soulthoughts Posted April 17, 2007 Report Share Posted April 17, 2007 I have quite a few student loans and currently my wages are being garnished. What are my options to stop the garnishment? I would love to lower my payment so would consolidating be the best route? They are taking roughly $500/month from me. Or should I try to negotiate a lower payment with whoever is garnishing me? If consolidation is the way to go, any recommendations on good, reputable consolidation companies? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
direred Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 LynnInMN will know all the answers, but you may be eligible for a rehab program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 Sorry, I havent been around a lot...my 9 year old is doing a kids role with the Univ of Minnesota's Opera Theatre.....lots of long late night rehearsals!Ok.....did you receive the garnishment notice?? It so, did you request a hearing and return it and supporting documentation.financial statement within the timeframe allowed?? If you received it and failed to request an appeal, you are pretty well SOL. That was your opportunity to negotiate an affordable payment plan. If you did not receive the garnishment notice..i.e. they sent it to the wrong address, you can still appeal but the garnishment will not stop until they get around to it. Borrowers who return their documents promptly take priority. You cannot call and negotiate a garnishment. The only way you can have the payment reduced it by appeal. You cannot consolidate now if you are under AWG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 Sorry, I havent been around a lot...my 9 year old is doing a kids role with the Univ of Minnesota's Opera Theatre.....lots of long late night rehearsals!Ok.....did you receive the garnishment notice?? It so, did you request a hearing and return it and supporting documentation.financial statement within the timeframe allowed?? If you received it and failed to request an appeal, you are pretty well SOL. That was your opportunity to negotiate an affordable payment plan. If you did not receive the garnishment notice..i.e. they sent it to the wrong address, you can still appeal but the garnishment will not stop until they get around to it. Borrowers who return their documents promptly take priority. You cannot call and negotiate a garnishment. The only way you can have the payment reduced it by appeal. You cannot consolidate now if you are under AWG.I don't recall getting a wage garnishment notice sent to me. I did get one from my payroll guy at work but that was stating that I was getting garnished. There is a chance that I did get one a while back when I was too scared to open my mail due to my amount of debt and my own ignorance. If that's true, I did get a garnishment notice and ignored it, what are my options?Now let's assume I never got a notice. How often does that happen, people not getting garnishment notices? I believe this is where the appeal process comes in, correct? How do I go about appealing my garnishment?This is a big one for me. It's killing my credit report. If I could get a handle on this I would be that much further towards rebuilding. Thanks for all your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 If they had your current mailing address, you can safetly assume that they sent you one. Generally they will not allow an appeal if your address on file was current.....when we started handling AWG, people didnt believe the notice and ignored it, then would call back later after the garnishment started claiming they didnt receive it. DOE got tough on those. The garnishment notice was probably sent out approximately 45 days prior to your HR notifying you. Once the 30 day period in the letter has expired, it starts pretty quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 If they had your current mailing address, you can safetly assume that they sent you one. Generally they will not allow an appeal if your address on file was current.....when we started handling AWG, people didnt believe the notice and ignored it, then would call back later after the garnishment started claiming they didnt receive it. DOE got tough on those. The garnishment notice was probably sent out approximately 45 days prior to your HR notifying you. Once the 30 day period in the letter has expired, it starts pretty quick.Thanks Lynn. So what you said is true, do I have any recourse to either stop the garnishment or can I at least get them to not take a percentage and take a flat rate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
someonesomewhere Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 soulthoughts,Do a search for your name in the Superior Court of the county where you reside.http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.superiorSearch&terms=accept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 Thanks Lynn. So what you said is true, do I have any recourse to either stop the garnishment or can I at least get them to not take a percentage and take a flat rate?Your employer is suppose to be taking 15% of your disposable wages. You can see the instructions to the employer here...http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/Employers_Handbook.pdfIf you can prove this is a hardship, call your lender. From the DOE site. Hardship Caused by Wage GarnishmentFederal law authorizes the Department or the student loan guarantor that holds a defaulted loan to collect the debt by non–judicial wage garnishment – a withholding order issued by the Department or the guarantor without the need for entry of a court judgment against the debtor. Prior to garnishment, the debtor must be offered an opportunity to repay the debt voluntarily or to obtain a hearing at which the debtor may object to garnishment either because the debtor believes that the debt is not owed, or that garnishment would cause financial hardship. To avoid garnishment, a debtor must object within the deadline explained in the notice – failure to do so will result in issuance of the garnishment order. A debtor who misses the deadline may obtain a hearing on a financial hardship objection, but withholding may start and continue through the hearing process. Hardship objections must be presented to the party – the Department or the guaranty agency – that sent the notice. If a debtor misses the deadline but requests a hearing, garnishment may start but cannot continue for more than 60 days from the hearing request date, unless a decision is issued that garnishment should continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 soulthoughts,Do a search for your name in the Superior Court of the county where you reside.http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.superiorSearch&terms=acceptI did the search and no matches came up. What should have I expected with this search? I guess I'm confused on why I searched.Your employer is suppose to be taking 15% of your disposable wages. You can see the instructions to the employer here...http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/Employers_Handbook.pdfIf you can prove this is a hardship, call your lender. I'm double checking with my payroll guy, but I'm sure it's 15% of my disposable wages. If the garnishment isn't proven to be a hardship, can I still consolidate or rehab? I was reading a post about someone in a similar situation and they seemed to be able to rehab their SL even though they were getting garnished. Is this, rehab or consolidation, even possible or am I stuck with the garnishment until I'm paid in full? My loans are roughly $40k. Thanks for all your help. This site has been really informative and helpful as I try to clean up my credit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_perkins Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 A debtor must have been employed for at least 12 consecutive months by a given employer before AWG can commence, right? LynnInMN: do you know whether ED actually *checks* with employers regarding the duration of a debtor's employment before they try to impose AWG? Or is it up to the debtor to file a timely appeal based on the fact that they've only been employed for a few months? