DCS

DCS Diversified Collection services Unauthorized Credit Report Inquiry by DCS on a 35 year old student loan Livermore, California

9th of Sep, 2011 by User755260

I have a very old student loan from 35 years ago when I was 20 years old. I left school in 1976. I never had real work and have only worked sporadically these 35 years. I suffer from Agoraphobia and have difficulty traveling and am on medication for my anxiety attacks. So not everyone who does not pay their student loans is a deadbeat. Some people have real issues and might not be able to work to pay them off. With the way the DOE has it structured it's nearly impossible to pay off these loans. The collection interest rate is very high and just about everything goes to the collector. They don't really have a reason to get student loans out of default when it's a lucrative business for them. The loan was originally $3500 and with collection costs it is now over $15K even with tax offsets of refunds. The refunds are not from my income but my husband. He wanted me to file an injured spouse claim these past two years, but I convinced him that we should allow the offset to pay down the loan. We are approaching our 60's and I would like to retire this debt before my husband collects social security. They cannot touch his SS check as the loan was not his and was taken out before I even met him but I would like to see it gone so I can die in peace someday, knowing that I paid my debt on this loan. I don't qualify for rehabilitation of this loan either since it's in default. Once you go into default you pretty much lose the right to do anything. No forebearance, nada. It's retired only if you can prove total disability or you die and total disability is almost impossible to get. A judgement was filed by NYSHESC over 20 years ago. It was on my credit report for 7 years and has been off now for over 7 years. Even though it's a student loan the collection agencies are required to follow legal collection practices. FDCPA has strict rules but these collection agencies do violate them and class action lawsuits have been filed and won. NYSHESC sold or transferred my loan to ECMC. When contacted by ECMC I sent them a C & D. That did stop them for awhile but they have now contracted with DCS and once again the collection process has started over. The problem with DCS is that I ran my own credit report and found that they had made a hard credit inquiry. I never authorized a credit inquiry from DCS and have reported this to Equifax. Some credit inquiries do not adversely affect your credit but some do. The inquiry from Equifax clearly stated that this is an inquiry that can adversely affect my credit score. The student loan was a subsidized Stafford loan which is a federal loan. I have to mention Stafford since it is not a type of student loan that relies on the credit of the borrower, hence DCS would not have a legal right to make this inquiry on behalf of the lender based on the original loan documents. I have been sent two collection letters. The first from DCS ( Hal Cox rep) states the name of the bank that gave me the money. Well, since it's a guaranteed student loan, the bank was paid some 35 years ago. DCS said they are representing the bank. They are not representing the bank. In the second letter the bank was not mentioned but ECMC was. They stated that they have the right to sue me ( that's been done already on this loan) , that they can report it to the credit bureaus ( That also was done and the 7 year period makes it time barred) and that they can garnish my wages ( I have no wages to garnish so that's not going anywhere). Btw, to anyone who reads this. Please be aware that there are many in congress now who are advocating that student loans should be just like all other loans. You should be able to discharge them in BK and the SOL's should apply like any other consumer loan. Go to the national consumer law center and see if you can get help or just tell them your story. They are now representing 80 and 90 year olds who are having a percentage of their social security payments taken from them from student loans they defaulted on. It is a sad day when the most vulnerable of our society are treated this way by their own government.

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