[biocellguy]

My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Massachusetts

A friend of mine has student loans from Sallie Mae and pays it electronically monthly. It turns out there was an additional 0 added to his payment so instead of taking $5,000 from his account, they took $50,000 thereby wiping out his lifesavings except for a few thousand (and except for 401K). He contacted Sallie Mae the day he noticed it was taken out of his account (less than a week after submitting the electronic payment). He requested to have this corrected thereby placing $45,000 back into his account and raising his loan back that same amount. They told him that it was processed and it was too late. I have been looking for rules and regulation to no avail. Is there no recourse? He now will have to live paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth.

[aaron]

"It turns out there was an additional 0 added to his payment...."

How, precisely, did that extra zero get added?

[biocellguy]

How, precisely, did that extra zero get added?

From what I gather, he mistyped when he was filling out the online payment form.

[ashman165]

From what I gather, he mistyped when he was filling out the online payment form.

Oh, so your argument is that your friend went to Sallie Mae and paid them $50,000 and then regretted it. Unfortunately, I'm not quite certain of how the fat finger defense will hold up in court. He entered in transaction wherein he remitted the bulk of his debt (I presume?) to the lender. Now, he can rest peacefully at night knowing that debt no longer hangs over his head and he's helped strengthen the economy by offering up some liquidity to it instead of hording that money.

They didn't "take" anything from his account; he gave them the money. Of his own free will. If the company doesn't accept his "I can't tell 5,000 from 50,000 apart" bit, then there isn't a great deal he can do.

[525601minutes]

Did he owe Sallie Mae $50,000+ ?

If not, then he can certainly get back the overpayment in excess of the owed total.