entire principal, or on the principal minus the payments, and she indicated that I'd be accruing interest on the balance from the day the BK was filed. I asked why I should bother sending payments then, she had no answer. I asked to be transfered to someone who specializes in BK, she said she couldn't because she only knew how to contact them by inter-office e-mail, not by phone! I hung up in frustration.
-Went back to website a few days later to show husband (we have a joint consolidation loan) that Nelnet wasn't applying the payments, but Nelnet had cancelled our web-access to the account, apparently right after I called and expressed my displeasure at the idea that I'd be making payments that wouldn't be applied until 5 years later (while they earned interest on the $ and at the same time kept charging me interest on the full balance). Husband called Nelnet, but now they told him they were applying the payments to the account, to just keep sending payments, but that they couldn't send us payment coupons or statements because that would be violating the automtic stay of the CH 13. Had no explaination for why we couldn't get access on-line anymore, made it sound like we were just entering our password incorrectly or something. So we made the December payment by check (since they cancelled on-line access that we used to use for bill-pay), they cashed it on the 9th of January. I didn't know whether to trust them that they were applying the payments to the balance or just holding the money in a separate account, but no real way to assess what they were doing either since we were getting conflicting info from them and could no longer look at our account info.
-Fast forward to today, when I decided to call Nelnet to find out how much interest we had paid last year since that was the only piece of tax info we are missing at the moment to file. They tell me we defaulted on the loan (we never missed a payment!) and that the Guarenteeor paid the entire amount (51K) and that I needed to contact them for any loan information, as my student loan debt is now owned by Education Credit Management Corporation. I aksed when ECMC paid Nelnet my balance, they said mid-December, yet they cashed my check in January. When I pointed that out, they said they forwarded the payment to ECMC, but at no point did Nelnet or ECMC tell me what was going on, so if I hadn't called today to get my tax info, I'd still be in the dark about this.
Anyhow, so I called ECMC, and they told me that as long as I was in CH 13, they'd consider any payments to them as "voluntary" and that they couldn't send me a coupon book or try to collect, that it was up to me to remember to pay, but that it'd be in my best interest to keep paying so my loan doesn't balloon up while in CH 13. And they are going to report my student loan as defaulted until after I get out of CH 13, at which point I can redeem the loan (I guess they'll remove the default status marking after I make 12 payments on-time). They aren't going to count any of the payments I make for the next 5 years as part of those on-time payments though, so won't remove the default off the credit report until a year after I get out of CH 13, even though I've never made a late payment on my student loans ever!
I'm so frustrated by all of this sometimes, and I still have 55 months to go! I try to do the right thing, I've never made late payments on anything other than the credit cards, and that was only for the couple months between when I decided to file and when I did file, and now the student loans are putting a derogatory report on me when I never missed or was even late on them. Sorry, just needed to vent! I know I should be counting my blessings that my trustee will even allow these payments as part of my budget, that my interest rate on the student loans is still fixed at 5.75% (I asked), etc. Oh well... I guess what makes me mad is that they will report the default for 7 years, so if I don't go through their redemption procedure (I'm not sure what all it involves other than the 12 on-time payments, they said I couldn't even apply for it it until my BK is discharged so didn't give me all the terms) I will have that black mark on my credit for 7 years from the date of the discharge, so my CH 13 could potentially be killing my credit for 12 years instead of 7 since it caused the default!
Converted to asset case 5/26/2008 [X]
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