Financial Challenges Support Group

This community is for people who are struggling to meet financial obligations of any kind. Financial challenges include everything from the day-to-day challenges of making ends meet to managing credit card debt to bankruptcy. Get support from others who are going through similar obstacles on the road back to financial stability.

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Rivasllene 02/13/2010

i have been the biggest procrastinator and ignored my student loan debt for a few years now. i had no money to pay after i got into a car accident and had to quit school. i worked crappy jobs to barely make by. then i got married and my husband has a very decent job but we had a baby and expenses were focused on all these other things. i was too chicken to face the fact that something was going to happen sooner or later, and just kept running from it. now the u.s. dept. of education has claimed our tax refund. i feel SO horrible about it because it is all MY fault and HIS earnings for working (i am just a stay at home mom)
the letter that came explaining it also had a note that said we could order an injured spouse and allocation form since it was just my debt but we filed jointly. i really really hope it works in getting at least part of the money back. he had big plans to buy a new computer and now we'll have to wait weeks just for the form to be processed.
uggghhh, i am not feeling great about myself right now and i don't think it will be a happy or romantic valentine's day :(

angeleyes92 02/13/2010

sorry to hear about the loss. my tax refund had to go to my car payment. I was told December 15th that I had to come up with $3000 by April 15th or lose the car. While coming up with the money it gets reported to the credit bureaus. So now we have no refund and bad credit marks. Seems like we will never get to improve our credit rating.

Rivasllene 02/13/2010

oh man, that's rough. $3000 is a lot!
yeah, we both have pretty bad credit too, mine is mostly from student loans, or course. i reallly hate money, lol! i mean dealing with it, i really wish it wasn't what made the world go 'round ya know? anyway, i know we could have it much worse, but i feel guilty that my problem became his, i guess that's what happens when ya get married...

deleted_user 02/14/2010

Unless the rules have changed with the IRS, I was in a similar situation for different reasons. My wife back then owed back child support, so all of our joint refund would have gone to pay it down, but I filed an injured spouse claim and received half of it back even though I hardly worked that year. As youve noticed, the Fed doesnt go away. If you owe money to any federal government, state or city, they will get their money back any way they can, right to your grave, so any beneficiaries will get whats left. The only things for certain in life are death and taxes.

Rivasllene 02/15/2010

thanks for the input, solitary. it's true, it was for certain going to catch up with me. i know this makes no sense whatsoever, but i almost was ignoring it to not hurt anyone but that obviously ended up back-firing on me. now it is time for me to step up to the plate and do what is logical and right which is to start paying the darn loans off! i know i shall overcome :)

CASMIRA 02/17/2010

A pat on the back to you for facing what all of us have done at one point or another procrastinate regarding student loans...I have been in the same boat but not married...they started garnishing my wages at an old employer...I talked them into stopping that and making low payments...this was someone from the doe but I stopped making payments. No matter what when you get a student loan you will always have to pay them back unless certain circumstances apply...Your spouse can get his share back as they described in the letter...now if the student loan is with a collection agency then negotiate with the collection agency...first ask them if they sue...then you have some options...if the loan or loans were never consolidated then you can offer a settlement on the balance...if you consolidate then you can't offer a settlement balance in full is due...DO NOT GIVE THE COLLECTION AGENCY ANY MORE INFO THAN THEY ALREADY HAVE...provide them with a contact number and verify the mailing address and that's it...do not say more as they feed off of what you say...now if they do not sue good...if so then you have to make some sort of good payment arrangements that show you are willing to pay you just can't pay much....well...now that you have that information they are going to quote a payment high per month and THAT'S when you negotiate: i.e. that's way outside of our budget..my house note is 750 a month and my car note is 350 and then food and utilities and other monthly payments...how about 100 a month ... there is NO WAY that they won't accept that payment...if you get an experienced collector they will accept that on condition that the payments will go up but you negotiate on your budget...period...it's more important to put food on the table and make a smaller payment then anything else....good luck!

Rivasllene 02/18/2010

thanks casmira, your reply is very helpful and encouraging!

deleted_user 02/25/2010

been there done that, tell your hubby to re file again if possible but this time do injured spouse form . with that the student loan can only take half of the tax refund. we did it with HR block they charged us almost 300$ up front to do that. but it was worth it to get half back. THE 1ST YEAR THEY TOOK IT ALL . then we learned about the injured spouse form. its too bad you cant go bankrupt on student loans. i think the only thing you can do is william d ford student loan or concolidate. im still working on my student loan debt. but thought i help to give my advice on what ive been through best wishes.

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