Job Discussion Forums

[ipswich]

So I've been living abroad teaching English for about 4 years now. I originally went abroad after being pissed that Bush won twice and watching the economy in my city turn from bad to worse. Anyway, I've been doing alright, not fabulous or anything. I was making payments on my loans and stacking a little money for a rainy day, perhaps an online MA or some such thing in the future. Well, I didn't go home for the first 2 years as I only got 10 days off a year and the ticket to fly home was like $1400 at the time... I'm not a big fan of paying $140 a day to sleep on people's couches. I digress, apparently one of my student loans, the BIG one which I had paid down from $32,000 to $25,000 was sold from Wachovia to ASA.

Wachovia had been sending me emails semi-regularly keeping me abreast of my balance and just in general being a good bank. Once the account went to ASA I didn't hear from anyone. I have another set of loans, for much less, with Great Lakes which has been emailing me and I've been paying them semi-regularly, wiring them money when the exchange rate isn't absolute rubbish (as it has been most of the year, I've lost easily 25% of my income in $US). From the Great Lakes website I was able to check the balance of my other loans and saw no increase in the balance, in fact I assumed that Great Lakes had become the new owner of the larger loan because I could see it on their website.

What a mistake that was. I now work at a university over here and get nice holidays so I have been going home to see my family during the past two summers. My mom is my power of attorney and all of my mail gets sent to her place. Anyway, I go home this summer and she hands me this stack of unopened mail. I sit down and piece it together that my loan had gone into default (2 years ago) and that I now owe another $7000 and it's gaining interest daily. I call the new loan holder (ASA) and ask why they didn't email me when they got the account. I ask why didn't you get my contact information from Wachovia along with the account. They told me that they have a strict no email policy or whatever. For the love of God I am thinking, what year is this? You just screwed me in the butt to the tune of $7000 and you are trying to evade the point by saying you don't email people!?

After talking with some rude and unsympathetic woman who immediately asked me for $15000 (!) to bring the account current. I tacitly agree to resume payments as soon as I return to Korea. She wouldn't even email the swift code for their bank! Then I had to spell out my Korean address for her, again because she wouldn't communicate via email... it took 20 minutes.

I have friends over here who are trying to tell me I should sue them or at least find some other US citizens with student loans and organize a class action suit. This just seems to convenient for them. a great way to recoup their losses from the bailout? I really, seriously doubt that I will ever live in the US again. Considering this, what would you do, would you pay it knowing that you'll probably never reside within the US again?

Immediately after news of the bailouts reached me in Korea I told myself and my friends that they (the banks in the US, the government, etc.) can go to hell... they can track me down in some 3rd world country. This situation with my loan was just the icing on the cake, the straw that broke the camel's back, etc. I mean, come ON!!!! No email!!!! I could have paid the *beep* if they had simply contacted me. It seems like they were being deliberately... sneaky, then demanding a payment of $15000 to boot... too much, too convenient.

A part of me wants to be mad at my mom but she doesn't know a credit card offer from a bill so, yeah. I still can't believe she hadn't opened my mail though. That's what someone with power of attorney does right?

[denise]

Wow, that's rough. I'm really sorry to hear that you're in such a bad situation. I've also got my mail going to my parents' house, but my mom emails me whenever anything important-looking arrives and asks me what to do with it. I've told her that she's free to open anything and everything, but still she checks first.

My bank, Washington Mutual, was bought out by Chase, and I don't recall ever getting word--I just found out one morning when I logged on to yahoo and saw the big headline that WaMu had gone under. It's a different situation than yours because my students loans aren't with them (they're with nelnet, who've been great), but still, they didn't contact me either. And on a side note, my purse and all of its contents were stolen in the US just a couple of weeks ago, and trying to get a new ATM card sent to me took some work because at first neither WaMu nor Chase could find my file--even with my social security number! I was stuck in some sort of bank limbo. Mergers, mergers... they have a tendency to screw over the customers.

There's another thread around here somewhere--don't remember the name or which forum it's in, but maybe somebody else here does--about debts, defaulting, etc. Take a look at it and see if it can help you at all.

d

[Teatime of Soul]

Just tell them you are waiting for your share of TARP bailout fund and will send them some of the countless billions due your way.

Some banks work a scam. They sell more loans than they can service. If it is a federally guaranteed student loan, and they can find a way to declare it in default, they get all the cash immediately from the feds.

Florida Federal did this in the early 90's. Top guys went to prison after slamming over 20,000 loans into default by ignoring student calls and letters.

And those were the days when banks were marginally regulated.

A very wise man once said, "If you owe the bank 5,000 and can't pay, you have a problem. If you owe the bank 50 million and can't pay, the bank hs a problem.

You should have borrowed a lot more.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

My heart bleeds for Wachovia. Like I told them in '93, no receipts, no more money being thrown down a black hole. In response to their threats of my loans being placed in default, my wags being garnished, and my tax-rebates being seized...guess what, I continued being an ex-pat teacher and they haven't touched a penny of my assets.

I live a better life teaching abroad than I ever would have slaveing away in the US and don't have to consider the fact that if I paid taxes, I would be supporting a war that I totally disagree with.

Lessee now, it's 2009 and who's solvent...Wachovia or me. Hmmm... I get a lump in my throat every time I think about Wells Fargo buying them out!

NCTBA

[leez]

[Glenski]

If your mom has power of attorney, why didn't she open the mail that was obviously important to your finances? I really don't see that anyone is forced these days to use email when the Post Office is still around. Postal mail contact first, telephone contact second if possible.

Trying to sue when you didn't even open your mail after all that time (2 years??!!) is not going to gain you any support in a court of law.