I don’t know how the new school can give you federal aid without your former school transcript.
@kelsmom what do you say?
You want to move on with your life, but if you are attending college then you can’t work fulltime, and it will take you longer to pay this debt off.
You are the one who waited six years to address this debt which is causing trouble for you. You could have worked and tried to pay it off by now.
If the school accepts OP and allows her to enroll as a degree-seeking student (not as a guest student), she may be able to get financial aid. Most likely, though, the enrollment is not going to be considered degree-seeking without the transcript. Every school is different, though. The only way to know is to ask the school.
OP- you aren’t enrolling in a for-profit school, are you?
That’s an entirely new can of worms.
But I’m concerned- you reference “I took some classes at a different college”- so you are actually now in your third college, not your second?
Can you do us all a favor and outline for us everything you’ve done academically and financially since you graduated from HS? I’m worried you may not be fully aware of everything you owe and it could become an even bigger problem than you think.
Go semester by semester since HS graduation- you can refer to them as College A, College B, etc. Let us know what classes you took and how you paid for them. We can help you (I hope) but need the full picture.
Wait. Have you been working full time since 2011? What have you been doing? You probably need to pause and work for two years to just focus on this debt.
I’d check with whoever’s holding the debt for the status. Interest accumulated for several years, but now it’s not accumulating any? I’d want that in writing.
Yes, you should definitely get that in writing from the collection agency. I would be shocked if they weren’t adding collection fees.
Ok so here’s the timeline:
-graduated June 2011
-went to college A from fall '11 to spring '12 took like 5 gen ed classes and everything else was music classes
-out of school fall '12 (cause of the unpaid balance-no loans just a balance with the school)
-started over at community college B spring '13 on the pell grant with no balance. Took college eng and math, Spanish and a computer class
-out school since then because the debt collectors from college A called me and told me if I go to any other school and get financial aid I would have to pay that money back (which was a lie). The only time I would have to pay a grant back is if I took out a loan and didn’t repay it. I never took out any loans
-I’m enrolled now in community college C because the transcripts from college B came through which covers my basic gen ed courses.
As far as not working full time I’m looking into some debt consolidation loan companies to see about getting the loan from them to pay off college A to get my transcripts from them sooner.
whew that was a lot lol
And I’m definitely going to get that in writing! Thank you.
@03LadyPink03 You could have had the debt paid off by now. I’m confused. You were not working?
It is my understanding that technically, you should not have been allowed to enroll as a degree candidate anywhere without the transcripts from A. In order to graduate with a degree from your CC, they are obligated to have all previous transcripts on file. If that policy is different for your CC, then get it in writing. You do not want to face problems in the future about the validity of your degree from college C.
Not sure how one can consolidate a single loan. Perhaps you are refinancing it? But with bad credit and marginal employment you are unlikely to get a favorable rate from the next institution “vying” for your unpaid loan. You mentioned “getting on with life” - that entails resolving past responsibilities, i.e. working to pay off the loan.
If you do refinance your loan and if you are lucky enough to find favorable terms (have someone who knows money review anything you do at this point), you still need to make those payments realizing that minimum payments might be structured such that your balance keeps increasing. So you need a job to make solid payments that reduce theprinciple in a reasonable time frame in order to truly move forward.
You said you got the Pell grant at school B and C, so on the FAFSA you are asked which year in school you are. Did you answer sophomore at school B (30 credits), and C (45 credits)? And they didn’t ask for transcripts?
You knew you had the balance at the first school, and you did not try and take out loans to cover it, or set up a payment plan when you left there, rather you waited until it went to collections to do something about it.
Only when they contacted you, you stopped going to school.
It also seems you changed majors from music, to engineering, and now back to music?
So do you expect to keep going to school, and get funding from the government, and not have to contribute in any way by working, and paying your debts?
There are no shortcuts, lots of people have to work hard. My kids have been working part time or in the summer, and earned $3,000-$4,000. You could have paid this off or put a sizeable dent in it by now.
