Okay so story time.

[vicky]

When I was young and dumb, I defaulted on my last tuition payment.
I was a scholarship student. I filled out fafsa, handed it in, etc. I wasn't supposed to be paying anything.
The FAFSA counselor somehow didn't file it, or something, who knows what really happened.
I walked for graduation but when I went to collect my diploma I had a hold on my record for $7,000.

I was like WHAT?! FUCK YOU. I AIN'T PAYING YOU. (Again, young, dumb, and already had a good job, and didn't think about my future, so I was like fuck this.)

Any who. After my divorce, I've been trying to pay off all my debts and repair my credit. I have, I have good credit now and no outstanding balances except for this one.

EXCEPT. They didn't send me to collections. It's not on my credit report. And the people in the bursar can't find my balance. But there is still a hold. 

A woman from my college is going to give me a call back in an hour or so to figure out my next step.  She literally told me not to call anyone else because she doesn't want bells to go off and them to say I owe them $$$ if she could just remove the hold.


I'm panicking. I just want to get this settled and move on. I want to be able to physically hold my diploma. I want to be able to move past applying for entry level positions.  I feel like I'm in purgatory.


Flame away. Or give me good thoughts of them just wiping the slate clean. Ayyyy.

[jenny1223]

Sending good thoughts your way!

No flames. I've done much stupider things in my past!

[luckyval]

Hold up - let the woman at your school do her magic. She may very well be able to fix this!

[Eagles]

Jan 20, 2016 14:30:49 GMT -5 luckyval said:

Hold up - let the woman at your school do her magic. She may very well be able to fix this!

Yes, a thousand times yes.  Hopefully she can wipe the slate clean and you can get your diploma! 

[pagas]

I hope she is able to fix it for you!

[bittybomb]

Good luck!!!!

[vicky]

I hope it doesn't come to this, but she said if they tried to make me pay, because they can't find the creditor I could have a lawyer write a letter and tell the college to just take off the hold. I mean, it would be less money than 7k, but still. I don't know how that works either though.

[lilafowler]

I screwed up my credit as a young 20 something and it took me years to repair. But I did it-and so are you and that's what counts.
I hope they just make it go away.
❤️

[Elsa]

I think you have some recourse here.


So your finaid should have covered everything? Why, once your FAFSA stuff went through, was there still a balance? It sounds like they dropped the ball on their record keeping.

[sewf]

For me at least, there was not nearly enough information about what I was doing when I was signing those financial aid forms. I just knew that I was going to get to go to college. I was just 18, and no one in my family had ever gone to college, so no one knew what we were doing, and the financial aid people at my college were less than helpful.

Not saying that all people who work in financial aid are bad at it, just that sometimes things are glossed over or not explained well enough for people who just starting out.

I hope she is able to help you figure out what is going on!

[vicky]

Jan 20, 2016 14:40:01 GMT -5 Elsa said:

I think you have some recourse here.


So your finaid should have covered everything? Why, once your FAFSA stuff went through, was there still a balance? It sounds like they dropped the ball on their record keeping.

That's what I think. And I'm not even sure how that happened. All I know is I got screwed in the end. 

[Elsa]

Jan 20, 2016 14:41:44 GMT -5 vicky said:

Jan 20, 2016 14:40:01 GMT -5 Elsa said:

I think you have some recourse here.


So your finaid should have covered everything? Why, once your FAFSA stuff went through, was there still a balance? It sounds like they dropped the ball on their record keeping.

That's what I think. And I'm not even sure how that happened. All I know is I got screwed in the end. 

If they insist you still owe them money, you need to ask for a full audit of your account. This sounds like an issue of them recording an error in the beginning (so that you still owed money), and putting a hold on your account.....and then it sounds like they might have fixed it (why it was never sent to a creditor, and why she can't find any record of an owed balance) but the hold was left on.

BUT. If they tell you that you owe money, ask for a record of every charge, every payment, etc. Hopefully you can find the error.

[bex1973]

I think they'll just remove the hold after all this time - they messed up. And whether it's right or wrong universities "write off" huge amounts in lost revenue each year.

Fingers crossed it works in your favor!!

ETA - I guess I can't speak for all schools, my institution writes off a shit ton.

[snowflurry]

I hope it gets fixed!

[vicky]

Jan 20, 2016 14:46:45 GMT -5 lake said:

This story seems bizarre. $7,000 is a lot of money. If you were under the understanding that it was all covered - then why wouldn't you have insisted on them fixing it sooner? So you could get your hands on the diploma and fix your credit?

