It’s been some time since I’ve been here. D graduated and has been successfully launched. I thought anything pertaining to college would just be spreading some wisdom. Then I simply left CC because I really had anything more to say. That was until yesterday when my husband and I received a voice message regarding one of my siblings. Thinking this was a scam, I immediately called my sibling who assured me they were okay. Later, however, I did a search of the name of company and apparently they’re in the business of collecting student loan debt.
FTR, I have no student loan debt. My husband has no student loan debt. Our recently graduated D has no student loan debt. We have a clean credit record and a high credit score. We also have not co-signed for loans for any of our siblings, we didn’t even take out a loan for our own daughter! Many years ago, when my sibling first attended college, my parents paid for their tuition but that was taken care of ages ago. However, I do know my sibling has taken courses for a masters degree so it wouldn’t surprise me if this is in regards to that. But I really don’t know, because, again neither I nor my husband co-signed for any loans for said sibling and we’re not in the business of asking adults about their personal finances. Anyway, the company called again and this time I answered. They told me they were looking for my sibling in regards to a “matter”. I told them since this matter had nothing to do with me, stop calling my house or else I would contact the attorney general. The person on the other end gave it one last try to find out how to locate my sibling but finally gave up. She said she was sorry for calling and hung up.
But has it come to this? Are companies now hunting down relatives/friends of people about debt that has nothing to do with them? How can these people get away with calling other family members and friends to ask them about information on how to find somebody who owes them money? My sibling and I no longer even share the same last name and still they found me! After making sure my own kid didn’t have student loan debt, I’m getting phone calls asking about siblings! I did inform my sibling these people were looking for them and they thanked me.
So be aware people, apparently it’s possible that even if you do stay far, far away from student debt for your own family, debt collectors can call asking to find relatives/friends whose finances you know nothing about.
QLM
(I have no idea where that smiley face came from).
Did they use you as a reference on the loan? Sometimes there is a place on applications for references. That could be the only way they would know about you and the relationship. I would ask your sibling - though they may not even remember.
If the loan (if it even exists) has been sold to debt collectors, they could be using online resources–you know, the pages which show up if you search for a former classmate? Some of them list people “associated with” the person you’re searching for.
Tperry1982 - if my sibling used me as a reference, I knew nothing about it. Somehow I doubt if they did because they know how I am LOL. More than likely it was one of those Internet searches, it’s amazing how they can connect the dots with people.
Periwinkle - the company that called is legit and really does collect outstanding student loans. Plus, when I send my sibling a text stating someone had contacted me looking for them on a “matter”, my sibling didn’t text back What! Who are these people? I got a simple “thank you” in reply which leads me to believe they know what the story is.
I just find it rather strange that after reading stories of students and student loan debt and parents and student loan debt, here’s another twist - family members and friends being called about student loan debt they know nothing about!
When you get credit, whether its a car loan, furniture, student loan or a mortgage, they usually ask you to list the names and contact information for a few people that are not part of your household. I got a similar call once regarding a sibling’s car payment. You are under no obligation to give them any information. I just told the caller I would pass on the information and let it go.
I should add that I’m the only sibling who still retains their landline phone number; the rest have moved on to cells. That’s probably why the company was able to link and call me but not find my sibling. I’m afraid these people might try contacting our parents next, something I plan on telling my sibling. Even though this company isn’t demanding money and did end the phone call, it’s annoying to be bothered about a bill, loan, whatever, that has nothing to do with you.
This is exactly what I am talking about. My brother listed me on a vocational school loan. When they called looking for him, I said I didn’t know where he was and for them not to call me again. Of course I knew how to contact him, I was not telling them that.
This is nothing new. In fact, recent consumer regulations have cut down quite bit on the skip tracing methods. The fair debt collections practices act sets the hours and number of calls.
You really have no idea the lengths debt collectors used to go to find people - contacting schools, former neighbors, relatives, employers.
You’ve asked them not to call you, and they must honor that. If they call again, ask for the name, remind them they have been told not to call, and hang up. Keep a log. One or two calls isn’t going to be deemed bothering you, but 20 might.
When you apply for a student loan, there is a request for contacts. It’s not a reference or cosign or guarantor sort of thing. Just someone that the lenders to reach in the event they lose track of you and cannot reach you. They request two names, phone numbers and addresses. Hopefully that is all that is.
Sallie Mae is not handling loans now and the handler is now Navient, so there have been some change and required notifications. If something did not get checked off the list as contact achieved, there would secondary contacts made to locate the lender.
You can check your credit report and make sure you are not an cosigner unbeknownst. But if they were not informing you that YOU owe anything, then you were just listed as a contact. Your sibling should have told you that you were so listed, but since there was no monetary obligation on your part, it just might not have been done at the time.