I think it would be best for you to take a break from school, work, take care of your debt, and then make a plan on how to get a degree in the shortest time possible, taking into account the classes you have completed by now.
The student loans you could have taken out probably had much lower interest rates than what you can get out there from a private entity, with bad credit and insufficient income.
What does getting a loan to repay the $22k you owe have to do with getting a job? You need to start paying something toward that debt (enough to eat into the principal) every month or you’ll still be repaying it when you’re 50.
@gearmom that is true but I have not had consistent work. That part of my life is very complicated but that’s a whole different story for a whole different chat lol I’m getting my self in position now to have consistent work.
@happymomof1 I will have both of my transcripts before I graduate from college C. It’s only the first semester that I won’t have them because of the balance that I’m working on paying off to get my transcripts from college A.
@WISdad23 I’m not consolidating a single loan because I never got a loan to go to school. I’m doing my research (and seeking council from people who know more about this than I do) to consolidate my debts (yes i have more than one debt: don’t judge me lol) and get a loan to pay them off. That allows me to get my transcript from college A. Then I’ll make the monthly payments to pay off the loan. I’m starting a job very soon that will pay me well over minimum wage. I’ll have it paid off within a year, two tops.
I love this chat! You all have asked some very challenging questions and gave some very helpful advice! Thank you all for your feedback. It’s all been positive, challenging, and helpful
@mommdc and @austinmshauri I’m just now seeing your messages… I can’t remember what I put on the fafsa for college B but for college C I put sophomore because I know I’ll have my transcripts from college A before I graduate. Also I never changes majors.
When I was younger I was so afraid of getting loans because my mom was SO against it. At that time she was the one pretty much doing everything for me. Now that I’ve matured and learned more about how loans work I’m putting on my big girl panties and taking full responsibility for my debts and working towards a resolution.
What happened in the past is now in the past. No matter how bad i want to I can’t change a thing about what I did or didn’t do at that time or how I shoulda coulda woulda handled the situation. (I can just hear that song “I wish that I knew all that I know now, when I was younger” that’s just the music lover in me lol).
However, I’ve taken my L’s and learned from them. I’m doing what I can NOW to move forward to a better future. I’m also warning others about the mistakes I’ve made so that they don’t fall into the same troubles that I did.
Thanks again for all of your feedback. I think I’ve gotten all the answers I need now
Rather than getting a loan to consolidate your debt, you may want to consider making an appointment with a non-profit consumer credit & debt counseling organization like Greenpath (http://www.greenpath.com/)? I am not talking about the shady guys who advertise on late-night tv … be sure to read the information provided by the Federal Trade Commission: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0153-choosing-credit-counselor. Also, this is a really good link: https://www.justice.gov/ust/credit-counseling-debtor-education-information . From there, you can link to a list of approved credit counseling agencies, which are listed by state.
@kelsmom thank you! I’ll look into that as well
Lady, nobody is judging you. We are trying to help.
You can state “what happened in the past is the past” all you want. But I suspect you have never actually sat down with a debt table which shows you how much you need to pay every month and for how long until you have discharged your debt (both the ed loans as well as the mysterious “other debts”.)
Do that. Tomorrow. Get a copy from the collection agency of exactly what you owe. You can go online and punch in the relevant numbers- what you borrowed, the fees and interest which are accruing- and print out the table which shows you exactly what you need to be paying every month. If you pay a little less, it will take longer for you to pay off the loan. If you pay a little more, it will take you less time.
It takes a very, very disciplined person to pay off this type of loan in a year or two. Often that means that every single extra penny you earn is going to service your loan. And no backtracking- you can’t take off a month in February because your boss cut back your hours; you can’t go on vacation in June and figure “I’ll make up the time in August”. Paying back a loan is pretty painful especially if you don’t have a handle on exactly what you owe.
I haven’t said anything about the past. I suggested that you get a job – now – so you can start repaying your debt – now – not at some distant point in the future. The longer you keep kicking the debt down the road the longer it will take you to repay it.