Can Your School Make You Pay a Collection Agency Instead of Paying Directly
Hello,
I would like to state my horrifying story of dealing with my school. I started this specific school Jan,2012. I did recieve pell grant from Salli Mae too. Plus I was supposed to pay the school a certain amount of money per month. Due to different hardships of life at that time I could not pay the school.From day one when I asked the finance person of the school, that what would happen if i could not pay the school till the last day, he said that nothing would happen--- you just would not get the diploma paper, we would release it to you when you pay us in full. I thought that was a nice deal and was expecting to pay them something in lumsum towards the end. On the last day of the school few of the students who has not paid the school, were told that their account would be transferred to a collection agency. Within 4 days of graduating from the school, i got my first letter from the collection agency.
I contacted the school and the finance guy told me --- do not worry just ignore them and pay us . I kept on paying them a specific amount per month. Few months earlier when i went to the school to pay them , i was told that they would not take money from me anymore. I am at level two with the collection agency and i have to deal only with them. When i challenged the finance guy , he told me that they have told us thruout the year to pay or it will go to a collection agency. I have talked to my classmates , i have at least 5 people who agrees with me that we were not told until last day. Thru out all this time i have received threatening and humiliating calls from this collection agency calling us liars and that we have not paid anything when we were paying the school money. Now they have told us that they will report me to credit bureau with permanent blotch on my report. They wanted my bank information and credit card number.I was not ready to give that and sent them money in cashiers cheque. They were not even ready to work when i asked them if we can come into an agreement that I would pay them this much per month. All they wanted is bank account number or credit card number to secure the payment.
Presently we went through lot of hardship and payed the collection agency and they say that they would report to the bureaus that it has been payed in full but they totally disagreed about taking it off the credit report.
I have looked through all the paper from the school, no where it is mentioned anything about collection agency or have to pay something within this much amount of time. There is a amount mentioned that I agree to pay them per month, but there is no mention of any collection agency anywhere.
My question is
a) can I sue the school and collection agency for mis representation / falsification of information and harressment ?
b) Is there any way I can take this issue off my credit report as it is hurting my score very badly.I read about something called PPD ( Pay per delete) , where the collection agency charges a little extra and takes the issue off the credit report. This agency said they have not heard anything like that and would not do anything like that.
all help will be very much appreciated.
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
Thanks for replying. This is in Ohio
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
Have you actually requested an accounting from the school?
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
I am sorry , what do you actually mean by accounting ?
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any replies for anyone ? Dogmatique r u there ? Thanks
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
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vedic
I am sorry , what do you actually mean by accounting ?
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any replies for anyone ? Dogmatique r u there ? Thanks
An accounting of what you owe is a statement of all your charges and payments.
Contrary to what you have been told, I'm sure you signed something that dealt with your indebetness to the school. They have every right to be paid as agreed, and if that does not happen sending your account to a collection agency is the next logical step.
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
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I have looked through all the paper from the school, no where it is mentioned anything about collection agency or have to pay something within this much amount of time. There is a amount mentioned that I agree to pay them per month, but there is no mention of any collection agency anywhere.
Irrelevant. You do not have to agree to be sent to collections when you're delinquent, that is at the discretion of the folks you owe money to. They could have just taken you to court, which is a bigger hassle for you, and a judgement will stick around on your credit report for a lot longer. Contrary to what you believe, your current situation is not a "permanent blotch". It will go away in 7 years. A judgement would be there for 10.
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My question is
a) can I sue the school and collection agency for mis representation / falsification of information and harressment ?
No.
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b) Is there any way I can take this issue off my credit report as it is hurting my score very badly.I read about something called PPD ( Pay per delete) , where the collection agency charges a little extra and takes the issue off the credit report. This agency said they have not heard anything like that and would not do anything like that.
The agency is under no obligation to remove correct information from your credit report. Some will, most won't. This is at the discretion of the agency.
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
Thank you so much for your reply Antigone. Yes i did sign for an agreement that I would pay a certain amount of money per month. When i failed to pay that , we asked the school time and again about what will happen when i could not pay at the end of the school year. To 5 students , they said thruout the year, nothing will happen apart from you will not get your certificate in hand and you only get it when you pay us in full. On the last day the school told us it is going to collection agency.I got the agency letter within 4 days. So this is a FALSIFICATION OF INFORMATION. Also the school told me to pay them and not the collection agency. Because of that the agency pushed me to second level thinking that I have not payed anything - so there was communication gap between the school and the collection agency. I am pretty sure it is a logical step to send me to a collection agency but the falsification of information and the miscommunication is not LOGICAL. Any ideas ?
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
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Quoting
vedic
Thank you so much for your reply Antigone. Yes i did sign for an agreement that I would pay a certain amount of money per month. When i failed to pay that , we asked the school time and again about what will happen when i could not pay at the end of the school year. To 5 students , they said thruout the year, nothing will happen apart from you will not get your certificate in hand and you only get it when you pay us in full. On the last day the school told us it is going to collection agency.I got the agency letter within 4 days. So this is a FALSIFICATION OF INFORMATION. Also the school told me to pay them and not the collection agency. Because of that the agency pushed me to second level thinking that I have not payed anything - so there was communication gap between the school and the collection agency. I am pretty sure it is a logical step to send me to a collection agency but the falsification of information and the miscommunication is not LOGICAL. Any ideas ?
No one falsified anything. Get your accounting and deal with the collection agency to get credit for any payments the school has not let the collection agency know about.
Pay what you owe and your credit score will rise. Aside from that, move on.
Re: School and Collection Agency Falsification of Information
Thank you so much LawResearcherMissy for your detailed reply. I agreeto everything you said. But whatabout telling me from day one that nothing will happen if we do not pay ? We have 5 evidences of this fact