Refund Owed
Dear Betsy,
I’m not sure if you can help, but I’m hoping that you can at least point me in the right direction. My husband and I are currently repaying a student loan that he took out in 1990/91. This loan was for a drafting course at a local institute for approximately $5,000. After attending the first class, he realized that it was not a course that he was interested in since it was some sort of self-taught class without an instructor. Therefore, he dropped out of the class. This loan, as with any other, is given in disbursements and he only signed over $1,200 to this institution.
Bottom line is that we are still repaying this loan, and the total amount owed is still $4,800. I just think that it is outrageous that we still owe the money. After speaking with the lender several times, only to get the runaround, they claim that the loan did not originate with them, and I can’t seem to find what institution was first responsible for the loan. Any insight that you can provide regarding this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
Danielle
Dear Danielle,
I commend you on the work you’ve done so far! First of all, don’t worry right now about the original bank—as they most likely won’t be able to assist at this point. But I do I think I may have good news for you. There’s a relatively new form of relief for people in your husband’s situation called an Unpaid Refund Discharge. If it can be proved that your husband did not attend after a certain point and the school should have returned some funds, that amount will be retroactively written-off of the loan.
Give the lender a call and ask that an Unpaid Refund Discharge application to be sent to you. Once it’s received, have your husband fill it out with his dates of attendance and any other information they request, and send it back to the lender as soon as you can. The lender will review the application, and if it’s complete they will forward it to another agency for final review.
Due to the time that has passed since your husband attended school, I would expect this process to take anywhere from 1month to as many as 4 months.
Please don’t hesitate to write me again if you have further questions once you receive the application.
Regards,
Betsy
