[ambchatt]

My husband took out private student loans from the Univ of Tennesee during 95-99 through a primary healthcare loan. The loan had a grace period of a year during which the univ turned the loan over to a collection agency. The university stated they sent 2 letters which were returned because he had moved. collction agency found him a month after receiving the account. the loans totaled for $14000 with a 5% apr for students who didn't finish their studies. We've paid off about $13000 since 2001. They say we still owe almost $15000. There are some problems. First of all, my husband never ever received a payment book. We received phone calls monthly to collect payments from the collection agency. If we demanded a bill we never got one to show where the payements were applied to i.e. interest, late payment fees, collection agency. We got a bill with a balance only. We tried to talk to the collection agency who said we could not answer how the numbers were derived and could not print a comprehensible statement. The univ. dodged my husband's calls and finally said the loans were in the collection agency hands and to negotiate with them. The collection agency stated the accounts were up to the univ. Finally my husband called the federal primary health care loan agency. Even though it was a private loan, they consulted the school once we faxed them the promissary note and got the school to take the loan back. Howerver, in six years we still have no accounting for the current balance or where or how past payments were applied. Now, they are trying to send a new promissary note saying that we have renegotiated and agreed to a certain amount, which they haven't truly proven what we owed and still won't send a leger of old payments and balance adjustments. And an ultimate slap in the face, we get a by-the-way letter 3 days ago which stated due to auditing the univ's account they found a bridge loan from 4/99 which has never been repaid. Can't an honest person that is trying to pay a bill get an honest accounting of the bill owed. Isn't a bill the least courtesy of a loan collector to a debtor?

[Mr. Knowitall]

You don't have to agree to anything, although in the absence of agreement they can choose to sue you. So you can insist on an accounting now as a condition of signing a new note, or you can wait to see if they sue you and then demand an accounting as part of that lawsuit.