Reader’s Question

Hi FB,

A couple of months ago I was denied a student loan deferment and forbearance although I was unemployed and not earning any income. They stopped sending me letters (claiming it cost to much to send them) and my loan went into default. What can I do to get this off of my credit report? The loan is for $16,500 …any suggestions?
–

Signed,
In Desperate Need Of Help

FB’s Reply

In Desperate Need of Help,

This is just off the top of my head of what I know, but I am not an expert on loans going into default – I’ve never had any experience with them.

I am assuming when you were denied the student loan deferment and forbearance you didn’t pay anything to them right? That’s why it went into collections?

1. You have to open those letters from the collection agencies and negotiate with them a monthly payment to pay off the amount. There are free agencies out there in Canada (not sure about the U.S.) that are really non profit, like Debt Counselling of Canada. They should NEVER CHARGE YOU ANYTHING for their services, but will give you better advice.

2. To get it off your credit report, I think you have to wait 7 years (or was it 5?). Once a loan goes into collections, it’s done and on your credit report.

Now’s the time to pay all your bills on time and not let them go to collections, which means calling them and talking to them instead of ignoring the problem.

What you could’ve done before it went into default was to call the student loan location and explain the situation with proof that you were unemployed, and had it deferred before it went into collections. But since you didn’t do that, they don’t have any record that you were planning to pay, so they sent it into default.

-FB

Can anyone help her out? I am not an expert in this, this is just what I vaguely know from reading blogs here and there, and watching debt shows.

Read the chapter (from Willy Wonka) located here in 3 pages.

Thanks to A pretty face, I got to read more of one of my favourite childhood authors!

Going to keep them simple this month so that I don’t disappoint myself.

TOP 3 MUST-DO GOALS

1. Get my corporation taxes/earnings worked out.
Am going to talk to H&R Block and figure out what the procedure is. I am going to pay for them to be done cleanly and perfectly this year so that I don’t leave the country with any worries.

2. Get my financial institutions worked out, and get my credit reports
I’d like to consolidate all my assets into one bank (or two maximum), and know how much I have, and make sure I’m not paying any fees this year. I also want to order my credit reports and check through them carefully AFTER closing down Scotia Bank where I held my $15,000 loan.

3. Scan all my junk
I brought all my letters from home. I’d like to scan them all, and get things organized and sorted properly so that I can shred the papers, and back up all my work to keep it current now that I have two 1 Terabyte Hard drives. One as my Primary backup, the other as my Secondary backup.

OTHER NICE TO HAVE GOALS

4. For this month, I’d like to get back to Ontario and see my friends/family.
But I am really exhausted and I just saw them last month. May save this for 2009. I just want to relax….

5. Take care of my blog and write a ton of scheduled posts
I need to get my blog cleaned up. I’d like to sort out the posts, and maybe figure out a schedule or a plan.. or … just leave it the way it is, haphazard posting mixing in finance, interviews and style. We’ll see. I don’t want to overhaul it, but I want to feel more structured.

6. Update my lists on my financial holdings and assets.
Just in case something happens to me, I want it clear about where I hold money in everything, with IDs and passwords. I am thinking of leaving my Sunlife stuff in there until the market value = book value and then I’ll consolidate everything into one neat little bank.

7. Keep track of my spending for December with Net worth amounts, tracked, etc.
Been kind of lax here lately because of work. Starting December, I won’t fall behind again! Promise. Especially since it’s the first of December today.

8. Eat as much local food as possible
And by that, I mean eat at all my favourite restaurants here one last time before we leave. Mmmmm Portuguese tarts, Montreal smoked meat.. you know the drill!

9. Weed through my stuff at BF’s and ruthlessly toss what I don’t want/wear
Some of the stuff is just too tight for me now. I shrunk them in the wash by accident, etc. And I need to separate them out so that the super warm stuff stays at my parents’ place in Toronto, and the rest comes with me to Dallas.

10. Eat less.
Sounds contradictory to #8, but I’ve found that I’ve been eating more lately. I want to cut back on the cheese and meats, and go healthier.

That’s all I got for now. Let’s see how I do!

Good grief!

This is why I post pictures of my paycheque online.

People are so incredulous that I could earn $130/hour that they don’t even understand that consultants (IT and business ones) can charge up to $450 – $500/hour.

Sure, I’m surprised to be earning that kind of money, but talking to other people, $130 is nothing. It’s “reasonable”!!!

And keep in mind I am a person who does NOT work 50 weeks a year, 40 hours a week. If I work 3-4 months, that’s good enough for a year but it may be all that I get in terms of a contract.

Anyway, I’m not going to bother telling you what I do.

A) I don’t want to out myself and/or have you people stampeding my job.

B) You can read about it on the right hand side of my blog and have read that I’m an IT professional.

Done.