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 A debtor must have been employed for at least 12 consecutive months by a given employer before AWG can commence, right? LynnInMN: do you know whether ED actually *checks* with employers regarding the duration of a debtor's employment before they try to impose AWG? Or is it up to the debtor to file a timely appeal based on the fact that they've only been employed for a few months?Wrong. However they cannot garnish you for 12 months if you were "involuntarily" seperated from your previous company. Nope they don't check. It is up to the borrower to appeal on those grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 So am I eligible for rehab? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 20, 2007 Report Share Posted April 20, 2007 Yes, you are eligible. However your qualifying payments will have to be made over and above the garnishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2007 Lynn thanks again for all your input and patience. Is there a 'how to' or some other guide I can follow for starting the rehab process? I didn't see a sticky for it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted April 20, 2007 Report Share Posted April 20, 2007 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/rehabilitation.htmlThere is also lots of information in this forum if you do a search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulthoughts Posted April 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2007 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/rehabilitation.htmlThere is also lots of information in this forum if you do a search.Thanks for the spoonfeed! I'm about to start the rehab process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myscoresawful Posted May 8, 2007 Report Share Posted May 8, 2007 this is one TL that I am glad I kept up with and in contact with.My student loans were consolidated by W. Stafford and I have $41K total and my payments are $35.00 a month.Just because the amount they are taking out of your check each month is 15%, doesn't mean it's still not a hardship for you.If you have other reasons, for example medical bills, etc that you are having to pay, you could claim a hardship maybe.I have never let mine go into default, so I am not sure what rights you have or don't have after that, but hopefully there is something that can be done. ( I would also add, that while I know I will never get these paid off at $35.00 a month, at least it will show a TL in good standing and after a certain amount of time, the entire loan can be forgiven. It's worth $35.00 a month to keep a good and lengthy TL on my report). Hopefully you will be able to reverse this somehow.I wish you a lot of luck with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 myscoresawful...Keep in mind that under the ICR payment plan that you are under, your payment will be adjusted yearly depending on your income. Yes your tradeline will be positive but future creditors will question why your current balance exceeds your opening balance. Based on current interest rates, your balance is going UP $200 per month. Also keep in mind whatever balance balance is written off in 25 years will be charged to you as taxable income as a 1099. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarBearnCO Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Is this, rehab or consolidation, even possible or am I stuck with the garnishment until I'm paid in full? My loans are roughly $40k.I thought I'd shed a little light from a different direction on your situation. My students loans were ~$48K when I completed consolidation last year. I now pay $405/month and I extended my repayment to 20 years, or whatever the max is.Your loan balance is 83% of mine so let's say your repayment would be 83% also, assuming you'd get the same interest rate. You'll be paying $336/mo if you could consolidate exactly as I did.So, if you could get out of garnishment, you'd be saving about $160/mo, but that would mean paying your loans back over 20 years. Paying that extra $160/mo now would probably save you $20K in interest.Do you really need that extra $160/mo right now? Only you can answer that. But, $36 bucks extra each week will buy you a new car... so to speak.Good luck!Student loan repayment is going to be expensive, regardless of how you do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopelesscred Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 I too am being garnished --BUT it is not being reported to the bureaus....the cred bureaus only report a 35k balance owed sent to collection due to be removed 4/2009. The CA added some ridiculous fees and filed 52k for the garnishment....My dilema...if I challenge and all get updated and verified ---I am stuck for another 7 plus years.or stay mum...wait two years and ride out the garnishment ---then offer a settlement to the CA.get the loan rehab'ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 I too am being garnished --BUT it is not being reported to the bureaus....the cred bureaus only report a 35k balance owed sent to collection due to be removed 4/2009. The CA added some ridiculous fees and filed 52k for the garnishment....My dilema...if I challenge and all get updated and verified ---I am stuck for another 7 plus years.or stay mum...wait two years and ride out the garnishment ---then offer a settlement to the CA.get the loan rehab'edNo the CA did NOT add some ridiculous fees. Your guarantor charges you the collection fees. Collections charges on student loans are mandated by law and you agreed to them on your original prom note. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopelesscred Posted June 16, 2007 Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 ok thnks...I've read the rehab link in detail and I am now seriously thinking of going through with it. The only question I have is: Do I have to setup the voluntary payment agrement with the CA or loan servicer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted June 17, 2007 Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 ok thnks...I've read the rehab link in detail and I am now seriously thinking of going through with it. The only question I have is: Do I have to setup the voluntary payment agrement with the CA or loan servicer?Since you are already being garnished, your voluntary payments will have to be over and above the garnishment. There isnt a loan servicer involved with default. It is your loan guarantor and the CA. The CA will set up the rehab for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgee Posted June 17, 2007 Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 When I was Garnished, I had to file a BK to make it stop. But they were only leaving me 25% of my check....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnInMN Posted June 17, 2007 Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 When I was Garnished, I had to file a BK to make it stop. But they were only leaving me 25% of my check.......Huh??? Admin wage garnishments are onl 15% of your disposable pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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