$33,502,777,441 – Yes That’s TRILLION in Student Loans.

Mr. Kay here,

The U.S. Department of Education held an interesting meeting today (October 28,2011).

Why was it interesting?

This meeting had all the “big wig” collection agencies all in one place.  I told this same story on why this meeting was so important to a friend of mine.

His response…. “someone should of dropped a bomb.”

Now… in NO WAY – SHAPE OR FORM I am saying to do this or I wish this happened. But… this meeting is a very very interesting scary meeting.

In this meeting the U.S. Department of Education said they have  $33,502,777,441 in the defaulted student loans aka “their portfolio”.

That’s 33 TRILLION!!!!! Do you know how much money that is?  If you don’t know – watch this video, it will blow your mind away.

Can you believe it? Well I hope you can.  And that number is just the DEFAULTED student loans.

Now… let’s do the math on this.

If you take $33,502,777,441 (total default loans)  divide by 3,000,000 (borrowers – what US Dept of Ed Released) = $11,167.59 for average borrowers loan.

Now… this doesn’t sound right from my survey I’ve completed.

TAKE SURVEY HERE

I’ve had over 6,342 borrowers who took the survey since last year and 43% of my email subscribers said they had loans over $30,000!

We see a disconnect in the number released by US Department of Education and what I’ve found. But that’s the government they are ALWAYS right.

Now…

Why is this important to know and why was this meeting on October 28, 2011 important?

Simple…

U.S. Department of Education NEVER collects on the student loans by themselves.  U.S. Department of Education collects money on defaulted student loans using 3rd party collection agencies.  These collection agencies are contracted and when they get the “ED contract” they are basically given super human powers (Sorta).

These power include.

1. Take your income tax money
2. Garnish your wages without court orders
3. No statue of limitations (meaning you will owe it forever)
4. Slapping Judgement
5. Taking your professional licenses (real estate people, doctors, chiropractors, attorneys etc)
6. Even your kids won’t be able to go college (really? Click here to find out)

Ok ok ok… Mr. Kay I get that the collection agencies went to this secret meeting. What does this super power have to do with defaulted student loans?

We’re now going to get into a deep rabbit hole…

This hole is dark, ugly, and NEVER talked about out side our industry.  You most likely would have never even know about this meeting if it wasn’t for me.

This meeting in Washington D.C. was to discuss which collection agencies “procedures and protocalls”.  From the outside in – it just looks and sounds like giberish BUT it was a strange meeting.

It was strange because we are now going to get the “next round of contract” from U.S. Department of Education.  Meaning… who will get hired and get guarantee income AND the super powers!

Also…

In the meeting U.S. Department of Education  said… the current “recovery rate” (how they take your money), is at 11.5%.  Mr. ED wants to increase that rate to 13.86% in 2012 and grow it to just about 14% in 2015.

On top of that…

If you are not aware – the commission pool (aka from collecting) in 2012 is $500 million and is projected to reach $700 million in 2015.

THAT IS THE #1 REASON WHY THE COLLECTION AGENCIES WANT THE “ED CONTRACT”

The current contract is called the 2009 contract but put into play in 2008 (that’s your government for you).  This contract will go bye-bye in 2012.

It’s odd that ED will come out and make these statements when collection agencies right now can get an “extension” (based on performance of course). Collection agency with the “ED contract” gets a performance report. This performance report is kinda like a report card.  It shows how much they collected, how they collected it, how many accounts was worked, how many garnishments, how many complaints (this is KEY – leave a comment if you want to know why) and etc.

This report card will then tell the story if the “ED contract” will stay with this collection agency or move to that collection agency.

Starting THIS QUARTER. The fourth quarter of 2011… these student loan collection agencies can get a little bonus point on their report cards… if they follow this special rule.

This special rules will now GIVE other collection agencies the same super powers to collect on student loans.

How is this possible when you MUST have the “ED contract” to “officially collect on these loans”.  It’s simple… these other collection agencies are now allowed to be “sub-contractors”.

