My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: PENNSYLVANIA

I graduated with my degree in 2008 and shortly after I had obtained a job in my field of work. Unfortunately I was only making $22,000 annually at the time and shortly after was bounced from part time to full time work. I am now working for a stable company and I would like to purchase my first home. When I had started my new job a few years ago I began faithfully paying my balance on AES. However, the private loans I had obtained in school have since defaulted and went into collections. In May my cosigner on the loans called me that she was served with papers for court because the collections agency was suing us. I never received any paperwork or notification of a lawsuit. When I started going through the documents recently, I noticed the amount they are trying to collect more than double of the original amount borrowed. The statute of limitations in PA is four years and the loans are all originally from various months in 2005 but defaulted in February of 2009. Is this company legally allowed to sue me for these loans? Should I write a letter to the company letting them know I am aware of the statute of limitations and that it is up or should I let it go?

I did reach out to the company in an attempt to make a settlement of a significantly lower amount only if they were to completely clear my name as well as my cosigner's, but I requested paperwork verifying the loans first because none of their amounts match to any of the amounts listed on my credit report. The law office that is representing them sent me information in the mail but none of these papers mention that they are the Master Promissory Note, they only sent over the non-negotiable credit agreement. I never reached back out to the company because I don't want to admit to any of these loans since they are so much higher than I had originally agreed to or signed paperwork on. I would be willing to take out a smaller loan in order to settle the collections accounts, but I would only be willing to pay about 10% of the current balance which I doubt they will accept. However, I don't want to do anything that is going to restart the 4 year SOL or have any future issues when it comes to taxes.

What are the next steps I should take? I had considered contacting a credit repair company but I'm not sure that they could do anything that I can't personally do. I really want to put these collections accounts behind me and start fresh. Purchasing a home is much more economical in my area than renting and I hate throwing money away.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!