You just didn't care until years later?

Are you certain you didn't owe something?

It is a huge amount of money. That I couldn't pay. And they said I owed. I was a scared little shithead, buried my head in the sand and let it lapse instead of trying to fix it. I'm now in a situation to fix it and that's why I am. Yes, it took me many years later to get in the position of fixing it. 

I had a full scholarship. No loans. It should have been taken care years ago, but when someone is telling you at 23 you owe them money it's easier to say eff it rather than pay it. 

[nsl]

Fingers are crossed that she can lift the hold!

[claudiajean]

Crossing my fingers for you!

[panbitch]

I hope the nice lady can just make it go away

[Gato]

I bet they will figure it out for you. They just need to access some basement file somewhere - every university I've ever worked in has had these secret stashes of paper files from the beginning of time. In any case, they should, should, at least have record of your full scholarship so in the end I think they will release the hold.

[nicbreeful]

Good money vibes!!

[vicky]

OKAY. So, technically because the FAFSA was never filed I do owe them money because there was never any money paid towards my account.
I'm waiting for a call back from the bursar at the main campus to try and figure out the next steps - payment plans or whatever.
The woman originally helping me said to try and negotiate at least one transcript so i can at least move on.
Apparently, I'm not the first person in this situation either.

[Elsa]

Ok, but whose job was it to file the FAFSA. You said you filled it out and handed it in. Did they tell you they would take care of it from there?

[Deleted]

Shit, I'm sorry. This was their mistake. Do you need your transcript? Maybe offer a settlement?

[vicky]

Jan 20, 2016 16:02:32 GMT -5 Elsa said:

Ok, but whose job was it to file the FAFSA. You said you filled it out and handed it in. Did they tell you they would take care of it from there?

Yeah, the way the office of financial aid worked there was the counselor took your application and filed it. you had to sign it in front of them and they took it from there. the account balance was taken care of from there. I never thought to check back during the semester because I had a free ride and the money would just come in. I never got a refund or anything so there wasn't anything more for me to do.

@notquiteblushing, i'm hoping they'll settle with me for a lesser payment or figure out a way to back pay the scholarship funds. I want to apply for BA to BSN programs, but I can't without my transcript. 

[vicky]

The thing I'm most confused about is where the scholarship funds go when they're not used? Do they just disappear?
Are they like unclaimed funds? Can you just claim them years later? ugh.

[pmwife]

Jan 20, 2016 16:12:42 GMT -5 vicky said:

The thing I'm most confused about is where the scholarship funds go when they're not used? Do they just disappear?
Are they like unclaimed funds? Can you just claim them years later? ugh.

If it was a scholarship they should have a record of that somewhere and you should have recourse there.

[vicky]

I love baking, but it's really a dead end as far as career advancement and job stability goes. It's been an amazing run, but SD just doesn't have the food scene NYC does.

[Gato]

Jan 20, 2016 16:12:42 GMT -5 vicky said:

The thing I'm most confused about is where the scholarship funds go when they're not used? Do they just disappear?
Are they like unclaimed funds? Can you just claim them years later? ugh.

Did you get a named scholarship?  Those almost always come from an endowed fund.  So it's sitting in an account, which the school invests, and the funds are transferred to your bursar's office every semester's payment.  BUT, if someone forgot to transfer the funds, then your account would come up as unpaid, but still the bursar's office should have looked into it at the time and discovered what went wrong.  So really, this is all their fault.  Yes, you should have followed up at the time to spare yourself this headache, but still, not your fault.  They should fix it.

ETA: Even unnamed scholarships come from a general scholarship fund.  The fund is just sitting there, making money for the university.  It's still their job to move the funds to the bursar's accounts, not yours. 

[chickadee77]

Sorry if this has been covered, but they may have written it off and just not communicated that with whoever physically places holds, and there may have been a personnel change so records are not necessarily consistent or even present. I work in higher ed admin, and it happens a lot.

If you feel that you need to do something to make it "right," even if only to yourself (since it seems once they've written something off it's pretty difficult to reinstate the charge), make a donation (anonymously, if you don't want them hounding you in the future, lol).

[Jalapeñomel]

Jan 20, 2016 16:17:54 GMT -5 vicky said:

I love baking, but it's really a dead end as far as career advancement and job stability goes. It's been an amazing run, but SD just doesn't have the food scene NYC does.

I have a friend who is a nurse in Carlsbad, and she makes $$$$$$ and works fabulous hours.