ED -> subcontracts to EVIL COLLECTION COMPANY ->sub contracts to mini-me evil collection company

This meeting had more than the 22 companies on the “ED contract” with the few extras new kids.

Now I’m asking myself…

Is ED looking to now expand and collect on this money? Our country needs a cash infusion and are they now going to come to the student loan borrowers.

I think they are… they have $33,502,777,441 in student loans.  This meeting is the start…

Please leave me a comment, rave review, questions, and etc. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

The Confessions of a Student Loan Collectors – Visit: www.FreeStudentLoanStuff.com to get the most shocking truth about defaulted student loans. .

Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?

Derek Redmond was favored to win the 400m race at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.  However, disappointment came about 250m from the finish, his hamstring tore.  Redmond hobbled to a halt, and then fell to the ground in pain.

As stretcher bearers made their way over to him, he knew he wanted to finish the race.  He began to hobble along the track, with pain etched upon his face.  Suddenly,  a large man pushed through the crowds, fighting back security.  He was wearing a distinctive T-Shirt that read, “Have you hugged your foot today” and a hat that challenged, “Just Do It.”  The man was his father, Jim Redmond.

“You don’t have to do this,” he told his weeping son.  “Yes I do”, Derek declared.  “Well, then”, said Jim, “We’re going to finish this together”.  Jim wrapped Derek’s arm around his shoulder and helped him hobble to the finish line, Jim let go of his son and he completed the race, with a  standing ovation from the crowd of 65,000.

Mr. Kay – Sometimes life can be very very difficult but you have to find the courage and power to keep going.  Keep pushing and  Keep moving.   Sometimes being 1st isn’t as important as just finishing the race.

As the years continued I had contact with people across the nation, and I experienced almost every single scenario possible. While working at the student loan servicing center I would witness the most bazaar scenarios imaginable. I have seen practically-homeless, minimum wage parents scrape up monthly payments, while well nourished businessmen earning 6-figures, evade their student loan obligations. All of these outcomes meant only one thing to me, it meant I had an opportunity, an opportunity to bag these negligent student loan abusers. As a veteran collector now made Supervisor, I took over phone calls playing a “good-cop role” every single day. After speaking with a collector (“bad-cop”), it was my job to hop on the phone, listen to the borrower’s stories, and repeat what the collector mentioned in a different fashion. I took over numerous calls every day and enjoyed doing so.

I cannot reveal the identity of this next character so I will refer to him Mr. Lump-sum Chump. He was an executive director at a large company, and was tracked down because of his defaulted student loan. After he was contacted by one of my collectors, he refused to continue his conversation with the collector so I had to step in and take over the call. After speaking to Mr. Lump-sum I realized that he was stuck in a pickle. He was knee high in this student loan trap and was steadily sinking. I‘ll make this story brief. When Mr. Lump-Sum’s account was assigned to our company he was on a leave of absence, and since he had no income, there was nothing available to garnish. When his leave of absence ended, he went back to work, and returned to a garnishment order. Being highly aware that he was about to lose his financial freedom, Mr. Lump-sum probably panicked, which could’ve caused him to make piss-poor decisions. When he caught wind of the garnishment, he lashed out with a surprising counter-move. Mr. Lump-sum thought he was sneaky; he quit his job and tried working for another company, never returning our phone calls in the meantime, until the next incident happened.

If quitting his job wasn’t bad enough, this next incident made perfect sense on why he finally decided to call back. Mr. Lump-sum called back because he had no other option but to call back. Apparently the next company he tried working for ran his credit, and denied him of his new position because of his outstanding student loan obligation. Now his only option was to go back to the garnishment at his previous place of employment. When a man gets cornered and is left with no options, he will come to a realization that he can no longer run from his obligations. Since Mr. Lump-sum’s predicament worked in my favor, I went forward and only offered him an option for a settlement compromise. Basically, I forced him to make a lump sum payoff. Mr. Lump-sum’s balance was a little over $20,000 and the Dept. of Education would have accepted a settlement compromise for $16,000. Instead I demanded him to pay $19,000.

