WHY do they make it SO HARD to COMPLETELY PAY OFF YOUR ACCOUNT !!!!

[heydude]

WHY DO THEY MAKE IT SOOOO SOOOOO HARD TO COMPLETELY PAY OFF A DEBT! I MEAN, COMPLETELY, DONE, GONE, DEAD!!!!!!!!

UGH!

I have the money to eliminate it. Make it happen!

It seems easier to get a loan /get money from them than it is to GIVE THEM MONEY!!!!

I am trying to pay off my student loans. I have the amount necessary and step one was that I was going to pay it off. Well, the very week I was going to sign in to my account to pay it off, was when they were doing some kind of upgrade. Calling them did not help since their computer were down all week for the upgrade.

So...wait wait wait.

Then, once their systems are up, then they are crashing cause everyone is trying to use them having gone so long without them.

I finally said "screw it" and I went in to my bank and set up a direct bill pay. I guessed at the pay off amount and sent in the large sum.

I finally see that they got it but now I have some stupid silly couple dollars left to pay off. I was thinking that would simply get wiped out when my "automatic payment" hit this month.

But guess, what? During the day that they always take off some payment automatically, well, they didn't do it!!!

(but every other time I have paid something extra with them, they STILL would always take the monthly payment out too!!!!).

I sign in to the account and here it says that they are scheduled to automatically take a payment for that very very small number in the year 2019. (which might be how long it would have taken to pay off my loan if I had not paid them off right now!).

WHAT!!!!!!!!!

So I signed back in to my bank and sent another bill pay for an amount that is like double my actual loan amount. Even if they never send me back the difference, they can keep it if it means my account is now dead and gone!

It is like less than 5 bucks this stupid thing!

It makes me sick how it just hangs on with you forever and ever. YUCK YUCK YUCK!

Debt should be hard to get rid of because you don't have the money; NOT when you do!

[Zoebird]

It's very funny, isn't it?

I paid off one of my loans at once -- it was a $3k loan -- and I called and said "i'm going to pay the amount in full at the next payment." and when they got the check, i contacted them to make sure they got it. Then, I asked for a receipt and accounting of the whole loan/payment stuff, and they sent it to me.

And told me that I owed them $125 extra dollars for paying off early. and that if i didn't pay it right away, then they would charge me when my last payment was due -- which was like 2019 or some nonesense. So, I sent them the money the next month, and then they sent me another FEE due for paying off the fee that I'd paid off.

I finally called them and said that it just seemed like fraud to me, since i'd already paid off the fee that was about paying off my loan early.

---

truth is, they want you to stay in debt because it makes them money, so having that 'hold' over you means that they can default you in 2019, and then make money selling the debt in a bundle of debts to a credit company, which can then charge you an insane amount of interest to make a profit, and use their bundles to sell as hedge funds and such (check out how DCS -- the credit company that handles federal student loans that have been either A. defaulted or B. sold to them -- and they are a good company!).

So, yeah, paying off your debt is a BIG problem to the bank, because it means they have less "money" to work with because gold isn't the standard for money, it's debt now. The more debts a bank holds, the more money it can make.

[flowerseverywhere]

we paid off our house in eight years by being super frugal. We were doing the big time happy dance. About six months later we got a bill for almost $500, some type of fee for paying it off early. We made them show us exactly why we were billed the fee and decided we probably would not win in a fight so just paid it. I thought with all the paperwork and processing they saved from a 22 year early payoff would actually save them way more money than $500, but so be it. We had saved way over a hundred thousand dollars by our early pay off so it was still OK, just frustrating.

Since we pay everything with a rewards credit card that we pay off every month I have gotten them back big time, I have easily made that pay off fee many times over through the years. We also only buy cars that we have the cash for, so we don't get auto loans. I despise debt.

And we wonder why people all over the globe are protesting and occupying wall street.

[Marianne]

What's really crazy is that years ago, my mother contacted her mortgage company and asked if they would negotiate her balance since she had such a low interest loan - and they did!! She owed $4K, they did come down, but she'd never say how much, and she paid off the balance the next month.

I don't remember what low her interest rate was, but at the time interest rates for housing was pretty high. She thought she was successful because they could make more money loaning the money to someone else. Still blows my mind.

We got hit with a lousy $2 charge after paying off a school loan of DS#1. Phone calls did nothing. BUT!! The worst one for us was a credit card for Shell Oil that we paid off monthly. We had it for only three months then cancelled the card when I sent the check for the balance. The next month, they sent me a bill with a 30 cent charge. I thought they'd write it off since I'd closed the account and didn't pay it. They didn't. The following month I got hit with another bill including late fees, fee for not making a payment, etc etc. Ended up being something like $55 added to that lousy 30 cents!! Again, phone calls did nothing. We were told they'd turn it over to collection if we didn't pay it. Sigh. So we did.

A little revolution is a good thing. I'm too far out in the sticks to join in any protest, so I'll do my own by refusing to add debt whenever possible. I hate being under someone's thumb.

[catherine]

Student loans are so aggravating, as I've come to find out since taking out a couple to get my daughter through.

First of all, I suppose someone thought it was a good thing to start the repayment with a few years of interest-only repayments because theoretically a new college grad is not going to be making much at first. But, I've been keeping one of the loans warm for three years now! I have list of my debts in my Excel spreadsheet and every month I input the new principal balance, and for this one student loan, the principal has not gone down since my daughter graduated in 2007!! It's still the same 11,600 that it was in 2007. It is SO aggravating.