I don’t think the company hunted you down for the contact but that you were so listed.
I’ve heard of these companies calling neighbors and even anyone with a similar last name asking how to reach a certain person. Also, as goblue says, with any loan they will ask for an 'emergency contact". Another thing that can happen is that certain companies will call the initial borrower long after a loan has been paid off or discharged and demand payment for uncollected debt. Sometimes it’s even past the longest allowed time to collect a debt! There is plenty of information about this online-it’s not new and it’s not only student loans. Many people unfamiliar with these practices end up paying debts that they no longer owe just to stop these callers.
I thought it was illegal to call neighbors or random last names that might match, but I’m not sure. D has a phone number that used to belong to someone else and still gets calls for him by people demanding she tell them where he is more than 3 years since she’s had the number. The collection people can be very unscrupulous.
Credit report/score is fine. Company didn’t ask for money, if they had I would be asking this question from a jail cell LOL. Sibling probably did put me down as reference and has now forgotten all about it. Glad to know I’m not being hunted down!!!
Nothing new under the sun. Two decades ago, when my husband and I didn’t always have money to pay his student loans in a timely fashion, the collectors called MY parents. I didn’t even know my husband when he took out his loans. No way my parents or I could have been on the paperwork. My memory is foggy but I know we eventually had a theory of how the collectors got their number. I think it had to do with phone calls I was making to their home, but I’m not sure.
We have been on financially sound footing for many years. As a result of our experiences, we no longer believe in debt, particularly for undergraduate school. About once a month or so, we get what we assume are bill collection calls for various relatives. Student loans, medical debt (mostly), and assorted other debts. I always tell the collectors that they have the wrong number - which they do since they always ask for the debtor - and then I hang up on them. If they’re hoping to embarrass our relatives by calling us, the now financially responsible relatives, they’re barking up the wrong tree. As far as I know, everybody pays eventually, if not on the original timetable, but we never mention the calls to the relatives.
You told your sibling, who now has the obligation to call the the loan company and check out the situation. Student loans are not something to hide from as they keep right on churning upwards with interest and if govt backed as most are, there are a lot of special rules regarding them.
Debt collectors have special incentives to behave illegally so it’s definitely good to treat them firmly. If you know that you have nothing outstanding that they are entitled to inquire about, I wouldn’t lead them on at all. Most of them are probably honest and trustworthy, but God help you if you get the few who aren’t.
Years ago I had a debt collector call my house looking for someone with the same last name. I suppose they were hoping they were related to us. They didn’t believe me when I told them I did not know the person they were looking for. They kept asking if I were sure I didn’t know her.
My mom used to get calls for a neighbor across the street- the debt collector asked her to walk across the street and give them a phone message to call them. Uh no.
I used to get phone calls for someone who had the number before me. It took me forever to convince ‘Mr. Hall’ that we hadn’t been roommates, that the person had never lived at my address (I was the first person to ever live in that apartment), that the phone company just randomly reassigned the number to me when the deadbeat was done with it! Long before the do-not-call lists. I came home to an answering machine message from this company every day for about a year.
Another time the person they were looking for had lived in my apartment and they’d done a reverse phone/address check. I spent a long time talking to the cop (he said he was a cop and I believed him) and gave him the info that I had (I got a lot of her old mail).
Spoke with sibling who stated they had no student loans, not even for current studies which job pays for. However, sibling suddenly had flashbacks to their college days and another student who had the same name. Difference was sibling always used formal name legally while other person used the common nickname. The person who called me used the nickname, which I do remember striking me as odd. Sibling said during college days, information was always mixed up between the two with sibling receiving calls about person’s debt way back then. Sibling added college still had information mixed in for other student when they send transcripts for masters. My parents always said that college’s administrative offices were a mess. I strongly advised sibling to call the debt collector as well as old college and get things straightened out once and for all. Sibling agreed to do so.
Whoa. What a mess. Glad she figured it out!! But do hold onto any loan repayment forms. Some scummy collection companies have been known to claim a student debt is still due, and if you cannot prove its been paid, they are apparently merciless. I still have my repayment notes from grad school, paid off in around 1991. Ya nevah know…
There are also false debt collectors who try to harass people into paying debts that don’t exist.
Also, even legitimate debt collectors are used to calling real deadbeats who will use every possible excuse / lie on them, so they may not believe you if you truthfully tell them that you are not the deadbeat and do not know the deadbeat (real deadbeats probably lie and say the same thing all the time).
With respect to similar names, the credit reporting companies (the ones on https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action ) often do combine the credit records of two people who have similar names, even if they should be obviously different. The sibling should check her credit reports to make sure that the deadbeat’s information is not commingled with her information.