All of a sudden things get very interesting when a debtor needs my assistance more than I need theirs. If Mr. Lump-sum used his precious energy doing research on student loan solutions, he could have walked away saving thousands of dollars. – Mr Kay

Instead he not only ignored, but attempted to evade his student loan obligation, and wasted his time looking for a new job without knowing what kind of obstacles were ahead of him. Mr. Lump-sum decided to place a credit card on file, and my day continued knowing that I won this mini-battle.

Other than this one thing, there is nothing else positive about having a federal student loan in collection. This one thing is, knowing a settlement compromise (partial pay-off) exists and is available. Borrowers save the most money in the long run if they are able to settle out their student loan balance, and settlement compromises are only available for student loan holders if they are in default, but knowing that you have paid the least amount possible for the compromised settlement is the ultimate liberation. It is depressing to know that our nation’s people do not do their homework, considering this is something that they should have already grown accustomed to.

Leave me a comment below.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Understanding Student Loans
• Student Loan Repayment Options
• Settlement Options
• Everything About Student Loan Collections
• Garnishment? Get the 411
• Want Your Income Tax Back?
• Default VS Delinquency
• Student Loan Bankruptcy

Live Free and truly learn how to break away from your student loan troubles.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

.

Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?

It was almost a half a decade into my job experience, and I still dealt with many hard to close knuckle heads. Even as the smartest tenured borrower counselor it was an uphill battle speaking to borrowers with no assets and no employment.

How can I start convincing someone to pay with no wages to garnish? How can I sway their decision, and make the pay if they have no need for additional student loans? From what I saw in my office, most unemployed stay-at-home wives would hang out at home and live their days ignoring their loans like it was nothing.

Mrs. Burden-wife fell under this category, the category that did not bring me any extra income. This class of debtor will play the violin, and plead poverty until the end of time. I had grown accustomed to these standard types of excuses. My response to people would usually be “Can you check all of your resources?” or “It would be in your best interest if you could ask your friends or family members for help”.

My battle of convincing her to pay went on for almost 9 straight months, weeks after weeks. Based off of tidbits of information I gathered over the phone, she was the loyal wife of some architectural genius. Her husband was the one who brought home the bacon. Although Mrs. Burden-wife wanted to take care of her obligation, her husband put his foot down on this matter.

In the past she had once mentioned “My husband is against paying this off because I had this loan before we got married”. She would usually end the phone call by giving me some B.S. excuse about needing to run errands. Almost on a weekly basis she would blow me off, she did not have the decency to even return my phone calls. At times when I called her house her maid would answer and tell me that she went shopping, or she was picking up the dog from the groomers. Me and Mrs. Burden-wife parted ways I ended up ceasing my calls and continued on with bigger fish to fry. I had to move on to real payers. I worked in a production driven environment, and I am forced to work in a manner that was more beneficial to me and my company.

To my surprise in mid April, Mrs. Burden-wife called my extension whimpering and weeping. When the call was transferred, the first sentence out of her mouth was “I’m about to go through a divorce if you don’t fix this situation!” Mrs. Burden-wife the woman that gave me the run around for months was calling me back. I looked at the calendar, and it was that season again, tax season. Federal tax refunds payable to joint filing couples are subject to what is called a treasury offset. Basically anything that is printed from the Treasury is seized due to the status of the student loan (that includes stimulus checks).

Mrs. Burden-wife’s husband who decided it was a bad idea to take care of the loan was now being affected. All I could say now is “marry into wealth and not into debt”. In her situation, I had a solution but I remained hush about it. Due to the fact that she was such a nuisance, and the fact that she cost me so much of my time, I ended up catching amnesia.

I forgot to mention that the portion of the refund owed to the non-debtor spouse can be recovered by that individual by filing an “injured spouse” claim with the IRS. Come to think of this now, I was such a prick. Knowing what I know, it’s a shame that I was not able to help others in a genuine hardship situation…..

