- Report: #264298
Complaint Review: Diversified Collection Services - NCO - Livermore California
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Diversified Collection Services - NCO
333 North Canyons Parkway Livermore, 94551 California, U.S.A.
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925-960-4800
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Diversified Collection Services - NCO More Harrassment by the Student Loan Industry ripoff Livermore California
I am being contacted yet again by more rip-off artists of the Student Loan Industry. This loan is 20 years old and was discharged in bankruptcy in 2002, long before the idiot laws went into effect making it no longer possible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. This is only the latest in a string of harrassment I have received in this matter. The original loan was for $4,000. I paid on it for 8 years, then moved out of state.
I wrote numerous letters to the Dept. of Education, the original lender, even the last known loan servicing company trying to find out where my payments needed to be sent. No response was ever received from any of the above. My inquiries were completely ignored. Then in 1998 I started receiving phone calls at work from two-bit collection agencies demanding payment.
First of all, there is no way they could have obtained my work number through me. The only way it could have been obtained is by running my SSN and looking up the phone number of my last known employer. This is a blatant invasion of privacy to say the least.
Then, all of a sudden, the original amount owed jumped from $4,000 to $6,000. I had already paid more than $4,000 on this loan plus the interest and they were saying I still owed $6,000.
Imagine my surprise to learn that only 20% of every payment made went towards the principal. 80% went towards interest and fees. Not even high risk credit cards are allowed to charge 60-70% interest. Then there was a 10% fee for unsubstantiated "services" on top of it. Now the claim is I owe $8,777 ($3,844 in interest and $1,698 in alleged fees and costs).
This is as big a rip-off as the child support industry. No matter what you do you will always owe. It does not matter that the debt was paid off years ago, you still owe more because some collection agency says so. I could be paying on this loan for the next 20 years and still not touch the principal at the rate these usurious interest and fees are continuously charged. Such usury must be stopped!
Donna
Toms River, New Jersey
U.S.A.
I wrote numerous letters to the Dept. of Education, the original lender, even the last known loan servicing company trying to find out where my payments needed to be sent. No response was ever received from any of the above. My inquiries were completely ignored. Then in 1998 I started receiving phone calls at work from two-bit collection agencies demanding payment.
First of all, there is no way they could have obtained my work number through me. The only way it could have been obtained is by running my SSN and looking up the phone number of my last known employer. This is a blatant invasion of privacy to say the least.
Then, all of a sudden, the original amount owed jumped from $4,000 to $6,000. I had already paid more than $4,000 on this loan plus the interest and they were saying I still owed $6,000.
Imagine my surprise to learn that only 20% of every payment made went towards the principal. 80% went towards interest and fees. Not even high risk credit cards are allowed to charge 60-70% interest. Then there was a 10% fee for unsubstantiated "services" on top of it. Now the claim is I owe $8,777 ($3,844 in interest and $1,698 in alleged fees and costs).
This is as big a rip-off as the child support industry. No matter what you do you will always owe. It does not matter that the debt was paid off years ago, you still owe more because some collection agency says so. I could be paying on this loan for the next 20 years and still not touch the principal at the rate these usurious interest and fees are continuously charged. Such usury must be stopped!
Donna
Toms River, New Jersey
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Blahblahblah
Nope,Texas,
U.S.A.
okay
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, August 03, 2007
first of all, its funny that you're saying PRIVACY when you owe a part of the federal government money. hello. federal government. they can run ssn checks and they know who is working and who isnt. but i'll tell you that's not how they found out where u work. secondly, if you would TALK to DCS, you'd know that a large amount of your balance is interest and collection costs. if you'd set up like 9 months of payments with them, the collection costs are wiped off and you credit is cleaned up.
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
Did you mean bankruptcy in 1992?
#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 01, 2007
1998 is the year of the law where bankruptcy no longer discharged federal student loans. Did you mean you filed bankruptcy in 1992 instead? They are supposedly only allowed to charge you 25% of the balance for the "fees and costs" and they are not allowed to charge you more. The fees and costs do not go up from here. When you defaulted and the loan went to the Dept of Ed, they added 25% to the balance (which includes interest up to that point) for fees and costs. Then interest accrues from that number. Usually, with any payments made after that point, 100% goes towards the interest and fees and costs, before any gets applied to the principal. I know my student loans doubled (after interest and fees and costs were added) over 20 years. Luckily I paid them off a few years ago. Anyway, I got a letter from the Dept of Ed stating that I may be due a refund of fees because they found they charged fees wrongly during a certain time period and mine may have been one of them. It all depended on my original contract. I called and Dept of Ed sent me a copy of my original contract (from 1983), but told me after reviewing it, I was not due a refund. After reading everything, I figured it out and found also that I was not due a refund. Maybe they figured yours wrong and you don't owe quite as much. However, if you still have your paperwork that bankruptcy discharged the loan, you may want to plead to the Dept of Ed to deal with you on this. NCO probably won't "listen" to any of your proof. These are merely suggestions as I am not an attorney.