What's even more aggravating is that you can't pay down the principal. If you throw extra money at it, your next bill just shows "0 due".

I just can't wait until I get my CC debts paid and I can start eliminating these stupid student loan debts.

heydude, I"m not surprised at all Murphy's Law was out full force in trying to pay off that darned thing. I feel for you.

[heydude]

Zoebird - hahahah WHAT is this 2019 stuff! i guess some people would be like "whoa, no payment due for over 10 years, SWEET!" and then of course they will never remember, their automatic payment, well, they'll have a new bank account by then, yadda yadda yadda collec$ion agency!

Also, what is wrong with the DCS????

Flowerseverwhere - don't kid yourself. your rewards are 100 percent financed by the merchants of which you shop. the bank charges them big fees to pay out those rewards!

[Zoebird]

Well, like any credit company, they like to play the game.

for example, i usually get a receipt every month saying "we are taking this money out of your account, this is in an attempt to collect on a debt." Ok, good. I put my money into that account (the exact amount each month), and three days later it's gone.

but then they do something hinky. they stop sending me the receipts, even though they keep taking the money! Then, they send me a nasty letter saying that I haven't been making payments. Luckily, I had my credit union put a trace on every payment that goes out of that account, and to whom it goes. Interestingly enough, it goes to one of DCF's BofA accounts every single time.

They always threaten that if I don't pay the full amount immediately -- because I wasn't paying my payments -- that they will take me to court and get a judgment. Except that I have a paper trail. So, I get my credit union to issue the paper trail (which doesn't cost me anything), and then I fax it to the person whose number I get when I get that nasty letter. I then ask them to explain to me where the money is going, if it's going from my account to the BofA account, but somehow not being considered a payment, and in particular, the payment we agreed to?

At which point, I get receipts again for several months, the first of which is my receipt for the several months that they "thought" i'd missed my payments, and then ongoing month-to-month from there.

But here's what is really eye opening about DCS. When you originally looked at their web site, they had a whole section (now currently not on their site) about how their portfolio's preformed and how it makes money for performant investors (performant is the parent company of DCS). That is, they used their debt to create portfolio investments for others.

So, DCS actually has a vested interest in 1. making sure there isn't a judgment against you, because as soon as there is a judgement, the money stops flowing. remember, it's the fees and interest that increases the amount of the debt, and therefore the value of the portfolio of chopped up restructured debts. so, a judgment freezes the amount that you owe, and then you simply have this outstanding judgment against you. and 2. tripping you up if possible so that they can further "restructure" your debt and also change the fee/interest structure.

Last year, I got a full accounting of my loans with DCS, which included the original loan papers and loan amounts, the amount of interest to date, the payments that I had made on the debt, and an itemization of their interest, fees, and so on. It showed clearly that my principle was at $80k and what my interest payment is month-to-month. Since i pay that amount (the interest on the loan) by automatic payment every month, my principle hasn't increased. And then they showed their "fee schedule."

The one aspect that struck me was that it said "Estimated costs of debt recovery" which was -- get this -- $17k. And from there, it was "estimated costs of debt maintenance" (that is, keeping the debt in their portfolio -- I called and asked) and this was another $20k. And so my total that they want me to pay is $117k to closet out the account.

I talked to several lawyers who work in this field, and they recommended that I simply save up the $80k, and then approach them and say "yes, but I'm paying off my debt now, so there's no more cost of recovery to you -- as that refers to having to go to court to get a judgment, and we are avoiding that by paying this off." And that the other $20k is also a form of a ruse because it isn't a cost to them to keep my debt in their portfolio, it's an asset. They don't want me to pay it off, so they put this "fee" on there to try and keep me from being able to do that. So, when I have the money to negotiate with them, my lawyer recommended that I make an appointment to meet the person managing my payments at hte office in CA, and walk in and negotiate in person (in a suit and what not). And offer the principle -- which is what I owe.

In most cases, they will go for it. In some cases, they will fight you for it and you'll need a bit more -- such as another $10k to get them off your back completely. So, that's my goal.

My plan at this point is to use all of the teacher training money (after business expenses related) into a single account in the US that will eventually be used to pay off the debt.

I have $6k currently in a high-interest CD in my credit union, and whenever it comes up (at 14 months usually), I add any new money to it and roll it over into another high-interest CD. Well, as high as I can get. :D

My current teacher training brought in $3k (after expenses and tax), but I have 8 people interested in my next one, and that one's costs will be lower because i'm doing it at my studio here in Welly. This means I'll bring in at least $8k (and I'm hoping to get 2-4 more people), and then I'll put that money over, and when the CD opens up, combine it in and reinvest it into a new CD, which means I might be able to put $17k into the next CD.

I'm also planning to have hte studio making more money, as my business plan is set up that my renters will cover the costs of the business, and that my classes will cover 1. our living expenses here and 2. my student loan debt. I'm not sure if we'll get to #2 in 2012, but at least the teacher training will bring in some great income for that. Also, if i get one more private client coming in once or twice a week, that will also give me another $500 to put towards my debt per month.

I plan and hope that I can pay it off in 5-7 years!

Even if I have to come up with $117k, I know that I can do it and do it quickly.

I'm looking forward to it -- and I take getting it paid off pretty seriously. Even DH is considering decreasing our expenses again (as best we can) to save as much toward this debt as humanly possible.

and if we get debt forgiveness, then awesome! lol :D