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

.

Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?

For the majority, a borrower counselor’s (Collectors) high demand job is nowhere close to being easy. The exact opposite of success is the chopping block. Those that were not innovative enough ended up going straight to the unemployment office with their heads chopped off. All it took was a silver tongue to have job security. A superb talker in this business will receive a reoccurring merit, a four figured merit to be exact.

The Department of Ed’s collection contract is the most lucrative contract in the debt recovery business. A year into it and I felt like a whale in this vast ocean of debts, scooping these little plankton’s, I call debtors. As long as the treasury reports provided me with the POEs (place of employments) I could fish my way into my own financial freedom.

Mr. Keys Notes: Department of Education is connected with the Treasury Department… this means, if you work… you MUST file a tax return. When you do file for taxes… the collection agency will be updated with your employers info.

This was an ordinary Monday. I came into work as my shift required me to at 7:00 am to “service” the east-coast. Today was Monday, a day used to set my pace for the week. My motivation was to out produce any foe that sat beside me. Today on my plate, laid a Postal worker, a man who had dedicated almost 2 decades into what he was doing. I knew he was a Federal worker, but I inherited this account from my cubical neighbor. She gets turned off, when working with these Federal workers (I will explain later in the story).

Mike Quota the post man is a family man, with a stay-at-home wife, and 4 kids. I engaged my hunt by contacting his wife. In most states it is okay to contact the spouse regarding these types of matters. I delivered the cheerless news of the garnishment to the person closest to him. By setting the tone with his wife, I was able to get the husband to call me back to discuss this matter.

Mike Quota a soft spoken man in his 50’s was fed up with this student loan dangling over him. I gave him my soft threats, and cushioned the blows with some comfort words. I used words such as help, assist, and support. As a borrower counselor the most money making role is to play the role of the “helping counselor”. I usually carried on in a calm, friendly, and attentive manner. After getting through calming him and jotting down his financial information, I placed him on hold. I placed him on pause, and he most likely believed that I was checking his options.

The debtors may have believed it, but I felt like a car sales man drinking a coffee in the back office, trying to get you a “better deal”. I came back from hold and smashed Mike Quota with a surprising 15% down payment of this loan balance. It was almost $5,400.00 and he was obliged to pay this by the end of this month. I went back and forth with him for an hour, and he ended up placing a credit card on file.

Mr. Kay’s Notes: The down payment was something unnecessary which I had the option of eliminating.

I had forced him to borrow money from his retirement funds. In one swift motion, with one single account I was able to obtain the money I needed to hit my monthly quota. Although I could have placed Mr. Quota on a minimum payment without this hefty down payment, I knew that it was up to my discretion. The interesting twist to this story is that, Federal employees cannot be garnished by a collection agency.
Come to think of it now, my hungry spirit truly hurt people, real people that had their bills, families and obligations. I had bullied people from Alaska to Puerto Rico, delivering devastating news to people through the phone system. Till this day, I feel so terrible.  I will spend my days trying to make things right.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

.

Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?

I was now a veteran Borrower counselor (collector), and it was even appropriate to attach the word “senior” to my job title. Being a collector for such a long time numbed my heart. They say that the collection industry can create a monster out of almost every person. A Borrower counselor says things like, “Criers are payers” and “We can’t squeeze blood out of a rock, but we can crush it”. In the call center I will pick dirt out of my nails, as I listen to people cry over their predicaments. Some will say that it is just the nature of our business, but I noticed my character slowly mutating. As a senior borrower counselor my heart had turned to stone. Looking back now, I was Department of Education’s rabid German Sheppard.

Every day is an interesting day for me, speaking to people with different problems in their lives. One of today’s tasks was to contact a person working for a very large company. I had been working this account for about 45 days now. Mrs. Jane Garnishin was a call center rep, the cuddly and harmless ones. At first, my intention was to contact her prior to the wage-attachment (garnishment) but she was very difficult to reach. She must have worked with loads of people because I had a tough time getting in touch with her. I am not even sure if she received my messages, but I was totally fed up with chasing this damsel.

