Complaint Review: Allied Interstate

In 1987 I applied for a student loan. The lending institution was private and the loan was not guaranteed. The business school grossly overstated the value of the education and charged accordingly, only I did not learn that until later. All I learned was how to use a computer and other general office skills.

The school charged $4,000 for this low end education that was not worth more than $400. The claim was that my earning potential would increase to at least $10.00 per hour immediately upon graduation and could potentially go as high as $18.00 per hour after a few years of experience. This sounded quite good to me since until that time I was only able to earn minimum wage. In reality, after 20 years I am still unable to earn more than $12.00 per hour.

I feel I was badly ripped off by that school but was ripped off worse by the lending institution, Nebraska Higher Education. This company used outside loan servicing agencies to service their loans. These agencies were applying 80-90% of each payment made to their fees and interest charges. I made payments until 1995 when I moved out of state.

After the move, I tried to contact the lender and Department of Education to find out where I should send my payments since I was in another part of the country now. My requests were ignored, but in 1998 I started getting calls at work, by collection agencies about this loan. This was a number that the agency could not have obtained except by running my SSN and looking up the phone number.

Some of the agencies that have called me were GC Services, Van Ru Credit Corporation, ConServe, Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc. and now Allied Interstate Inc. I have been threatened with everything from garnishment of up to 90% of my wages to jail time for non-payment of a student loan, despite the fact that people cannot be jailed over student loans or any loans. I have been harrassed at home and work up to 40 times per day at each location.

The claim is I owe approximately $9,000 now on a loan that was originally for $4,000 and after paying for 8 years, only approximately $800 was applied to the principal balance. Furthermore, I was forced to take a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002 due to circumstances beyond my control. The loan was discharged in that bankruptcy because it was unsecured, but I am still being harrassed.

I ran my credit report a couple of months ago and there is nothing on it that even remotely resembles a student loan, so what's the deal? It is high time government institutions like the Department of Education and their collection agencies were brought to account for their actions and are forced to stop their endless ripoffs against the American public.

Donna
Toms River, New Jersey
U.S.A.