im being billed by two seprate companys for the same student loan

by andrew
(springfield mo)

recently ive started paying on both my student loans,i cant afford both and the lady for the one ive been paying for almosta year said i over qilified for a deferment, i sent in my pay stubs and such and and next thing i know another debt collector sends me a letter saying i owe them that money cause my account was transferred to them,the verry next day i get a bill froma diffrent collector saying i owe them that money....wth is going on and what do i do?

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Jan 21, 2012

im being billed by two seprate companys for the same student loan
by: Debtcollectionanswers.com

Andrew:

It's difficult to know what is going on, but I suggest that you start trying to figure it out by contacting the woman you are working with on the deferment. (A deferment will temporarily suspend payment on your loan.) It may be a snafu that the loan you were discussing with her is now in collections and she can help get it out of collections. The woman may also be able to help you find out why two different companies are contacting you about the same debt or refer you to someone who can help you.

By the way, it does not make sense that you would be told you are eligible for a deferment and have your loan sent to collections at the same time. This is because once you have defaulted on a federal student loan, you are ineligible for deferment or for any other debt relief program. Typically a federal student loan is considered to be in default once you have failed to pay it for 9 months. At that point, the loan is turned over to a collection agency.

Another suggestion for sorting things out is to call the two collection agencies to let them know that they are both trying to collect the same debt and to ask them which one actually has the debt.

Unfortunately, I don't have any easy answer to your problem and it may take several phone calls before you figure out what is happening. Again however, I would definitely start by contacting the woman you spoke with about the deferment and if she cannot help you ask her who you should talk to instead. Meanwhile, assuming you have not already defaulted on your student loans, avoid that at all costs if possible. As I said earlier, a default will disqualify you for any of loan relief programs that you may be available to you. It also means that you can expect at some point for your wages to be garnished (taken) or your tax refunds taken, among other things, until your loans are repaid. Unfortunately, unpaid federal student loan debt will haunt you've paid it back.

One other thing, assuming you are not in default on either loan, you may also want to look into consolidating the two loans. You will trade one loan payment for two and consolidating may help you reduce the total amount you are paying each month, which could make it easier for you to pay down your debt on a timely basis. If this is something you want to explore, start by contacting your lender.

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