After leaving 5 messages at home, 2 messages at her place of employment, and sending out 3 auto generated letters to the home mailing address we had on file, I was ready to initiate the garnishment. Please let me explain a little about the letters

• The 1st of the set is the initial demand letter, which is a letter letting them know that our company has been retained by the DOE, and to inform borrowers that their loan balances are legally due in full . (along with basic account information)
  
• The 2nd of the set, is a letter informing borrowers that a settlement compromise is available.
• The 3rd and final letter of this set, is a notification that the Rehabilitation payment plan is available to start repayment on this obligation.

All letters are required to be gaped 14 days apart. Making the calls to Mrs. Garnishin and leaving her messages came with ease. The most time consuming part of submitting a garnishment would be completing the letter series. I would not able to kick-off the garnishment without all these letters being sent. If she were to have returned her mail, I would’ve needed to update the address and restart this 45 day cycle over again. These Federal garnishment requirements are extremely strict and garnishments cannot be initiated without the completion of all of these strict requirements. In Mrs. Jane Garnishin‘s case her calls, messages, and the letters have now been completed. The time for Jane losing control of her financial situation was nearing, and she would be trapped like a moth in a shower. Any time a garnishment is kicked-off it would usually continue until the total remaining balance has been paid off. Remember, student loans can range between 4 figures to even 6 figures ($1000-$100,000+).

If the word “forever” could be measured by a life-span, people are forever getting killed financially. I knew the strain it would cause people, and I felt that it was my mission to notify these people of their situation. You see, these are grown adults, and they did not need or want me to tell them what to do. As a messenger I took it as my task to give the necessary heads-up. As for Mrs. Jane Garnishin, I called and called and waited and waited but she never called back. Since all of my work here was done and I was not able to contact Mrs. Jane Garnishin, I ended up sentencing her to financial death row. I submitted her file to our garnishment department and that was the end.

Almost 1 year later Mrs. Jane Garnishin called back and I placed her on hold, it was now her time to become patient and wait. I had an idea why she called; she must have been fed up with having her pay checks tampered with. I noticed that her $600 monthly garnishment had jumped up to $725 for the last few months. These garnishments are set at a percentile rate based off of her disposable-pay. I came to a realization that she probably received a raise or promotion at work. Having a garnishment on file and working towards receiving a raise at work, is like being an injured trout swimming upstream. She probably wanted to enjoy all the fruits of her labor, and her raise is what possibly triggered the call back.

After familiarizing myself with her account I was ready to talk and took her off hold. When I began my conversation with Mrs. Jane Garnishin I gave her a shred of hope, letting her know that there is a possibility of stopping the garnishment. I laid out solutions for Mrs. Jane Garnishin and she refused to take advantage of her options. She was unable to do a lump sum pay off, and she started getting ill-tempered. Obviously there weren’t too many options she could take advantage of with a $725 monthly garnishment. Since she refused I slapped her with an update, letting her know that the garnishment payments have only been applied to her outstanding interest and her collection costs. Emotionally she was like an uncontrollable roller coaster. She felt hopeful, then angry, and then she became so angry to a point where she started to cry. Towards the end of the conversation she started using obscene language and she eventually hung up out of frustration.

It is interesting being on my side of the phone. Options are limited when working with garnishees, but there is always a solution for everything. There is a remedy rarely offered for this financial catastrophe, a cure that is available ONLY upon request. If the garnishment created an undue financial hardship, Mrs. Garnishin would’ve had the option for an untimely hearing request. If Mrs. Jane Garnishin would have talked to someone more knowledgeable about this, maybe a legal counsel, or if she invested some time into reading some literature, then she too would have known this information. I occasionally call her every other quarter but after 2 ½ years with 2 promotions, throwing over $800 a month away in garnishment payments, Mrs. Jane Garnishin still has not returned my calls.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

.

Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?